 | Written by Alex Stojanovic VORTEX OF VIOLENCE TOUR 2025 Warbringer / Allegaeon Skeletal Remains / Summoning The Lich @ Garrison Toronto, ON, Canada March 31, 2025 Presented by Inertia Entertainment Watch our interview with John Kevill HERE |
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!
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!
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