Written by Alex Stojanovic
Photography by Rob Botten

(C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com

SLAYER, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX, BEHEMOTH & TESTAMENT
@ Budweiser Stage
Toronto, ON, Canada
May 29, 2018

Presented by Live Nation

Back in January, Slayer raised everyone's eyebrows when they announced that 2018 and 2019 will be the years they will be saying farewell to the world with one final global tour.  For a lot of us, we knew this day was coming.  Before we get into the festivities, there's something I wanted to get off my chest.  I always pride myself on honesty, but don't take this as disrespect towards Slayer because first of all I'm a fan, and  secondly, I'm not a person to show disrespect to a band.  Doesn't matter if I'm a fan or not.  If I have criticisms, I'll address them, but not in a disrespectful way.

Written and photographed by Rob Botten

(C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com


SATYRICON w/ GOATWHORE
​PANZERFAUST & BLOOD OF CHRIST
@ Opera House
Toronto, ON, Canada
May 23, 2018


Presented by Inertia Entertainment

It was a warm spring evening on Wednesday May 23, when four bands took to the stage at the Opera House in Toronto for a night of dark and heavy death and black metal.  Satyricon headlined the show, a band I have been itching to see live since I first started listening to them over twelve years ago when teenage me was first discovering black metal. 

The night was enough to satisfy any metal fan with three awesome supporting sets from special guests Blood Of Christ, Panzerfaust, and Goatwhore, accompanied by Satyricon’s long and powerful performance.  As the night drew on, the energy seemed to continuously build as fans rocked and moshed harder and harder with each song that played.  It would turn out to be a night to remember with each band playing as well as the other.

​​Arriving at the Opera House less than fifteen minutes before the first set, I was surprised to see how empty the venue was right before the show was about the start, an unusual sight in comparison to the majority of shows I’ve attended over the last year.  The venue did however continuously fill up as the night went on.  For those that did arrive to the concert hall for the first set were treated to an energetic, powerful and heavy performance from London Ontario’s own Blood Of Christ.  This four piece band played brutally hard and fast from start to finish with vocalist Chris Gooding showing off his vocal skills while moving all around the stage and punching the air.

With the venue really starting to fill up now, concert-goers were all excited and cheering for the second set to start.  Local heavyweights Panzerfaust took to the stage with an eruption of cheers from the crowd.  This is the second time I have had the privilege of seeing these guys live, and I have to say their set was once again beyond awesome.  Their set had tall iron candle stands that were burning three candles each and at the Panzerfaust podium was vocalist Goliath in his grim-reaper/undertaker costume with a noose around his neck that was hanging from the rafters.  Bassist Morbid and guitarist Kaizer were in mud covered black metal concert attire with drummer Lord Baphomet dead center of the stage. 

​Their dark brutal sound in combination with their set up is enough to make any fan of black metal have hairs stand on end from excitement.  At the end of the set, Goliath then “hung” himself from the noose as Kaizer and Morbid knelt down with their instruments on their shoulders.  I am very excited to see where their musical journey will take them in the coming years and I hope that one day, they will be the headliners of many shows to come.
 
Goatwhore were up on stage for the third set with the concert hall now nearly at capacity and many excited fans ready to see this group live.  Their set was played hard and fast going from song to song, with only little pauses for a few words here and there between songs.  Larger than life vocalist Louis Benjamin Falgoust II owned the stage with his deep and powerful vocals while he moved all over the stage space, rocking out with his air guitar moves.  One of my favourite parts of seeing Goatwhore live is watching their bassist Robert Coleman destroy each song and note with his uniquely awesome stage moves.  Coleman could almost be a definition of brutal guitar stance.  If this band can’t get you pumped up live, I honestly don’t know what will.

Satyricon entered the stage fast and without a big grandiose intro, with Satyr yelling “COME ON!” as they jumped right into the first song "Midnight Serpent" from the latest album Deep Calleth Upon Deep.  This group of black metal veterans put on a long and awesomely brutal set consisting of seventeen songs, with highlights such as “Mother North" from Dark Medieval Times, “Fuel For Hatred” from Valcano, "Black Crow On A Tombstone" from Age Of Nero, along with favourites from Nemisis Divina and Volcano.  Keeping things simple, their set did not have a fancy light show or stage props aside from Satyr’s “Satyricon” devil horn mic stand.  This set was purely about the music and was executed perfectly.  Satyr used his mic stand to help rock out to some songs and he jumped into playing his guitar for a number of their more classic songs as well.  Keeping things simple sometimes works for the better and for Satyricon’s it did just that.  Their long set went by very quickly and I honestly do not think the mosh ever really stopped aside from breaks between songs.  To end the night, the last song played was all time fan favourite “K.I.N.G.” with the biggest and most brutal mosh pit of the night, and likely that I have seen in a long time.

Two words an only describe this concert; absolutely awesome.  All bands played each song all out in typically brutal dark/death/black metal fashion.  I have to give a huge shout out to Noel Peters from Inertia Entertainment for consistently putting on killer concert after killer concert.  There isn’t a show he puts on where fans don’t get their money’s worth and this show was no exception.​

Written and photographed by Xavier Cattarinich
(Ravenkin Photography)

(C) 2018 All rights reserved by www.metalmasterkingdom.com


SIRENIA w/ THREAT SIGNAL, VALINOR EXCELSIOR, DIRE PERIL and HEYOKA'S MIRROR


@ Dickens Pub
Calgary, AB, Canada
April 20, 2018


Presented by Annihilatrix Productions

​On April 20, Norwegian gothic metal outfit Sirenia played Dickens Pub in Calgary. I had long looked forward to seeing them perform live, as I credit Sirenia’s first two albums, At Sixes & Sevens (2002) and An Elixir For Existence (2004)—along with Therion’s Secret Of The Runes (2001), Tristania’s Beyond The Veil (1999), and Tiamat’s Skeleton Skeletron (1999)—for rejuvenating my waning passion for metal during the late nineties and early two thousands.  I was also thrilled to see them bring an international line-up on tour with them, including guests from the U.S. (Dire Peril), Canada (Threat Signal), and as far away as Colombia (Valinor Excelsior), while likewise making room on the bill for a local opening act (Heyoka’s Mirror). The show promised to be a delight for fans of melodic metal.

Last seen performing as contenders during Wacken Metal Battle Calgary in February 2018, Heyoka’s Mirror had vocalist Andrew Balboa exclusively at the keyboard this time around, leaving all guitar duties to Omar Sultan.  Undaunted by the sparse early evening crowd that largely kept their distance from the stage, the lads gave it their all and encouraged the audience to put their hands together as they launched into “Face Of Void” from their debut EP, Loss Of Contact With Reality (2017).  Bad luck hit early on as Sultan broke a string right out the gate, but the band played on and recovered swiftly.  Heyoka's Mirror also gave spectators a taste of what’s to come on their first full length album, tentatively scheduled for release in 2019, when they performed their second and final song of the night, “Celebration Of Life.” Given the length of HM’s complex, meandering compositions, two songs unfortunately is all you get when they have the opening slot.  I caught hints of Dream Theater, Rush, Orphaned Land, and System Of A Down while listening to them.

Performing their very first show on this tour, Sacramento’s Dire Peril took the stage next.  The brainchild of axe master Jason Ashcraft, DP upped the speed and energy with their sci-fi influenced power metal.  Lead vocalist John Yelland, the only other permanent member in the band aside from Ashcraft, belted out the songs with a range, tone, and dramatic flair that called to mind ex-Queensrÿche frontman Geoff Tate and Midnight of Crimson Glory fame.  Former Solborn vocalist Karli Romyn made the 300km trek down from Edmonton to join DP on stage for “Queen Of The Galaxy.”  Her confidence and top notch performance made it seem as though she had been a longtime member of the band.  Yet for all the energy and talent the group displayed, a more unified “sci-fi look” would have taken their show to the next level.​

​Hailing from Tunja, Colombia, Valinor Excelsior kept the audience on the power metal train.  Although their Facebook page lists six members, they performed as a quartet sans bassist and keyboardist on this tour, their first in North America.  The guys looked like they were having the time of their life in spite of a restrained audience, which probably seemed fairly dull by Latin American standards.  The blistering melodic leads provided by guitarists Fernando Moreno and Carlos Mendoza—in addition to vocalist Jhonny Velazco’s predilection for channeling Rob Halford—firmly situated the band between Helloween and Judas Priest.  Though caricature-like at times (and isn’t Halford himself a caricature?), Valinor Excelsior were a pleasure to behold.

Hamilton’s Threat Signal evidently drew many of their own supporters to the event.  The previously timid crowd thickened its ranks and closed in on the stage, and it didn’t take long for some serious moshing to break out.  Lead vocalist and sole remaining original member Jon Howard was on fire, his explosive performance manifesting the pent-up aggression bottled up from being sidelined for six years.  Fortunately, the rest of the band projected the same level of intensity.  While touring in support of Disconnect (2017)—their fourth album but first to be released since 2011—the guys also reached back into their grab bag to play older fan favourites, including breakthrough single “Rational Eyes” from their debut recording Under Reprisal (2006).  If groove-laden metalcore with big uplifting choruses is your thing, then Threat Signal delivered in spades.  Like Dire Peril, Threat Signal also took advantage of their local connections, inviting stab.twist.pull vocalist Big James Arsenian to contribute to the action.

Instrumental track “Seti” from The Seventh Life Path blared over the P.A. to announce the impending arrival of headliners Sirenia, who then dove into “Goddess Of The Sea” from their latest record, Dim Days Of Dolor (2016).  New lead singer Emmanuelle Zoldan—who had previously been a member of the Sirenian choir going all the way back to the band’s earliest days—came through crisp, clear and flawless in her vocal delivery.  Although I must confess to having been less than captivated by the band’s more mainstream post-Sirenian Shores (2004) output, the rhythm section led by guitarist, main composer, and sole original member Morten Veland had sufficient power in a live environment to please those with a preference for edgier music—even in the absence of a bassist.  If, like me, you had come hoping to hear them play as many songs from their earlier days as from newer releases, then you were out of luck. 

​The only pre-Nine Destinies & A Downfall (2007) number they performed was “Meridian,” from At Sixes & Sevens (2002).  Given that they were on a Canadian tour, I also half-expected them to spring their cover of Leonard Cohen’s “First We Take Manhattan” as an encore, but alas, that honour went to “My Mind’s Eye” and “The Other Side.”  Still, I can’t fault a band for moving on and emphasizing their most recent work if that’s where their heart now lies.  Sirenia’s reliance on sequenced electronic passages and pre-recorded choral arrangements precluded any live experimentation and spontaneity, so although they played a tight set, they offered no surprises or otherwise awe-inspiring moments.  In the end, the devout got what they came for.