Concert: Unmerciful Reign Tour Featuring Suffocation, Immolation And Skinless
Posted on November 01, 2007 at 10:49 pm by admin
On Saturday October 27th I descended on Toronto’s Opera House for the first full-on death metal tour to be featured at Way Too Loud! Not only that, but I was running out of Frank Mullen stage banter to impersonate! To those who know me in person, many have found out about the stage banter I’ve done with a perfect impression of Frank Mullen. It’s to the point where I’ve said it to friends who don’t know who the band is, and while at first the statements might seem scary, they get funnier every time I repeat them, to the point where people who don’t know death metal is have to find out who this band Suffocation is. Suffice it t say, I’ve got lots of great stories about that band.
The night started off with some local bands who I didn’t get a chance to see due to the fact that I was interviewing other bands. I did however get to see Skinless start off with their new vocalist Jason Keyser, who’s full of energy, especially between songs as he skips from one side of the stage to the other while making strangely funny requests. Their brand of death metal with huge breakdowns went over extremely well, especially considering there’s only one guitarist. Highlights included one “chicken fighter” in the moshpit and the slow-motion zombie wall of death that ended up looking like a scrub from rugby.
I was really looking forward to see Immolation since getting into the band heavily in 2004. They really know how to choose songs with hooks, as the whole setlist was made up of some very catchy songs, slightly favoring recent material from their latest album, “Shadows In The Light”. The light show was intense, as I don’t get a chance to see very many death metal bands make use of the lights, including spotlights. Guitarist Robert Vigna commands lots of stage presence due to the way he throws his guitar around while playing. If you’ve seen an Immolation video, you’ll get to see what I mean.
I had only a passing interested when I saw Suffocation the first time live, but after that I was hooked. Everything about this band is built on the live show, from fast songs with huge, slow, brutal breakdowns, to slow heavy songs that pick up to the traditional metal push-moshing for what could be considered a break-up (is there a term for that guys?) Vocalist Frank Mullen karate chopped and hand wavered throughout some truly brutal music. Between the songs, he of course has the best stage banter ever. In his thick Long Island, New York accent he said “You guys are gonna like this next song, because it’s all about killin’ people, cuz’ that’s what I do!”. Other statements you’ll have to hear from me in person, but rest assured, I came back with some new Frank Mullen statements to imitate.
Songs from the night included new album songs such as “Abomination Reborn”, “Bind Torture Kill”, “Entrails Of You” and “Misconceived”. I also got to hear such favorites as “Surgery Of Impalement”, “Jesus Wept”, “Catatonia”, “Brood Of Hatred”, and “Seeds Of The Suffering”, as well as live staples like “Breeding The Spawn”, “Pierced From Within”, “Infecting The Crypts” and of course one of my favorites, “Thrones Of Blood”. Damn, I must be getting really familiar with their songs, because I think I just named everything from their setlist, perhaps forgetting one song.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Copyright © 2007, Xtremely Media, All Rights Reserved
