May 27th, 2023
Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix
Photos By: Kim Baarda
Words By: Jason Deaville
BLACKBRAID
Hailing from the solitude and splendor of the Adirondack Mountains in Northeastern New York, black metal phenoms Blackbraid started the night off with a set of songs that entranced and hypnotized the unsuspecting early arrivers. Opening with ‘The Spirit Returns’ (from the forthcoming album Blackbraid II), the band immediately set a tone inspired by the beauty of nature and native American mythology, weaving together to create a tapestry of spiritual-yet-still-vicious musical art.
Sgah’gahsowáh (aka Jon Krieger), who also serves as the band’s songwriter and creative, showcased his natural ability and comfort as a front-man on the second song, ‘The River Of Time Flows Through Me.’ Like a hunter priming a spear, Sgah’gahsowáh launched his mic stand straight into the air and proceeded to destroy his prey with a volley of blood-curdling black metal shrieks.
At this point, the energy in the venue was one that saw the band and fans merged as a singular soul in a cosmic void of mind-altering black metal. Invoking the fated hand of twilight, the band launched into ‘Moss Covered Bones On The Altar Of The Moon’, another song from their upcoming sophomore effort. They followed this up with the equally alluring ‘Barefoot Ghost Dance On Bloodsoaked Soil’, which highlighted, to perfection, the band’s use of traditional Native American atmospherics.
If tonight’s performance was any indication, Blackbraid are absolutely deserved of the hype that surrounds them at this time. We at The Metal Pit anxiously await the new album, which drops on July 7th.
200 STAB WOUNDS
Murder metal. It’s a thing. One needs to look no further than the legendary Macabre, who basically wrote the rule book for Murder Metal. The second band of the evening, Cleveland, Ohio’s 200 Stab Wounds, have apparently been studying very hard from the Macabre handbook, as they delivered an absolutely brutal set of stab-you-in-the-face songs from their three releases (2020’s Piles Of Festering Decomposition, 2021’s Slave To The Scalpel, and 2023’s Masters Of Morbidity).
Not only is their unique brand of old-school death metal (with touches of slam) filled with blood-soaked fun, the guys actually seem to play the serial killer persona up a bit. Guitarist, Raymond MacDonald, had a bit of a John Wayne Gacy thing going on, and bassist, Ezra Cook, an imposing figure on stage, could be mistaken for Jason Vorhees.
200 Stab Wounds certainly lived up to their name tonight, inflicting severe damage both mentally and physically. It could take weeks to recover from this.
CATTLE DECAPITATION
At this point in their career, vegan musical extremists Cattle Decapitation are clearly at the top of their game. As it relates to their live performance, if the house audio can handle the cacophony, you can rest assured that the boys in Decap will give a performance equally as impressive as their studio releases… and sometimes, like tonight, perhaps even slightly better.
Of immediate note, vocalist Travis Ryan stole the show. His vocal performance was pitch-perfect and absolutely crushing. This doesn’t take anything away from the rest of the band, as each member give it 1000%. Their setlist was a mixed bag of meatless goodies, handpicked from their nearly thirty years of recorded music.
DARK FUNERAL
Swedish melodic black metallers, Dark Funeral, proved tonight why they are headliners. First and foremost, is their ability to master the crowd through their surreal and otherworldly blackened metal magic. With the stage swath in icy, deep blue tones, the band’s frigid and glacial performance sent a chill through the venue. Vocalist, Heljarmadr, commanded the throngs of black-clad fans with ease, who hung on his every word.
The darkened ones steamrolled through over an hour’s worth of songs, pulled from their extensive catalog dating all the way back to their self-titled EP from ’94. Some highlights of the evening included ‘My Funeral’, ‘Secrets Of The Black Arts’, ‘Unchain My Soul’, ‘Let The Devil In’, and ‘Where Shadows Forever Reign’.
