Friday 18 October 2019

Obituary, Abbath, & Midnight @ The Phoenix (October 17, 2019)

   You can always tell when Abbath is in town because the wind blows a few degrees colder! Last night was frigid as hell as the 30th Anniversary Slowly We Rot Tour rolled through Toronto with Obituary and Abbath headlining the night and Midnight as well as Devil Master in support. Obituary has put out a lot of wicked metal in their career and are widely credited as death metal pioneers (of the Florida variety). Slowly We Rot is just as devastating today as it was on release. Tracks like Internal Bleeding, 'Til Death, and Immortal Visions are knuckle dragging, belligerent death metal at its finest.

    I unfortunately missed Devil Master but made it right in time for Midnight, who's masked faces supercharged our spirits with good old reliable speed metal! Toronto loves its speed metal and Midnight payed homage to bands like Razor, Exciter, and even moderns bands like Chainbreaker.

Abbath look the stage as the fog machines began to pump out a thick smokey atmosphere. I've been waiting to see Immortal (err Abbath...) for years now. He has an incredibly fun energy for their grim as all hell take on life. From all the banter with the crowd, to the amazing facial expressions, and not to mention the to the master black metal riffage, Abbath and the gang did not disappoint. They played a mix of new material and even a bit of the Immortal discography with Tyrants, Warriors, and Winterbane a few of my favourite moments!

   Although they had some border crossing problems, losing guitarist Trevor Peres to the pesky northern border wall, it comes as no surprise that Obituary absolutely destroyed the Phoenix! There was appropriately lots of material off Slowly We Rot with Chopped In Half, Godly Beings, and Suffocation some of the definite highlights. There was some material from other records as well with a few good ones from Cause of Death, turning us inside out in the process... Closing with Slowly We Rot was an excellent choice (the only real choice for this tour) and the pit agreed thoroughly, exploding in size and energy as the riffs started punching us in our slowly rotting faces.

    I never miss an opportunity to see metal legends, so getting Abbath and Obituary on the same bill was a god damn treat. Gods of Black and Death metal in one room is a no brainier. Cheers to all the crazy animals I clashed with in the pit (I am bruised as all hell today! /,,/) and an ever bigger cheers to all the bands on this tour. 30 years of death metal is certainly something to be celebrated. Definitely make it out to this one if you can, and enjoy being CHOPPED IN HALF!

Obituary

Abbath

Midnight

-Metal Yeti /../;,,;/../

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