There’s
something surprisingly unique about seeing a show that’s not in Toronto. There’s
also something special about seeing a band that the last time you saw were
playing the big Mayhem Festival stages and now they’re in your face. A nice
Friday night in Guelph, Ontario, the university kids were out for a night of
drinking when a bunch of Death Metal bands descended on the DSTRCT, a venue on the second floor of
a bar that had some smooth jazz going. Upstairs was some “#BlackLivesMatter”
party or something, and in the middle was Metal. Killitorous, Erimha, The Apex and Ending Tyranny were about to shake the support of this building.
The
night started a bit late as one of the bands had some troubles arriving at the
venue, after a bit of extra waiting we were greeted by Ending Tyranny, who played their new album “Evolution of Deceit” and while it was there first time playing some
of these songs, I’m sure another first happened for these guys, almost all the
way through their second some someone collapsed! Without missing a beat the
band finished, made sure the guy was okay and vocalist Callum Clark goes “what the hell, I missed it!” Some Tech Death
goodness knocked this guy right on his ass, must have melted his brain a bit. Clark and the rest of Ending Tyranny, although being a rather
small band, have a better stage presence than most bands that have been in the
business for 20+ years. While introducing “Faceless
Silhouette” Clark was able to
joke about “since when did silhouettes have faces in the first place?” When the
band came up to the end of their set they were thankful to the crowd and said
goodnight.
The
crowd was rearing to go, after some wicked Tech Death that a lot of us didn’t expect
to enjoy so much next on was The Apex.
These guys were pretty cool having got the chance to talk to Tyson as both a
journalist (read our interview) and a fan at the show plus their new album is killer and sounds even better live. The band opened fast
and hard with “Contention: Chapter 2”
the crowd was wild and ready to rock, showing The Apex what they were made the
crowd was getting really into it. continuing with “Promise,” “Means To An End”
and “Glass Walls” the band eventually
hit “If Detroit Rivers Could Speak”
getting the crowd nice and ready for what’s to come and closing out with “Contention: Chapter 1” this crowd was
ready to kill and next up was going to be the perfect band to do it to.
With
their new album “Thesis Ov Warfare”
released just weeks ago, Erimha were
here to show everyone what they had to offer. Donning full corpse paint and performing
barefoot the band opened with the first single from the new album “The First Law” and already the pits
were going; this was the start of the destruction. Having played Mayhem Fest in 2014 and toured
with Mushroomhead, Erimha were pros at putting on a show,
even though this was probably one of the smaller venues they had played in
quite a while, they gave it their all. Blazing through their set with new songs
the band introduced one from “Reign
Through Immortality” although not “Verdict
of the Soul” (which later, vocalist Gore
told me they removed for a new song at this show specifically) the band roared
into “Condemned To Desolation” and
the pit grew to scary sizes for this small venue, nowhere was safe while the
band played. “Fragmented Existence,”
the song played to replace “Verdict of
the Soul,” was (almost) worth still not having seen “Verdict” and after a few more songs, t was the end and onto the
final band of the night.
This is
where things got real insane, using their own lights instead of the house
lights and getting everything ready, Killitorous
took the stage. This band has their own sense of humour that almost can’t be paralleled
and it’s a crazy contrast from the sternness of Black Metal that Erimha has to offer. The band played a
bunch of their hits like “’Til Death Do
Us Party” and even inviting Ending
Tyranny’s Callum Clark back to
the stage for “Geore Castanza’s Father’s
Son” the band made a ton of new fans with the level of silly Tech Death. At
one point the band asked “does anyone like the movie Ace Ventura” which was
greeted by a fan yelling “CANNIBAL
CORPSE” and the band played 2 seconds of “Hammer Smashed Face” the band was coming up on the end of their
set. Which I think a lot of people welcomed seeing as it was like 1:15am at
this point. Playing through “No Not The
Bees” and “It’s Not Stanley, It’s
Stan Lee” the band made their way off the stage and the crowd was done. I’ve
never seen a crowd so out of energy after a show, it just shows how much these
bands has these people using.
After
the show I got to talk with the awesome dudes in The Apex and got some stuff signed by Erimha and finally got to meet all of them. The crowd made their
way out looking thrilled to have experienced that level of awesomeness,
everyone was making friends outside and all in the, the night was successful.
All these bands are worth seeing live and if given the chance, I will see any
and all of them again.
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