Aborted, Cryptopsy, & Hideous Divinity @ Lee's Palace, Toronto (April19, 2019)

     Last night the Hell Over North America tour crashed its way through Toronto with one of the last shows of the trip. And while Benighted was unfortunately not on the Canadian bill, there was no absence of raw power throughout the night with Hideous Divinity picking up the slack and local beauties Burdizzo kicking things off. Also making this night a bit of a special one for me, my lovely wife decided to come to the death metal show with me as well! While she's no stranger to metal, she's certainly not a full blown metalhead and her various hot takes throughout the night cracked me up. There were a few comments on what shampoo Matt McGachy uses, with her final summary of night summed up to "Next to Aborted, Cryptopsy are down right listenable". (lmfao...)

     We got to Lee's as Hideous Divinity were about mid set. The place was already packed and bustling with the blastbeat party well underway. After a few beers, the moment I was waiting for approached. Flo and the boys took the stage, and Cryptopsy absolutely annihilated the Palace with their insane drum work and slaughtering bass lines felt in every bone and organ. They opened with Detritus and quickly moved into SLIT YOUR GUTS as the pit exploded. I hardly had time to say hey to a buddy as I raced to the pit. Cryptopsy played a killer mix of songs including many off None So Vile including Graves of the Fathers, Phobophile, Orgiastic Disembowelment, and the aforementioned Slit Your Guts. I could not have asked for a better set, with their windmilling headbanging heads fully delivering on every level.

     After a few more beers with buds and some much needed breathing time, Aborted took the stage and reignited the fire set by their predecessors. Opening with TerrorVision and Deep Red off the new album, I quickly found myself sucked back into the pit, answering Sven's call for a wall of death. Aborted played a brutal and amazing set, featuring some wicked tracks like Necrotic Manifesto, Termination Redux, The Origin of Disease. Hectabomb, among many others. One amazing highlight from the set was when Matt from Cryptopsy joined Sven on stage for a wicked duo version of A Whore D'Oeuvre Macabre (Video Clip Below).  Aborted ended off the night with a satisfying Encore of Retrogore, successfully pulling the last ounce of energy out of the crowd as the sea of bodies clashed for one last time. Overall, I had a fantastic night at the blastbeat party. Cheers to Cryptopsy and Aborted for absolutely crushing sets, and as always a special shout out to all the crazy fuckers I clashed with in the pit. Check out a few photos and a video below! /,,/

Aborted

Cryptopsy

Hideous Divinity
 
-Heavy Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../