​The last time they did a pure headliner here was in 2016 (which I was lucky enough to see).  This year saw them running out of the gates and heading out on tour right after the release of their tenth studio album Into Oblivion, and Toronto was only the third stop on the tour, which hit the Great Canadian Casino Theatre on March 20, with Kublai Khan, Fit For An Autopsy and Sanguisugabogg.  On a quick side note, you can say that this year is a pretty significant year for the Virginia metal legends because not only are they releasing their "tenth" album, but they are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sacrament, which is undoubtedly the album that just elevated them in the big leagues after the success of Ashes Of The Wake, so plenty of reason to celebrate Lamb Of God in 2026.

​This warmed us up for the main course, which was the entirety of Somewhere Far Beyond.  Traditionally, when it comes to songs from this album, "The Bard's Song - In The Forest" is a permanent staple, and "Time What Is Time" is a frequent feature from time to time, but this gave us the chance to hear some of the other deep cuts that the band play on occasion like "Journey Through The Dark", "Theatre Of Pain", "Quest For Tanelorn", "Ashes To Ashes" and the epic title track.  It's also not very often we get both Bard's Songs in the setlist, those being "In The Forest" and "The Hobbit".  

For the encore and dessert round, we got a hefty 5-song encore.  Starting off with the oldie that fans are always clamoring the band to play: "Majesty", and the other two setlist staples: "Valhalla" and "MIrror Mirror".  Although "Mirror Mirror" is normally the closing song, we also were gifted two songs that were not on the printed setlist, which were "Lord Of The Rings" and "Lost In The Twilight Hall", the latter of which closed the set.  40 years on, and Blind Guardian is still delivering the goods on such a high level, and it's deserving of all our respect.  Hansi Kursch, Andre Olbrich and Marcus Siepen are still at the top of their game as performers.  However, the real MVP of the show was Frederik Ehmke, who had the physical task of playing so many songs with fast thrashy patterns for nearly 2 hours, and doing that every night.  Overall, what a fantastic way to close out the 2025 concert season, and now it's time to prime the engines for what is sure to be an ass-kicking 2026.

​This tour made a stop in Toronto on September 28 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre, with Hirax and Void as special guests.  Now even though I personally wasn't really a fan of the new record, it was still a treat to go and see one of the leading bands of the L.A. thrash scene and hear those classics.  However, I have to say that I was rather quite suprised that the turnout was at about 50% capacity for this show.  It makes me wonder if it should've been held somewhere smaller.

Shows were selling out like hot cakes, and that was a wake-up call for the band, because they booked another round of shows in 2024, but the problem was that the only Canadian city they played on both initial runs was in Montreal.  As we sit here now in 2025, the band have announced a third round of N.A dates with all new cities, including 4 new Canadian cities for them, and DragonForce are on board as special guests.  Toronto was the lucky chosen few and was chosen to be the tour's kickoff city on September 17 at Rebel.  The lineup of fans on Polson Pier was enormous, as it went all the way down the street.

​Over the last couple of years, whenever the band hits Toronto, they always bring out YouTube guitar nerd Stevie T. to guest on a couple of songs, and they did it again at this show, and I can see that becoming a Toronto tradition for the band from now on.  For Stevie, it was a special occasion because he had his first experience in a mosh pit, all while playing guitar, and of all the songs to mosh to, it went down during the band's cover of Taylor Swift's "Wildest Dreams".  While the primary focus of the set may have been on the new stuff, it wouldn't be a DragonForce show without some of the standard classics, and the ones we got were "Fury Of The Storm" and the ultimate closer "Through The Fire & Flames", which Marc Hudson jokingly started naming off the games and movies that the song has made an appearance in.  The best part of his speech was how he named the less obvious ones first before the famous one (and all you know which game I'm referring to).

​Song-wise, it was one crowd-chanting anthem after the other, and we were treated to some good ones in their catalog like "Incense & Iron", "Army Of The Night", "Armata Strigoi", "Demons Are A Girl's Best Friend", "Dancing With The Dead", "Amen & Attack" and "1589" just to name a few.  In the encore, they blessed us with "Sanctified With Dynamite", "We Drink Your Blood", and the set closed with "Werewolves Of Armenia".  The only song I wish they included was "Blessed & Possessed".

In closing, Powerwolf's Toronto debut proved to be a monumental moment for many, as it attracted many out-of-towners as well, including many from Montreal who already got to see them on their last two visits there, and we can all highly hope that the massive reaction made it clear to the band that they need to bring the holy heavy metal mass back to our city in the future and not make this a one-time event.  There are only a limited amount of cities on this tour, so if you get the opportunity to see it, do it.

Wage War kicked off the night with a heavy dose of Florida metalcore.  As usual, the venue was still filling up when they took the stage.  Their mix of aggressive screams and sweet cleans made for some real ear candy, and I have to say that their stage presence was the best out of all the bands.  As I was watching, I could tell that a majority of the crowd was slightly taken aback by the heaviness, because this crowd was clearly not your typical metal crowd.  Of course, there's some crossover between radio rock fans and metal fans, and there was a good portion of metalheads in the crowd, but when it came to the moshing, the pits were not as energetic or intense as the ones at a regular metal show.  Not that it's a problem, it's just an observation.  I will say that I did chuckle a few times at the looks of confusion on certain people's faces due to the heaviness.

Coming up next was headliner #1: Volbeat.  Now this marks the first time I've gotten to see Volbeat play a headline set after only seeing them open for Metallica twice and once at Heavy T.O.  As many times as Volbeat have been here to headline over the years, I just never was able to make it happen until this time.  Celebrating the release of their new album God Of Angels Trust, they incorporated a good mix of new material and old favourites.  New songs included "By A Monster's Hand", "Better Be Fueled Than Tamed", "Demonic Depression", and that song with the insanely long title that even I'm not done reading it yet, "In The Barn Of The Goat Giving Birth To Satan's Spawn In A Dying World Of Doom".  They also threw in "Shotgun Blues" from Servant Of The Mind.

As far as the old favourites go, they focused mainly on songs from Seal The Deal & Let's Boogie like "The Devil's Bleeding Crown", "Black Rose", "Seal The Deal" and "For Evigt", while also touching on classics like "Lola Montez", "Fallen" and "Sad Man's Tongue".  They opened their set with a medley of "A Warrior's Call" and "Pool Of Booze, Booze, Booza" and closed with "Still Counting".  A rather funny moment was before "Sad Man's Tongue", Michael Poulsen assumed that people knew what song was coming because the acoustic guitar came out.  However, a fan jokingly said "Slayer" and Michael acknowledged it, by teasing the intro to "South Of Heaven" on the acoustic before telling him that Slayer wouldn't work on the acoustic.  A fun set with the Danish rock legends.

Closing off the night was some homegrown talent with Three Days Grace.  The last half-year was a big deal for the band and the fans, mainly because Adam Gontier returned to the fold, and the band is now a quintet with two lead singers as Matt Walst remains in his place.  To see both singers up front is something you don't see with a lot of major bands, and I think it's an amazing concept.  We've seen it happen with Helloween, and it's working out so well for them.  Plus, it's a way to bring the two camps of fans together, whether you're a fan of one singer or the other, but I digress.  When Three Days Grace hit the stage, that's when the crowd really seemed to come to life a lot more, which is honestly no surprise given that they're the hometown band and that Adam was back, so the hype was real.  I mean, the roars of the crowd for Three Days Grace were just deafening.

This marks the third time I've seen the boys, and each time I saw them, it was always at the amphitheatre, and I got to see both of the previous incarnations.  In 2006, I saw them on the One X tour opening for Nickelback, then 13 years later in 2019 on the Outsider tour opening for Breaking Benjamin, so to now see this incarnation with both singers fronting makes it a slightly full circle moment, and of course, hearing many of those classic songs from Adam's era with him on vocals again was nostalgia right into the veins.  Songs from every album (except for Transit Of Venus) were featured, and it was super cool to hear Adam's voice on Matt's songs, and to hear both of them harmonize and trade-off.  The set kicked off with an absolute bang with "Animal I Have Become", sending fans right back to the good ol' days before coming right back to the recent years with "So Called Life".

The first two records were the primary focus of the set, which makes sense because it's where a majority of their classic hits are from, and we were treated to pretty much all of them, like "Pain", "Home", "Just Like You", "I Hate Everything About You" and "Never Too Late", while also treating us to "Break" and "The Good Life" from Life Starts Now.  I was really surprised and happy that they threw in "Time Of Dying", a deep cut from One X, because that was one of my favourites from back then.  Matt's era was also respected very nicely with singles like "The Mountain", "Painkiller" and "I Am Machine".  Adam also got to have a solo bit in the set where he treated us to "Rooster" by Alice In Chains, and the band also celebrated the present moment with new music from the upcoming Alienation album with the singles "Mayday" and "Apologies".  I just have to acknowledge that the only awkward part of the set was that just about every time when Matt asked for a mosh pit, there would either be no pit, or a small one would fizzle, but not last very long.  It was during the closing of the set with "Riot" that a more respectable-sized pit formed.  However, there were a good amount of crowd surfers, so that made up for the lack of pits.

To close things out, this show proved to be one of the best rock parties to kick off the summer concert season, and a great way to bring particularly Three Days Grace fans that have stayed away since Adam's departure back to the party.  Seeing them in particular was a complete nostalgia trip for me, and seeing both them and Volbeat performing full headlining sets was a treat.

​A year ago, the two bands captured the attention of the internet when they announced they would be joining forces in 2025 for a world tour dubbed The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour, where they will celebrate the milestone of these two iconic albums by playing them in their entireties.  Now, Bullet are no strangers to playing an album in full, as they've played The Poison before, but Trivium are definitely newbies to the concept, but there's a first time for everything.  Needless to say that this tour is a wet dream for many teens and adults of the 2000s who saw the releases of these albums and grew up with the two bands and got to see them explode on to the world with those albums and the ones that followed, but it also gives the new kids a chance to experience a glimpse of the early days by hearing some songs from those albums that the bands rarely play in a regular set.  The celebratory tour began earlier this year in the U.K and Europe with Orbit Culture serving as special guests, and is now trekking across North America for an extensive trek, and it made a stop in Toronto at the Great Canadian Casino Resort on May 4 with August Burns Red and Bleed From Within serving as special guests.  Fans of all ages packed the concert hall of the casino to witness this once-in-a-lifetime bill.  Needless to say that 14-year-old me who saw both bands explode back in the day with those albums was excited beyond belief to hear all these songs.  Alright, let's get into it.

Bleed From Within opened the night up with a quite short, but effective 25-minute set of modern Scottish metal.  Right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed during their set was that the sound was very crisp, but the casino was set up with fantastic acoustics when it was first built.  The floor area was also very much packed to capacity by the time they hit the stage.  I mean, it was Sunday, so plenty of people must've had the day off work to arrive early.  The crowd was already full of energy by the time they hit the stage, to the point where vocalist Scott Kennedy announced that Toronto was on track to becoming the best crowd of the whole tour, as they tore through songs like "God Complex", "Levitate", "I Am Damnation", "The End Of All We Know" and "In Place Of Your Halo".  Overall, Bleed From Within gave a great start for what was sure to be a fantastic night of metal.

August Burns Red continued the festivities right after.  Kicking things off with their cover of System Of A Down's "Chop Suey", they launched into a selection of songs like "Paramount", "Exhumed", "Vengeance", "Marianas Trench" and "White Washed".  They are also celebrating 20 years since the release of their debut album Thrill Seeker, however no songs were played from it.  While we're on the subjects of celebrations, they even took the time to celebrate a double birthday between bassist Dustin Davidson and their guitar tech.  At one point, vocalist Jake Luhrs noticed that the security guards up front were pretty chill, so he encouraged the fans to start crowdsurfing to "put the security to work", and boy did they ever.

Coming to the headlining rounds, Bullet For My Valentine were first up to celebrate The Poison, and who are making their first return to Toronto since 2017.  Seeing Bullet is always pretty special for me because as I've mentioned many times, they were my first-ever metal show back in 2008 on the Scream Aim Fire Tour when I was 16.  Getting into their show, a video montage of Bullet from back in the Poison days played on the rear-view screens, setting the nostalgia element for their set before the Poison intro played and the band fired off into "Her Voice Resides".  I should also say that while both headlining sets gave me huge goosebumps and sent my mind racing back to my high school days, there were a couple of those moments that hit harder than others, and hearing the Poison intro and "Her Voice Resides" back-to-back was one of the moments that hit really hard.  Adding to the nostalgia factor was seeing Matt Tuck playing the old Jackson  Rhoads V guitars that he used to play back in the day, while Michael "Padge" Paget mainly stuck to his traditional ESP V guitars, but he did bust out the classic white Gibson V that he played back in the day as well.  A funny moment was during his intro speech, Matt Tuck thanked the crowd for not forgetting about them, and that the band have not forgotten about us, to which my first thought was: "Then how come you stayed away from Toronto for eight years?!"

With The Poison played in full in original running order, we got the signature anthems like "4 Words To Choke Upon", "All These Things I Hate", "Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow", and of course that little song called "Tears Don't Fall" (you can't have a Bullet show without that song), and deep cuts like "Hit The Floor", "Room 409", "10 Years Today", "Cries In Vain" and "The Poison".  Much like "Drowned & Torn Asunder" was my introduction to Trivium, "Hit The Floor" was my introduction to Bullet, so getting to hear those two songs in the same show was a nostalgia overload for me.  Now, although were playing the Poison in full, the omission of "Spit You Out" was a head scratcher.  Instead, they swapped it out for "Hand Of Blood".  As The Poison portion of the set drew to a close with "The End", we came to the encore, where the show was closed out with a couple of non-Poison classics like: "Your Betrayal" *(which they haven't played on this whole tour) and the classic closer: "Waking The Demon" (my favourite Bullet song ever).

Finally, it was now time for Trivium to close the night off with the Ascendancy celebration.  As "The End Of Everything" set the atmosphere, the band entered the stage and whipped the crowd into an electrifying frenzy with "Rain".  The album was presented in its original running order with the signature anthems "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr", "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation", "Like Light To The Flies" and "Dying In Your Arms", and deep cuts like "Ascendancy", "The Deceived", "Suffocating Sight", "Departure" and "Declaration".  As I mentioned above, it was really special to hear "Drowned & Torn Asunder" played live because that was my first-ever exposure to Trivium in 2006, and the only other time I heard them play it was in 2009 when I first saw them live.  A heavy moment was before "Departure", Matt Heafy mentioned how he had a rough year in 2024, and was still thinking some of the negative things that were penned down in the Ascendancy songs, and how he was in a much better place now than before.

Before this tour even began, Matt has been saying that he's been training his screaming voice to get back to the style heard on Ascendancy, but with the much safer and proper technique he has been using for the past decade since his vocal scare in 2014, and it clearly shows.  It feels like Matt stepped into his own time machine and brought back his 19-year-old self from 2005.  Alex Bent demonstrated again why he's the perfect drummer for Trivium, because his performance made me feel like I was witnessing Trivium with Travis Smith.  He played the parts note for note just like they were on the record.  With this production, Trivium have clearly taken a leaf out of Iron Maiden's book because of the changing backdrops, and an inflatable Monte (the character on the Ascendancy cover), resembling the inflatable Eddie at Maiden shows.  As "Declaration" closed out the main set, we now come to the end where we get the only non-Ascendancy song, and that was "In Waves".  Having been the band's show closer for a number of years now, it was only fitting that they close with this one.

In conclusion, the Poisoned Ascendancy Tour proved to be a huge nostalgia trip for many of us 90s and 2000s kids, getting to see two bands that have defined the 2000s metal movement and play 2 albums that have defined the metalcore subgenre as well.  It was very much akin to when I saw Megadeth and Slayer play Rust In Peace and Seasons In The Abyss in full 15 years earlier.  Two bands, two iconic albums, two anniversaries, one giant celebration.  What could be better?!

As I've mentioned many times before, Metallica were the band that turned me into a metalhead back in 2004 upon first hearing "Wherever I May Roam", so anytime they come through, I make the rule to myself to go and see them while they're still alive and kicking.  As bands of that stature reach the 40-year mark, you never know how much life could be left in them, so seeing Metallica is an opportunity that's not to be wasted.  Even just once is enough, because once they're gone, you're never going to see them again, and you'll be kicking yourself for the rest of your life that you skipped out on those opportunities.

Continuing the M72 Tour in support of 72 Seasons two years after it came out, as well as their No Repeat Weekend concept where they take over a stadium with two nights over the span of three days, with the middle day serving as a day off, and delivering two entirely different setlists with no repeats of songs over each night, and different support acts from one night to the other, and a giant in-the-round stage with the legendary snake pit in the middle, Toronto became only the third Canadian city so far to be chosen on their third round of North American dates, having already done Montreal in 2023 and Edmonton in 2024.  The main portion of tickets were to serve as 2-day passes where you get two shows for the price of one, but there was also the option for people to just attend a single night of their choosing.  They returned to the Rogers Centre for the first time since 2017 on April 24 and 26 with Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies supporting on night 1, and Limp Bizkit and Ice Nine Kills supporting on the second.  This review will only focus on the first night, because as much as I would've liked to go to both nights, I unfortunately couldn't get the time away from work for the second night, and if I may also add, I'm on a bit of a budget.

Starting off the night were Suicidal Tendencies.  I just have to say that it must always be great for Rob Trujillo to be on tour with his former band from the 90s, especially with his former bandmate Mike "Cyco Miko" Muir, as well as his son Tye, who has been playing bass with them since 2021.  This is a band that I've of course been very familiar with ever since I became a thrasher back in high school over 15 years ago.  However, something about Mike Muir as a vocalist just did not resonate with me.  His voice just never hit my sweet spot.  However, I knew about their songs and what they were called.  They definitely take the crown for the most energetic band.  At 62, Cyco Miko still runs and moves on stage like a 20-year-old punk with more fire and fury than most guys half his age.  The rest of the band, including Tye, longtime guitarist Dean Pleasants and relatively new guitarist Ben Weinman of Dillinger Escape Plan, and of course last year's newcomer on drums: Jay Weinberg (Slipknot), matched the energy levels displayed by Cyco Miko as they tore their way through classics like "You Can't Bring Me Down", "Join The Army", "Send Me Your Money"', "Freedumb", "Subliminal", and they closed with "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow".

Taking things up another notch next was Pantera, making their third appearance in Toronto as part of their celebration tour that began in 2022, and I'm lucky to have witnessed their previous two shows, which were phenomenal.  Now, they were obviously not at physically energetic as Suicidal, but the overall crunch went up quite a few notches, as expected with Pantera.  The band entered the stage and kicked it off with the vulgar (see what I did there?) one-two punch of "A New Level" and "Mouth For War", before going into the Far Beyond Driven triple shot of "Strength Beyond Strength", "Becoming" and "I'm Broken".  The middle of the set was the tribute segment for Dimebag and Vinnie Paul with "Cemetery Gates" playing with the video montage, before continuing and ending the Far Beyond portion with "5 Minutes Alone".  Phil Anselmo constantly motioned the crowd for participation with his iconic underbite mouth position and hand gestures, which Zakk Wylde, Rex Brown and Charlie Benante all delivered the goods.

The set then returned for triple shot from Vulgar Display Of Power with "This Love", "Fucking Hostile" and "Walk".  Things came to a close with the medley of the "Domination" breakdown and "Hollow", followed by "Cowboys From Hell".  The only problem for me was that, minus about three songs, the setlist was exactly the same as it was the previous two times.  I certainly hope that the next time they come through, they find some other interesting cuts to swap out with some of the other's they've been playing this entire time.  I totally understand that when you're opening for Metallica, you gotta focus more on the well-known stuff anyway, but I'm just saying that it would be nice to hear them bring some cuts like "Primal Concrete Sledge", "Drag The Waters", "Rise", "Slaughtered" and even the full version of "Domination" on a future headline run.  Plus, change up the running order of the songs.

It was now time for the moment Torontonians have been waiting for since 2017, and that is the return of the kings: Metallica.  As per tradition, "It's A Long Way To The Top" gave the crowd the warning that showtime was imminent, and the iconic, goosebump-inducing intro of "Ecstacy Of Gold" set the atmosphere for the legendary tunes we were about to get treated to, which started off the immense one-two punch of "Creeping Death" and "Harvester Of Sorrow".  Given that they're doing no repeat songs over the 2-night stint, it gave the opportunity to introduce a few more deep cuts than per usual, while still holding the mandatory ones in their proper places in the setlist.  As James Hetfield used his god-like voice and stature to welcome everyone to the show, they launched into a favourite from the Load era with "King Nothing", which was a nice surprise. 

Speaking of surprises, the setlist contained quite a few from different eras, like "Holier Than Thou", "The Day That Never Comes" and "Orion".  They dedicated the latter to Cliff Burton, which gave everyone chills.  I personally thought that they should've put a picture of Cliff on the screens during that song.  However, the biggest surprise for me personally was when they launched into "Fight Fire With Fire".  Since they're touring behind 72 Seasons, they threw in a handful of cuts from that album, including the title track, "If Darkness Had A Son" and "Shadows Follow".  One element that's become tradition now is a doodle between Kirk Hammett and Rob Trujillo in the middle of the set.  When it comes to the setlist staples, we were treated to "Nothing Else Matters", "Sad But True", "Fuel", "Seek & Destroy" and to no one's surprise, the grand finale was "Master Of Puppets".  Personally, I was also glad to have attended the first night because I didn't have to hear "Enter Sandman" because I'm honestly so sick of that song.

In terms of sound, given that the Rogers Centre is giant, it didn't come as a surprise that the sound was a bit on the echoey side, and Lars Ulrich's drums lacked punch.  However, it also depends on where in the venue you're sitting because that also plays a big factor into one's perception of the sound.  Either way, Metallica delivered the goods once again with a setlist that made both casuals and die-hards fully satisfied.  Now, if they could only live up to the challenge of not ignoring Toronto for another 8 years.

​The attempt was first made back in 2020 for a 20th anniversary, but it was called off due to a little something called Covid.  This tour made a stop in Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena on a rather cold Monday night on April 7, along with special guests Daughtry and Nothing More.  I just quickly have to mention that for me personally, it was a special moment finally getting to see Disturbed after being a fan for 20 years since Ten Thousand Fists came out, because I never got to see them live until now, and I got to hear songs that were a huge part of the soundtrack to my life between 2005-2008 when I was 13-16 years old.

Getting into the festivities, Nothing More kicked off the night with a solid half-an-hour of high octane hard rock.  The arena was still in the process of people coming in, so the crowd was still pretty sparse by the time that it was showtime.  Even though Nothing More have been getting a high profile in the last few years, they've been a band that has largely gone under my radar, but the only song I was aware of was "Mr. MTV".  However, I was aware of the highly energetic live show that they put on.  Frontman Jonny Hawkins was a fireball on stage, and they even had David Draiman of Disturbed come out and guest with them on "Angel's Song", which he recorded a guest vocal on.  It's not often that at a show, a member of the headlining band comes and joins the special guest on stage, so it was rather cool to see that kind of moment.

​It was now time to get down with the sickness with Disturbed.  A little video montage showcasing the history of the band while going back in time to the beginning played as the band entered the stage.  In celebrating the classic era, they brought back David Draiman's classic Hannibal Lecter entrance where he's wheeled out on a dolly while in a straitjacket and the facial restraint before launching into "Voices".  Running through the setlist in tracklist order, we were treated to the classic cuts like "The Game", "Stupify" and that little song everyone seems to know called "Down With The Sickness".  At the same time, we got treated to all the deep cuts, many of which have only been played on rare occasions over the years like "Fear", "Want", "Droppin' Plates" and "Meaning Of Life", as well as cuts that haven't been played in between over a decade to over 20 years like "Numb", "Conflict" and their Tears For Fears cover of "Shout".  It was during the end of the Sickness set that they had a mock electric chair execution of David, and the whole band performed in prison suits.

After a 20-minute intermission, it was now time for the Greatest Hits set.  Starting off with the brand new single "I Will Not Break", they then launched into a nice selection of post-Sickness hits like "Ten Thousand Fists", "Bad Man", "Indestructible", and their famous covers of "Land Of Confusion" and "The Sound Of Silence".  Something else Disturbed has become famous for is inviting young fans and sometimes even their parents to join them on stage for a song, and they did just that before going into "The Light".  While bringing up a young 10-year-old fan named Gavin, and his dad named Sy, David launched into an inspiring speech about unity and empowerment before launching into "The Light".  It was during the chorus of this song that he asked the audience to raise up their lighters and phones to light up the room.  The show was also filled with pyro as well, but it was during "Inside The Fire", which closed the show where they unleashed it all.  There were no concussion blasts though.

In conclusion, it was a fun-filled nostalgia trip at Scotiabank Arena with Disturbed.  This tour will be running through the U.S until May, and then later this fall, the tour will head to Europe with Megadeth supporting, so go and relive the 2000s by celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Sickness, one of the most iconic debut albums of the 21st century.

It's common knowledge that Mondays are not the best day to go out for a metal show, but of course it depends on what show it is.  That being said, when you have a bill like the Vortex Of Violence Tour, which features co-headliners Warbringer and Allegaeon and special guests Skeletal Remains and Summoning The Lich, which steamrolled through Toronto on March 31 at the Garrison, you go to that show, and for a Monday night, the amount of people that showed up and the energy levels that were flying throughout the crowd and the bands made it feel like a Friday/Saturday.

Summoning The Lich started the night off with some death metal.  The venue was nearly full by the time they hit the stage.  You know you pump out some serious energy when in the middle of the song, the kick pedals break, so a small intermission took place while they fixed the problem, and they picked the song up right back where they left off.  Skeletal Remains continued that brutality next.  The difference was they were missing vocalist/guitarist Chris Monroy, so they treated the crowd to some instrumental death metal.  Drummer Ruston Grosse handled the interacting with the crowd.  I would say of the three death metal bands, they had the best sound.  Musically, both support bands bought the brutality and good musicianship, but there was nothing groundbreaking or original about their sound, so to me, their music felt very run-of-the-mill and nothing really stood out.  However, they both brought a great start to the night with death metal.

Continuing the insanity was Allegaeon, who are celebrating the release of their new record The Ossuary Lens.  Since the last and only time I saw the band back in 2015, Riley McShane was fronting the band as a fill-in before he officially joined the band a month after I saw them.  Now, they are back with original vocalist Ezra Haynes, as well as Brandon Michael on bass and Jeff Saltzman on drums.  You can tell that the band, especially Ezra, are dedicated to performing because of the amount of sweat they exuded for the hour they were on stage.  They were definitely a more progressive band than the others, and they brought the low-tuned weapons with 8-string guitars.  Ezra also had no problem whipping the crowd up into a moshing frenzy.

Finishing off the night was Warbringer, who are celebrating the release of their seventh album Wrath & Ruin.  They were also another band that had differences in the lineup for this tour, but the strange part is that it wasn't announced in advance.  Drummer Carlos Cruz and lead guitarist Chase Becker were both absent, and I know that Carlos is now playing with a bunch of other bands including Power Trip and Nails.  I certainly hope that we see Carlos behind the kit for Warbringer again sometime soon when schedules permit.  Filling in for him is Blake Anderson, formerly of Vektor.  Chase on the other hand was absent for undisclosed reasons, but filling in for him is Luke Man.  Of course, we hope all is well.

Given that the band is touring in support of Wrath & Ruin, we were treated to new tracks like "A Better World", "The Sword & The Cross" and "Through A Glass, Darkly", as well as tracks from Weapons Of Tomorrow like "The Black Hand Reaches Out", "Crushed Beneath The Tracks" and "Firepower Kills".  Of course, it wouldn't be a Warbringer show without the usual favourites like "Remain Violent", "Woe To The Vanquished", "Severed Reality" and "Hunter-Seeker".  When they came back for the encore, they gave the crowd two choices of songs to play, which were "Living Weapon" and "Total War".  The response seemed to be split down the middle, but the choice was clearly decided beforehand, and the winner was "Total War", a song I haven't heard them play since I first saw them back in 2011.  The slight issue from the crowd was that the stage divers had very short-lived crowd surfing experiences, as the people that caught them at the front seemed to all drop them after 2 seconds.  John Kevill even dove into the crowd on a couple of occasions, all while trying to hang on to the lighting truss from the ceiling.  What a night with some of the vicious names in modern thrash and death metal!

​This marked my fourth time seeing Exodus, but first time seeing them headline, so needless to say, I was damn excited to finally see that.  The tour was in support of their newly released live album British Disaster, recorded in 1989 in London, and the tour featured support from Havok, Candy and Dead Heat.  The monster tour steamrolled through Toronto on November 19 at the Phoenix Concert Theatre.  Now, I have not been to the Phoenix since the Sabaton/Kreator tour in March 2018, which is insane, and was sadly marked for closure in January 2025 to make way for more condos (no need).  As a result, I honestly thought this would've been the last show I would ever get to see at the Phoenix.  However, an agreement was reached for it to stay open until 2026, but now I'm hearing that the owners are fighting to have it stay permamently, which we definitely hope so, but I digress.

Getting into the festivities, Dead Heat kicked things off with a rather energetic dose of thrash that contained a crossover vibe.  They definitely sound like a band you could see fitting on a bill with bands like Municipal Waste, Suicidal Tendencies, Iron Reagan or D.R.I.  They got the pit going, but given that the venue was still filling up when they hit the stage, crowd participation was a bit on the minimal side, which is usually expected with the first band, and the sound quality, which wasn't all the band's fault, played a role in their set not being as enticing as expected.  Candy took the stage next, bringing more of a hardcore/deathcore vibe.  With a name like Candy on a thrash-infused bill, I didn't know what to expect.  While definitely a nice break from the thrash-packed mayhem, they confused me a couple of times.  While it turns out that they were playing to tracks, I thought at first that the sound guy forgot to turn off the intermission music from the changeover, and also causing me to think that the band were facing some technical difficulties on stage that bought into their time, but I then came to realize that it was all part of the set.  In all honesty, their music didn't really do much to entice me, nor much of the crowd.  Their music lacked dynamics and was just heavy all the way through, even if the only dynamic was fast and slow.​

Some of the other nice surprises they pulled out for this tour include "And Then There Were None", "Fabulous Disaster", "Metal Command", and they even started revisiting Pleasures Of The Flesh recently with "Brain Dead".  At the same time, it wouldn't be an Exodus show without the setlist staples like "Blacklist", "War Is My Shepherd", "Toxic Waltz" and the classic closer "Strike Of The Beast".  I must say that I was rather surprised that they omitted "Bonded By Blood", because that's their signature song.  However, in talking with Zetro after the show, he mentioned that they did it because they played it so much and they omitted it in favour of some other songs.  Now that's a move that I applaud, because most bands can't get away without playing their hits/signature songs, but if Iron Maiden can get away with not playing "Run To The Hills" for a tour, Exodus can get away with not playing "Bonded By Blood".  If I could make one small suggestion to the band, that would be to switch up the ending of the set, because they've been closing with "Toxic Waltz" and "Strike Of The Beast" in that order for well over a decade now, and it's gotten pretty predictable.  Keep those songs in, but put them somewhere else in the set for a change.  With all that being said, The Battle Of '24 featured as a great culmination to what has been another fantastic year of shows, and we look forward to what '25 has in store!