 | Written by Alex Stojanovic Photography by Rob Singh MACHINE HEAD w/ Fear Factory / Orbit Culture / Gates To Hell @ History Toronto, ON, Canada February 5, 2024 Presented by Embrace Events |
* We do not have pics of GATES TO HELL. Our apologies
The 2024 concert season is well underway. Although 2023 was a bit slow in terms of shows, here's to hoping that we can make this year a more busier one with show coverages. The first show that we at Metal Master Kingdom had the opportunity to cover for this year was the Slaughter The Martour, headlined by Machine Head, and with Fear Factory, Orbit Culture and Gates To Hell serving as special guests. Now, it's worth noting that Machine Head have stayed with the "An Evening With..." format for the last 10 years, and not having any opening acts, and put festival appearances on the back burner. However, when touring for their latest album Of Kingdom & Crown started, they started coming back around to being on packaged tours with other bands and appearing at festivals. Not sure what the reasoning was for finally coming back around. Maybe it could be that playing for purely 3+ hours a night might be starting to take a bit of a toll on Robb Flynn at his age, but I could be wrong.
The current tour is running across North America, with multiple stops in all the Canadian major cities, with a stop in Toronto at History on February 5 being placed at the halfway point of the trek. Now, we all know the story about how Monday nights are usually not normally a day to go out for a metal show, but when a show like this steamrolls through town, it doesn't matter if it's a Monday, because with the amount of people that showed up and the energy the crowd displayed made it feel like a Saturday. Initially, the show was supposed to happen at the Opera House, which I thought was an odd choice given that Machine Head can easily fill the Phoenix or even Rebel. However, to pretty much no one's surprise, due to demand, the show was upgraded to History not long after the tour announcement.
Starting the evening off was Gates To Hell. Stylistically, their sound was a bit more in the deathcore side, which honestly isn't really my cup of tea that much. I found that their songs really mirrored each other with hardly any dynamics and it was hard to tell songs apart. Their songs were also really short, with their longest song being just under 3 minutes, and all the rest being around the 1.5-2.5 minute mark. To me, they felt like a deathcore version of Napalm Death with the short songs. With all that being said, I personally found their set to be rather average and not all that captivating. I will give them an A for effort and for displaying enthusiasm and energy, but musically, there was nothing appealing.
The current tour is running across North America, with multiple stops in all the Canadian major cities, with a stop in Toronto at History on February 5 being placed at the halfway point of the trek. Now, we all know the story about how Monday nights are usually not normally a day to go out for a metal show, but when a show like this steamrolls through town, it doesn't matter if it's a Monday, because with the amount of people that showed up and the energy the crowd displayed made it feel like a Saturday. Initially, the show was supposed to happen at the Opera House, which I thought was an odd choice given that Machine Head can easily fill the Phoenix or even Rebel. However, to pretty much no one's surprise, due to demand, the show was upgraded to History not long after the tour announcement.
Starting the evening off was Gates To Hell. Stylistically, their sound was a bit more in the deathcore side, which honestly isn't really my cup of tea that much. I found that their songs really mirrored each other with hardly any dynamics and it was hard to tell songs apart. Their songs were also really short, with their longest song being just under 3 minutes, and all the rest being around the 1.5-2.5 minute mark. To me, they felt like a deathcore version of Napalm Death with the short songs. With all that being said, I personally found their set to be rather average and not all that captivating. I will give them an A for effort and for displaying enthusiasm and energy, but musically, there was nothing appealing.
| Next up, hailing from Sweden, was Orbit Culture. Despite having been around for a decade, these guys have been getting a bit of a high profile over the last year, and have been getting on some pretty prominent metal tours over the last year. I haven't had the opportunity to listen to their stuff ahead of the show, because I wanted to be surprised for when I saw them live, and I will say that I definitely was surprised. Their sound is very much in the vein of the Gothenburg sound, where you can hear hints of The Haunted, Dark Tranquillity and Soilwork. The mix of the screaming and clean vocals from Niklas Karlsson is a mix that's always ear candy to me. A comedic, yet ballsy move was when the band called the Toronto crowd the biggest one of the tour at the moment, but yet the weakest, which I honestly attested to a bit, because the crowd was a bit on the reserved side at first, which might not be that much of a surprise because it was a Monday, but they managed to turn that around and whipped the crowd into a frenzy right after. Overall, a great first impression of Orbit Culture for me, and I definitely look forward to checking out some more from them and seeing them again in the future. | ORBIT CULTURE Photo credit: Rob Singh / (C) 2024 MetalMasterKingdom.com |
| FEAR FACTORY Photo credit: Rob Singh / (C) 2024 MetalMasterKingdom.com MACHINE HEAD Photo credit: Rob Singh / (C) 2024 MetalMasterKingdom.com | Now it was time for the legends to take the stage, and Fear Factory kicked that portion of the show off. It was the first time I ever got to witness Fear Factory live, and even though I never got to see them with Burton C. Bell on vocals, Dino Cazares is still there, who is pretty much the heart and soul of the band. At the same time, new vocalist Milo Silvestro really did Burton's parts justice and was a great frontman. The current lineup was rounded out by touring bassist Javier Arriaga, and Pete Webber of Havok on drums. The band teared their way through a bunch of songs from all eras, like "Disruptor", "Fuel Injected Suicide Machine" and "Powershifter" from the recent years, as well as classics like "Demanufacture", "Replica", "Edgecrusher", "Shock", "Slave Labor" and "Linchpin". Dino also brought out his comedic side by saying that he speaks for all the "fat" men in the room. Finally, it was time for Machine Head to take over the stage! Keeping up with the tradition of warming up the crowd with "Diary Of A Madman", the lights went out during the outro chant, and the set kicked off with "Imperium". First thing that was noticable was that Vogg was not present on the tour due to his commitments with Decapitated, and later confirmed his departure from the band, so filling in for him was Reece Scruggs from Havok. On a side note, two members of Havok were on the tour, but in separate bands. Robb Flynn and company were in top form, tearing their way through current tracks from Of Kingdom & Crown like "Choke On The Ashes Of Your Hate", "No Gods, No Masters" and "Slaughter The Martyr", as well as a bunch of classics like "Aesthetics Of Hate", "Old", "Locust", "From This Day", "Bulldozer" and "Ten Ton Hammer". Having missed the current Machine Head lineup the last time they were here on the Burn My Eyes 25th Anniversary Tour right on the eve of the nonsense of Covid, the current lineup is just as dominant as it was when Phil Demmel and Dave McClain were in the band. Of course, Jared MacEachern, who has been with the band since 2013 is such a force to be reckoned with on both bass and backing vocals. Robb even took the time to reminisce with the crowd his memories of Toronto going back to when they first played here at the Opera House with Napalm Death, and when they were invited to play on MuchMusic (back when MuchMusic was good). Of course, it would not be a Machine Head show if they didn't play two of their biggest songs of all time, which they saved for last; those being "Davidian" and "Halo", thus bringing their set to a climax. |
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