April 22, 2023 – – MTelus, Montreal, Quebec
While the weather outside still hasn’t made up its mind on what season in wants to be, Montreal’s MTelus was getting bombarded with an all out extreme music assault. Three weeks ago, the city was locked in an ice storm that knocked out power to over a million residents for days, then the following week the temperatures soared to those normally seen in mid-summer, before crashing back down to just above zero degrees. Today, we seem to be back in what are usually tradition spring temperatures, but who knows for how long.
Inside, the crowd takes its time to grow into the capacity, sold out audience that it will be by the time The Black Dahlia Murder take to the stage. Probably due to the early start time that a six band roster brings, people are slow to funnel in. As the volume of humans increases, so too does the temperature. Soon enough, the MTelus becomes a sweltering sauna spurred by the energy created by the impressive circle and mosh pits that see the beefiest of attendees colliding with one another. This creates kinetic energy, and thus heat is generated.
See Also: Enslaved at Corona Theatre, Montreal
Every other date on this tour, will feature but five of the six bands scheduled for tonight. That is because Montreal’s own Despised Icon has wiggled their way in between Terror and The Black Dahlia Murder, to perform for the first time in Montreal in three years. To play with old friends but also to knock off the ring rust and get back into the swing of things – and what better way to do so than to play in front of their ravenous home town crowd. Montreal takes care of it’s own, and Despised Icon are massive here. Icons. Loved, not despised.
Phobophilic
The slowly filling venue means that a great many people deprived themselves of a chance to see Phobophilic perform. Something that they should be kicking themselves over. Viscously. Self-flagellation. The day will come where they live to regret that decision.
Playing an old school style of death metal, that sits somewhere between the mid-90s Swedish and English scenes blended with a little Incantation worship, resulting in some bloody fine riff work and old timey groove that exists to get heads nodding. While not the most active live band, they did well enough in gearing up the small but growing gathering for what was to come. It is in their sound that makes them a band to see and one that I will be watching out for down the line.
They say that the live setting is a great way to discover new artists… but you have to be there to experience it and discover these artists. Still, it was great to see the place filled to the brim by the time The Black Dahlia Murder hit the stage.
Fuming Mouth
Next up were Fuming Mouth, who like Phobophilic and Frozen Soul who were up following this set, represent the newer or next generation of artists on the bill. Three fairly fresh bands that are on the cusp of cementing their names in the metal world. Three talented groups. Despite a decade of existence, Fuming Mouth are still consider as an up-and-coming act in the death metal realm.
Guitarist and vocalist Mark Whelan looked great, having overcome cancer not so long ago, and it was great to have him up on stage here in Montreal. Seven months after being declared cancer free, following bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy after being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Whelan and Fuming Mouth embark on this massive tour across Canada and the United States.
Throughout their set, the snarl on the face of Whelan helped set the tone. Playing hardcore-tinged death metal that fits in perfectly with the other artists on this roster, and should appease most everyone that comes out to any of the shows on this The Black Dahlia Murder tour run. Heavy, brutal and nasty – this is a band to watch out for.
Frozen Soul
They say Texans do things a little differently. Frozen Soul play a no-thrills, melody free brutally aggressive style of old school death metal that avoids things such as solo’s or nifty riff work. Choosing instead to go the way of sheer heaviness and nastiness. Something that would have been at home on Earache records in the early to mid 90s, and would have been playing through my yellow Sony walkman no doubt.
Vocalist Chad Green took a solemn moment to speak about his younger brother that took his own life this past August, urging people to call their loved ones and their friends; to take care of one another and to check in on your people. Frozen Soul then played a song they had written for Cory Green, Arsenal Of War, with Green saying he may get a little emotional while doing so. Understandable so.
Seeing bands of this ilk getting support to go on tours like this warms my rotten little soul, and I hope this is a trend that continues down the line. Thankfully, by the time Frozen Soul had finished playing, the venue was pretty close to be packed, but both Fuming Mouth and Phobophilic deserved to play to similar sized crowds too. To anyone that might be checking this text out prior to hitting a later date on this tour – get out early and catch all the bands. You won’t regret it for a moment. Come for the openers, stay for The Black Dahlia Murder. You know it makes sense.
Terror
Amidst a sea of death metal and deathcore bands, stood a sole hardcore act. That band, of course being Terror, a band whose sound has always held a metallic edge and has also always appealed to metal fans. Tonight, it was evident that many in attendance had turned out mainly to see Terror. A vast collection of hardcore band names splashed across tee-shirts gave that away, as did the stretched ears.
Vocalist Scott Vogel began their set by calling the barricade that separates the bands from the fans “the enemy“, and encouraged people to breach it. By crowd surfing, jumping on people or walking on heads, by any means. That space that the barricades puts between the crowd and the artists is used by photographers for the first few moments of a set, and to keep artists safe. Anybody that has ever heard of a band named Damageplan should understand why such a thing is so important. Surely, the security guards were less than thrilled by this announcement, too.
So crowd surfing was on the menu following the advice of Vogel, but hardcore kids have very little respect for anybody that wishes to watch a show, and those that were coming over the barricade were doing so while throwing punches and kicks towards the security and photographers alike. If Vogel and company don’t want to photographed; say so. There’s no need to entice violence. To be fair to the band; there’s no need to act like a giant tool to the people around you either. Keep your punches and kicks for the gym.
As for the band, Terror did what Terror always do – riffle through a selection of tunes from throughout their impressive catalogue and do so with precise renditions of their studio works. Twenty years and eight albums has led Terror to hone their sound and build a solid following. Ending their set with three brutal numbers, including the title cut from their debut record, One With The Underdogs, followed by Keep Your Mouth Shut and finally capping it off with Keepers Of The Faith, (also off of One With The Underdogs) which was a great choice and a solid way to cap off a violent set.
Despised Icon
It isn’t often that a band that isn’t part of a given tour, is not only able to jump onto a stacked bill like this one, and it is even more rare for that band to come in and usurp the second to last spot on the bill. For the entire tour, Terror have and will be playing right before The Black Dahlia Murder headlines the night. Everywhere, that is, but Montreal. Local lads Despised Icon who haven’t played Montreal in three years, largely due to that whole pandemic thing that blew in and drifted away during that time, had that honor in front of their hometown crowd.
In turn, the sold out audience at the MTelus (or Metropolis as people still refer to it as) had much love to shower Despised Icon with. Vocalist Alex Erian spoke about the bands absence as well as the groups first ever gig, which I was at, that somehow took place twenty-one years ago at a now defunct venue named Salle De L’X (or L’X for short). How time flies. In fact, all three of the main bands on the bill originally formed within a twelve month period and have crossed paths many times over the years, including touring together in 2008. Which is probably how and why Despised Icon were able to join an already full line-up. Former bassist Max Lavelle left Despised Icon to join The Black Dahlia Murder back in 2010.
Their set consisted of ten tracks selected from the groups four most recent records, including Day Of Mourning, MVP, Snake In The Grass, In The Arms Of Perdition, Purgatory and Beast. Throughout, the sextet charge about the stage, switching positions, running from point to point and trading off dual vocals and acting like a gang might, with an appearance that mixes hardcore and hop hop in terms of raw energy and stage presence. There are bands that stay in place like statues, and others like Despised Icon that are constantly moving and always entertaining.
Once again, the love affair between Despised Icon and Montreal results is a dynamite set, with an incredibly enthusiastic gathering that danced, thrashed, moshed and surfed (without throwing kicks and punches as they did so) throughout their entire set. Something tells me it won’t be another three years before we see Despised Icon on stage in Montreal next.
The Black Dahlia Murder
The loss of a founding member is never easy to overcome. When that loss comes by way of a suicide, when a bandmate and close friend departs in such a manor, the pain must be monumental. As must the decision to continue on be. Next month will be a year since the bands original vocalist Trevor Strnad’s death. Since then, guitarist Brian Eschbach has laid down the axe to take over on the microphone, with former lead guitarist Ryan Knight returning to play Eschbach’s rhythm guitar parts.
Musicians, I’ve always said, are fairly simple to replace – in terms of playing previously written material, but a singer has a distinct sound, a tone of their own. A style that can be emulated sometimes but never truly replaced. The voice is the soul of the group, yet Eschbach did rather well in filling in that role, at least in the live setting. I suppose it helps to have been around while those songs were being written and having heard them so many times.
Strnad had a hell of a stage presence which is possibly the hardest thing to reproduce. Eschbach goes about things a little differently, as he is a different person, which is only natural and is going to take a few more gigs to become normal for me. Still, he did a bang up job stepping up to the plate and in less than a year is now the frontman of a very popular act. Later this year, The Black Dahlia Murder are planning to enter a recording studio and that is where Eschbach will put his mark on the band – and I imagine will face comparisons galore too.
The size of the mosh pit late into The Black Dahlia’s set was astonishing, and perhaps the biggest I have personally witnessed at the Metropolis (Yeah, yeah, MTelus, whatever!) dating back to when I last saw Pantera play there. I stood with my back to the wall, and was somehow still apart of the pit. Wall to wall, from the dreaded barricade all the way back to where the floor begins to slope upwards. Huge.
Another surprise, was the constant barrage of crowd surfers that flowed over that same barricade, one after the over in an endless and relentless assault. Last week, I saw a Municipal Waste gig at the Corona theatre and I thought that night had a lot of surfing activity – this beat it hands down (or up, I suppose). One thing is for certain, the security team had their work cut out for them on this night. The Black Dahlia Murder have some seriously dedicated fans.
Read More:
>> Static-X at MTelus, Montreal
>> Viagra Boys at Corona Theatre, Montreal
>> Sloan at Café Campus, Montreal
At one point, Eschbach asked the audience in they were familiar with The Muppet Show, then pointed to the gallery on the left of the stage where The Black Dahlia Murder’s manager E.J. Johantgen and promoter Dave Boucher (Extensive Enterprise) sat and compared them to Statler and Waldorf – although neither Boucher or Johantgen seemed to be heckling anyone. For the latter half of the set, Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy was spotted on that same gallery.
Throughout the night, several chants of “Trevor, Trevor” had broken out in homage to the late frontman. But not every moment of the night was filled with brotherly love. I saw several people bleeding profusely from their heads, a chap clutching his ribs, a pair of near fist fights that were broken up by other crowd members and two young girls who were heckling the security team for preventing them for entering that pesky barricade. Maybe Vogel is on to something – maybe that barricade is the enemy. Nah. That’s crazy talk.
Despite the tragedy; it’s great to see The Black Dahlia Murder carry on.
