On June 15, 2018, I had the fucking awesome pleasure of attending and covering a truly brutal concert. That of co-headliners
Whitechapel (pic above) and
The Black Dahlia Murder playing at
Stage 48 in NYC.
The first band, I got see at the show was
Aversions Crown. A viciously heavy and groove laden deathcore act from Australia, these guys bought full blown carnage onstage. The music is pummeling and really wants to get moshing and moving around. As a live act, they have a shit ton of energy and aggression, which makes for a great experience. They can count on a new fan in me after experiencing this!
Next up was Italian tech-death metal masters
Fleshgod Apocalypse. As soon as they get onstage, they will catch your interest. Dressed in frilly costumes, they look like something out of a period piece, but they combine the look with ghostly make-up. It gives them an otherworldly look and feel. This combines perfectly with their sound. The playing is complex and heavy as fuck, and it rounds off nicely with the female backing vocals. She and their look gives them a gothic look, feel, and sound which counterplays with the viciousness. It makes them distinct in a sea of other acts from this sub-genre.
Then, it was time for the first of the two-headliners, the mighty The Black Dahlia Murder. These guys are not only one of the finest melo-death acts, ever, but they are also absolutely KILLER live. They have such a fucking amazing amount of energy and are utterly crushing in their performances.
They always have sick pits, and this was no different. The fact that fans could get onstage and could stage-dive (something that was also done during in the following Whitechapel set) insured this further!
On this tour, they are playing their entire latest album, the absolutely KILLER
Nightbringers, which
I had picked as the best release of 2017. As such, hearing all of it live is a true treat. They also threw a couple of classic TBDM songs.
Setlist:
Widowmaker
Of God and Serpent, of Spectre and Snake
Contagion
Matriarch
Nightbringers
Jars
Kings of the Nightworld
What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
Catacomb Hecatomb
As Good as Dead
The Lonely Deceased
Everything Went Black
Statutory Ape
Deathmask Divine
Up next were
Whitechapel, my asbolute favorite deathcore act. And, holy fuck did they ever put on one hell of a fucking live show! They have energy to spare live and are absolutely merciless and truly destroy. Their pummeling music resulted in a sick as fuck pit that threatened to swallow the whole venue! Not even the fact that they had stop roughly midway through when singer
Phil Bozeman's mic went out could stop them or the crowd!
This year marks the tenth anniversary of their second album the classic,
This Is Exile. As such, they are playing the punishing album in its entirety, during this tour.
Setlist:
Father of Lies
This Is Exile
Possession
To All that Are Dead
Exalt
Somatically Incorrect
(Abbreviated thanks to loss of mic sound)
Death Becomes Him
Daemon (The Procreated)
Eternal Refuge
Of Legions
Messiahbolical
This was one of fuck of a brutal and ass kicking show. If you can catch this
tour, be sure to do just that!