#skeltonwitch

Venue: The Opera House, Toronto 

Date: April 10, 2016

On Sunday April 10, 2016, the Decibel Magazine Tour hit Toronto with Abbath, High on Fire, Skeletonwitch and Tribulation at the historic venue, The Opera House. There are few occasions when I’ve looked at a show’s lineup and been totally pumped for all of the bands as there is usually one that hits the “Meh” meter hard. But when I saw the lineup for the 2016 Decibel Magazine Tour the feeling was one of joyous expectation for the entire lineup. Did the bands deliver?

First up was Tribulation from Sweden. I’d been spinning tracks from their latest album, “Children of the Night” on Too Metal For Church since release and was very interested to see them perform their variety of chillingly dark death metal. Their set, like the album, began with the haunting keyboard strains of, ‘Strange Gateways Beckon‘, the band drawing its audience in with brilliant execution, the guitarists prancing about the stage like demonic wraiths bathed in muted tones of green and purple that gave the whole affair a gothic horror vibe. Highlights included ‘Melancholia‘ and ‘Holy Libations‘. In short: Tribulation absolutely killed it, mesmerizing the audience with its moody, atmospheric sound.

Reverend Rock’s Rating for Tribulation: 10/10 – Perfection!

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Next up was Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio, USA. Again, having been a fan of the band since its inception, I was stoked to see them perform and hear new vocalist Adam Clemans. Beginning the set with ‘I Am Death (Hell Has Arrived)’, the band was tight as hell and played a good variety from their catalogue. Highlights included, ‘Beyond the Permafrost’, ‘This Horrifying Force (The Desire To Kill)’ and ‘Upon Wings of Black’. The band’s set was straight ahead blackened thrash/death metal and provided the very first serious circle pit of the evening. Skeletonwitch delivered everything you might expect and the audience had no difficulty embracing Clemans as the band’s new frontman.

Reverend Rock’s Rating: 8/10 – Awesome!

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To Continue to High on Fire and Abbath click Page 2 below:

Well. What to say about High on Fire? Truthfully they were quite likely the band I was most familiar with, having purchased each of their releases since 2000’s, “The Art of Self Defense” and following the band throughout their career. Perhaps this led to some unreasonable expectations but not likely and the bottom line is that HOF’s set was furiously performed yet as dull as a ’66 Impala in need of a paint job. How can this be you ask? Quite frankly the individual songs from the set were difficult to discern as they all sounded pretty much the same. In fact, in spite of owning the band’s catalogue I could only recognize one track, the set’s closer, ‘Snakes For The Divine‘. The bottom line here is this: when you only have one guitarist in the band and I can’t hear what he’s doing beyond noise we have a problem. A huge problem. I would be tempted to say that perhaps HOF was misplaced on this tour but that’s a lame excuse. The fact is they simply didn’t sound very good and were disappointing at best. I’d have been much happier had they not been present and their alloted time given to Tribulation and Skeletonwitch to increase their sets.

Reverend Rock’s Rating: 5/10 – Disappointing

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Finally our headliner, the legendary Norwegian black metaller, Abbath, was up! For the uninitiated Abbath’s legendary status was earned while fronting Immortal. Now, those familiar with Too Metal For Church will know that in order for me to really dig any variety of extreme metal, something extraordinary has to be going on, primarily in the guitar work as that is what my ear gravitates towards. In short the man’s writing is brilliant and his playing a unique blend of influences from classic hard rock, the NWOBHM and Venom. Abbath’s set began appropriately with ‘To War!” from his debut, eponymous solo album. And to war they went, seeking to annihilate our sensibilities with crushing guitars and thunderous drums behind Abbaths’ signature black metal rasp, eminating diabalolically from the very pit of hell itself. Highlights included ‘Winterbane‘, ‘Fenrir Hunts’ and the mesmerizing ‘Count the Dead‘. There were also several Immortal tracks covered which pleased fans of his previous incarnation. Abbath spent considerable time glowering evilly at his congregation, strutting around the stage like a maniacally psychotic, pissed-off Gene Simmons (with talent). Abbath owned that stage and audience in a way that only legendary performers can.

Reverend Rock’s Rating: 9/10 – Spectacular!

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A final note about the venue as this was my first experience with Toronto’s Opera House: our interactions with staff were nothing short of fantastic. No attitude, no bullshit, just excellent, helpful smiling people happily doing their jobs effectively. I commend them and look forward to future shows there. Also of note was promoter Inertia Entertainment who posted the show’s set times on a Facebook event page and actually managed to get the headliner on stage within a few minutes of his scheduled time. Trust me, on a Sunday night in a spring blizzard with an hour drive home, this was very much appreciated.

Reverend Rock’s Overall Rating: 8.5/10 – Breathtaking!

All Photographs by Phoenix Camerah

  Reverend Rock is host of Too Metal For Church on Metal Nation Radio, Mondays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST and Fridays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST exclusively on Metal Nation Radio. http:metalnationradio.com

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