By Andrew Bansal
March 8th 2016, The Mayan, Los Angeles CA: While extreme metal is very prominent on the heavy music touring circuit as a whole, it is not often that fans get treated to a lineup completely devoted to the sub-genre. Death metal giants Cannibal Corpse are currently doing the rounds through North America headlining one such tour, with main support coming from Obituary, and opening acts Cryptopsy and Abysmal Dawn. The Los Angeles extreme metal legions purchased tickets to last Tuesday’s show at the Mayan Theatre in downtown LA well in advance, and the show was officially announced as sold out a few hours before the doors opened. All was in readiness for a skull-crushing, horn-raising, invisible orange-squeezing evening.
Los Angeles’ own Abysmal Dawn began proceedings with an excellent set of technical death metal. The band has been around since 2003, and through four solid full-length studio album releases and countless miles on the road they’ve gained a fan-following far beyond Los Angeles, but one of the most striking aspects of the LA scene is that we don’t realize how good we have it, and that the bands we have the privilege of calling ‘local’ are dominating on a global level. Abysmal Dawn is certainly one band that is respected more outside of LA, but on this occasion they put on a performance that demanded respect and admiration from this crowd, which was shown in the form of lively mosh pits. With doors opening at 6:30 and their set starting as early as 7:30, the Mayan was not packed to capacity yet, but a large audience was in attendance for Abysmal Dawn’s set, and one couldn’t have asked for a better start to the show. ‘In Service Of Time’ was the highlight of the set, not only because it’s arguably their best song till date but also because folks in or around the mosh pit heard an excruciatingly loud thud as a bald gentleman hit the floor really hard, head first. He was knocked out for a good few minutes but thankfully was able to stand up again, and despite all the musical heaviness on stage for the entirety of the evening, this was perhaps the most brutal moment of the show.
Set List:
01. Programmed to Consume
02. Inanimate
03. Perfecting Slavery
04. Human Obsolescence
05. In Service of Time
06. The Inevitable Return to Darkness
Next up were Canadian veterans Cryptopsy, bringing forth an extreme metal approach varied from that of Absymal Dawn, with much more emphasis on guttural vocals and blast beats. As the speed and intensity of the mosh pits on the floor level was increasing by the minute, the upstairs balcony was an entirely different scene as people were sitting quietly and focussing solely on absorbing the music, and the sound quality at the Mayan is most definitely better in the balcony as compared to downstairs. Cryptopsy played a 7-song set which included two selections from their latest effort ‘The Book Of Suffering (Tome 1)’, which was released in 2015 and is the first in a series of EPs that the band plans to put out in the foreseeable future. All in all, a brutal set that appeased this audience in plenty.
Set List:
01. Crown of Horns
02. Mutant Christ
03. Detritus (The One They Kept)
04. Two-Pound Torch
05. Halothane Glow
06. Slit Your Guts
07. Phobophile
Florida death metal legends Obituary were next. A sizable portion of this audience was as excited about Obituary as they were about the headlining act, and for good reason, because in terms of the musical style, Obituary came across as the most well-rounded, diverse and old-school band of this lineup. Their roots are clearly based in rock ‘n roll and thrash, and that’s what makes them more enjoyable than most others in the genre. Brothers Jon and Donald Tardy on vocals and drums respectively along with rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres orchestrated the band’s sonic core expertly and delivered the goods to the fullest, while bassist Terry Butler and lead guitarist Kenny Andrews held their own as well. This was a performance that very much justified the band’s seniority and stature, and one would be hard-pressed to witness a better death metal set for a long time to come.
Set List:
01. Redneck Stomp
02. Centuries of Lies
03. Visions in My Head
04. Intoxicated
05. Bloodsoaked
06. Dying
07. Find the Arise
08. Don’t Care
09. Chopped in Half / Turned Inside Out
10. Slowly We Rot
The show had moved along very smoothly and soon enough, Cannibal Corpse took the stage to do what they do best i.e. obliterate everything in sight. One of the most entertaining aspects of any Cannibal Corpse set is the sheer insanity of the mosh pits. For those that couldn’t dare to be in it themselves, to get the full Cannibal Corpse live experience it is in fact as important to watch the movement of the crowd in the pit as it is to watch the band on stage, because the mosh doesn’t just move in circles, it flows in waves. Starting with ‘Evisceration Plague’, Cannibal Corpse played a non-stop 17-song set that brought the best out of this death metal-hungry crowd. The band hit their groove straightaway, and even though there’s an undeniable sameness about the music from track to track, that’s exactly what fans expect from Cannibal Corpse and have loved them over the years for. Frontman George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher treated the audience to some classic windmill action and brutastic vocal delivery while his four band mates put their heads down and scorched their respective instruments. Cannibal Corpse is the very definition of brutality, which is what brings these people to their shows every time, and they will continue to sell out shows in Los Angeles till the day they retire.
Overall, this was an out-and-out death metal show with four well-established bands each bringing a different flavor and style, and for fans of the genre, attending a show on this tour should be an absolute no-brainer.
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Set List:
01. Evisceration Plague
02. The Time to Kill Is Now
03. Scourge of Iron
04. Death Walking Terror
05. Stripped, Raped and Strangled
06. The Wretched Spawn
07. Pit of Zombies
08. Kill or Become
09. Sadistic Embodiment
10. Icepick Lobotomy
11. Covered With Sores
12. Born in a Casket
13. I Cum Blood
14. Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
15. Make Them Suffer
16. Hammer Smashed Face
17. Devoured by Vermin
Remaining Tour Dates:
3/10/2016 House Of Blues – San Diego, CA
3/11/2016 Club Red – Phoenix, AZ
3/12/2016 Sunshine Theater – Albuquerque, NM
3/14/2016 The Aztec Theatre – San Antonio, TX
3/15/2016 Gas Monkey Live! – Dallas, TX
3/16/2016 House Of Blues – Houston, TX
3/17/2016 Varsity Theatre – Baton Rouge, LA
3/18/2016 The Side Bar Theatre – Tallahassee, FL
3/19/2016 The Ritz Ybor – Tampa, FL *no Obituary
3/20/2016 Revolution Live – Ft. Lauderdale, FL