November 13th, 2023

Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace

Photos By: Kim Baarda

Words By: Jason Deaville

STABBING

With a band name that leaves no question to their intentions – being stabbed in the fucking face with pure, unadulterated brutality – Houston Texas’ Stabbing were the perfect choice as the opening band for this tour. Having got their start just a couple of years ago, Stabbing have made some serious waves in the world of brutal death metal as-of-late. With only one full-length album and an EP under their belts, the band busted out some of their heaviest tonight in Toronto.

Starting their set off with a handful of tracks pulled from 2022’s Extirpated Mortal Process, which included the songs ‘Inhaling The Dead’, ‘Final Flesh Feast’, ‘Visions Of Eternal Suffering’, ‘It Ends With Flames’ and ‘Pulsing Wound’, the band succeeded in getting the early-arrivers hyped and moving (evidence of this could be seen in the pit, with a few, but faithful, fans getting the night started right).

Stabbing then jumped into ‘Gutted By The Beast’ and ‘Ravenous Psychotic Onslaught’, both from 2021’s Ravenous Psychotic Onslaught. They ended their short, but violent, set with ‘Vortex Of The Severed Dead’ and ‘Pulled Apart’ from this year’s demo release.

Stabbing are definitely a force to be reckoned with. I expect great things from this young band in the coming years. Keep an ear out!

SKELETAL REMAINS

If you love your death metal old-school, Californian brutalizers, Skeletal Remains, are your go to band when it comes to contemporary death metal bands keeping things true to the origin of the sub-genre. No one does it better than these guys, and they proved that point ten-fold tonight in Toronto.

Without knowing anything about the band, one would be hard-pressed to guess that these guys got their start just over ten years ago. In fact, you can stack Skeletal Remains up against any legendary death metal band and they’d fit right in, which is why the band were the logical choice for this tour.

The guys started the night with a brand new track ‘Void Of Despair’ (from their coming album of the same name, which drops on March 8th via Century Media Records). Later in their set, they also dropped another new one, ‘To Conquer The Devout’. If these two songs are any indication, the forthcoming album could be a 2024 year-end contender.

The guys then took things back a bit, with the lead-off track ‘Beyond Cremation’ off of their 2015 album, Condemned To Misery. This is another face-melter of a song that sent the pit into a vortex of swirling bodies. With not a second of respite, the band unleashed two fan-favorites in ‘Illusive Divinity’ and ‘Tombs Of Chaos’, the pair taken from 2020’s incredible The Entombment Of Chaos. The guys ended their highly-energized set with ‘Internal Detestation’ and ‘Torture Labyrinth’ from 2018’s Devouring Mortality.

Skeletal Remains definitely threw the venue and it’s inhabitants back into the early 90s with their brand of anachronistic, ode-to-the-old-school death metal. An absolute treat and a band that should not be missed if they make it to your neck-of-the-woods.

INCANTATION

You can’t speak of ‘legendary’ and ‘death metal’ without the mention of the mighty Incantation. These guys basically invented a sub-genre of death metal all their own, one that lives on to this day with countless bands paying homage to Incantation‘s ‘cavernous’ aesthetic. So, it goes without saying that the band was the logical choice as co-headliner alongside Suffocation, bringing the old-school to a new generation of rabid connoisseurs of death metal.

Tonight in Toronto, the maestro himself, frontman John McEntee, marshalled his crew of like-minded brutalizers through a set-list of both classic and contemporary Incantation material. The band blasted onto the stage with the track ‘Concordant’ from their brand new album Unholy Deification. This wasn’t the only love shown for the new album, as the guys would later tackle the tracks ‘Homunculus’, ‘Chalice’, and ‘Invocation’, which is some of their best work in years.

At this point, Incantation had the near-capacity crowd eating from their palms. The guys harnessed this energy and jumped into the popular ‘Rites Of The Locust’ (from 2017’s Profane Nexus) and ‘Carrion Prophecy’ (off of 2014’s Dirges Of Elysium). Adding fuel to the inferno of a pit that had formed, Incan launched into ‘Fury’s Manifesto’ and ‘Ritual Impurity’ from 2020’s Sect Of Vile Divinities. From here on out, all hell was unleashed in the pit.

The guys then proceeded to rewind thirty years with their classic track ‘Blasphemous Cremation’ off of 1992’s Onward To Golgotha. With such a vast library of quintessential Incantation songs, I’m not sure how the band decides on what to include in a set-list. Either way, this was the perfect track at the perfect time, and the ravenous ragers made sure to show it. Jumping forward to the turn of the century, Incan pulled out two contemporary classics with ‘Ascend Into The Eternal’ (from 2012’s Vanquish In Vengeance) and ‘Oath Of Armageddon’ (off of 2004’s Decimate Christendom).

Now at just halfway through their set, the interaction between band and fan had soared to a fevered pitch. Between songs, the crowd vocalized their pleasure with a deafening roar, which frontman John McEntee acknowledged and obliged with the last three songs of their set, which included ‘Ibex Moon’ (from ’94’s Mortal Throne Of Nazarene) and the duo of ‘Impending Diabolical Conquest’ and ‘Shadows Of The Ancient Empire’ (off 1998’s Diabolical Conquest).

Is it just me, or does Incantation keep getting better with age? I don’t think the band have ever sounded as tight as they do today. An incredible set from one of the most consistent and beloved death metal bands out there.

SUFFOCATION

If I hadn’t been on the bus myself hanging with the guys prior to their set, I woulda thought NYC brutal death metal legends Suffocation rode into Toronto on a convoy of bulldozers, as tonight the Suffo ones absolutely levelled each and every Canadian (and one Swede, who flew all the way to Toronto for one night just to catch Incantation) in attendance. In fact, I’m not certain the venue, Lee’s Palace, survived… I wouldn’t be surprised if Torontonians woke up the next morning to a heap of smoldering rubble.

Strolling out onto the stage to a deafening roar from every voice box in the crammed venue, the guys launched into a classic with ‘Catatonia’ from 1991’s Human Waste EP. Immediately, the crowd erupted into a frenzy, which included body after body climbing onto the stage to dive head-first into the ocean of unsuspecting heads. And we are off to the races!

Touring in support of their brand new album, Hymns From The Apocrypha, the guys dropped several tracks from this badass and brutal album, which included ‘Seraphim Enslavement’, ‘Dim Veil Of Obscurity’, ‘Perpetual Deception’, and ‘Hymns From The Apocrypha’. It was clear that fans were well familiar with the noob-ness on display, as I could see lots of mouths roaring along with now full-time vocalist, Ricky Myers.

The next three songs were welcome throwbacks with ‘Breeding The Spawn’ (from the ’93 album of the same name), ‘Pierced From Within’ (from the ’95 album of the same name), and ‘Funeral Inception’ (from the ’98 EP Despise The Sun). The latter of the three really landed hard, whipping the now sweat-soaked pit into absolute moshing madness.

Suffocation ended their set with the tracks ‘Blind, Torture, Kill’ (from their 2006 self-titled album), and ‘Liege Of Inveracity’ and ‘Infecting The Crypts’ from their classic debut full-length, Effigy Of The Forgotten. For those in the know, the latter two tracks are filled to the brim with massive gravity-defying breakdowns that, in the live setting, are probably the heaviest riffs ever heard by human ears.

Suffocation once again prove why they are living legends. There is no band heavier.

Remaining dates on the Ancient Unholy Uprising Tour 2023 are as follows:

November
22 – Portland, OR – Bossanova Ballroom
24 – San Francisco, CA – DNA Lounge
25 – San Diego, CA – Brick By Brick
26 – Los Angeles, CA – 1720
27 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge
28 – Albuquerque, NM – Launchpad
29 – Oklahoma City, OK – 89th Street Collective
30 – Dallas, TX – Granada Theater

December
1 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar
2 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
3 – New Orleans, LA – Southport Music Hall
4 – Greensboro, NC – Hangar 1819