Exmortus kicked off the night's festivities with one shredding set. I have seen Exmortus three times now and they always deliver a killer set. They're currently promoting their new album Ride Forth which just came out. Some songs that the band performed included "Moonlight Sonata", "Hymn Of Hate", "For The Horde" and "Metal Is King", which they closed their set with. Frontman Jadran "Conan" Gonzales and fellow guitarist David Riviera are a solid guitar team with shredding solos, great twin leads and their famous guitar swap trick. I will definitely be seeing Exmortus more times in the future! Next up were thrash titans Warbringer. It was my second time seeing them after I saw them first 5 years ago on a headline tour! After a period of adversity for the band with a few lineup changes, the band have assembled a solid touring lineup with drummer Carlos Cruz returning to the band as an official member, and Conan from Exmortus filling in on second guitar, and pulling double-duty on the tour, and Jesse Sanchez, formerly of Bonded By Blood and Fear Factory filling in on bass. With this touring lineup, the band delivered one aggressive and tight performance. The band gave an explosive start to their set with "Total War" and ripping through several other fan favourites and pit-starting ragers. Songs that followed were "Severed Reality", "Scars Remain" and "Future Ages Gone". The IV: Empires Collapse album was the primary focus of the set with 4 songs from the album being featured in the set. Those being "Scars Remain", "Hunter-Seeker", "The Turning Of The Gears" and "Towers Of The Serpent". Other songs the band touched on included "Jackal" and "Demonic Ecstacy". During the encore, we were treated to "Living Weapon", "Living In A Whirlwind", where John Kevill asked for a giant mosh pit, and they closed the set with "Combat Shock". | Journalist and photographer: Alex Stojanovic Photo Edit: Navneet Johal The new year has just started and so has the year's concert season. A crowd of devoted metalheads packed the Hard Luck on a chilly Wednesday night in January to see a great bill of bands. The bill was a co-headliner between Enforcer and Warbringer with support from Cauldron and Exmortus. I was feeling under the weather that night, so I wasn't able to be as active as I usually am with moshing or headbanging, but I felt well enough to go out to the show and it was a great night. I also did a video interview with Warbringer frontman John Kevill, which went really well. Up next were our homeboys in Cauldron, who delivered a slightly more melodic and catchier set. Everything from the instruments and the sound was old-school. Frontman Jason Decay played a Rickenbacker bass, while guitarist Ian Chains played a traditional Gibson V guitar and drummer Myles Deck's kit looked and sounded very old-school. Songs that were performed included "Burning At Both Ends", "Empress", "Nitebreaker", "Queen Of Fire" and "Burning Fortune" to name a few. A great set overall. Closing off the night was Enforcer, with their first ever show in Toronto! If there is any band from the last 10 years or so that is a direct throwback to 80s metal, it's Enforcer. Everything from their sound and look just screams 80s. Even their albums have a very 80s production. The band started their set with "Destroyer" and "Undying Evil". Frontman Olaf Wikstrand really knows how to work a crowd as he announced to the crowd that they weren't here to be mellow, they came to crush our skulls and break our necks. Other songs the band performed included "Live For The Night", "From Beyond", "Scream Of The Savage" and "Mask Of Red Death". Crowd participation was very high with constant mosh pits and pounding fists. The encore consisted of the songs "Katana", "Take Me Out Of This Nightmare" and the set was ended with "Midnight Vice". All in all, a great ending to a great night of metal! |
EXMORTUS Jadran "Conan" Gonzales - Vocals & guitars David Riviera - Guitars Mario Moreno - Drums Michael Cosio - Bass Label: Prosthetic Records www.exmortusmusic.com | CAULDRON Jason Decay - Vocals & bass Ian Chains - Guitars Myles Deck - Drums Label: The End Records www.cauldronmetal.com | WARBRINGER John Kevill - Vocals Adam Carroll - Guitars Carlos Cruz - Drums Jessie Sanchez - Bass (Filling in)Jadran "Conan" Gonzales - Guitars (Filling in) Label: Century Media Records www.warbringermusic.com | ENFORCER Olaf Wikstrand - Lead vocals & guitars Jonas Wikstrand - Drums Joseph Tholl - Guitars Tobias Lindkvist - Bass Label: Nuclear Blast Records www.enforcer.se |