Union Hall
February 13th, 2015
Braving the freezing rain before doors opened on this miserable evening turned out to be a good choice. Perhaps the only way to guarantee a decent spot inside the Union is to arrive early and find a vantage point quickly. It seems like several people missed the first two bands, stuck outside waiting to get through the doors.
Tribulation, a ‘progressive’ death metal band from Sweden, started the evening. Sampling their albums beforehand, I was impressed with ‘The Horror’. ‘The Formulas of Death’ was not as much to my liking, providing more of a doom-metal feel, which I am personally not a big fan of. I was however looking forward to seeing Tribulation live. The audience at this point was quite small, and reaction to the band seemed mixed. I enjoyed some of the setlist, but found that some of the instrumental parts dragged on a little bit too long to be effective live.
Aeon, also from Sweden, proved to be the big surprise of the night. Perhaps their set was surprisingly excellent due to the fact that I had never listened to the band previously, but I did find it to be thoroughly enjoyable. Fast and heavy, Aeon managed to re-energize the crowd.
Cannibal Corpse came on stage to an almost-packed house, blasting their way through new and older material. I fully expected Cannibal Corpse to be excellent, and they did not disappoint. “Kill or Become”, from ‘A Skeletal Domain’, turned out to be a solid choice to play live. Corpsegrinder wins an award for the most intense windmill head banging I’ve ever witnessed live (as well as the most drinks I’ve seen consumed within the span of a few minutes when I bumped into him at the bar). Both “I Cum Blood” and “Hammer Smashed Face” from ‘Tomb Of The Mutilated’ were big highlights, but ‘Tomb Of The Mutilated’ is perhaps the Cannibal Corpse album that I am most familiar with. Either way, I was expecting a set of pure death metal fury and it was definitely delivered.
While I think that Behemoth puts on a very well executed show, I have seen Behemoth live so many times that they were not the highlight of the evening. I spent a portion of Behemoth’s set attempting to wander around a completely packed (and apparently sold-out) venue. Jumping in the pit for a while seemed like a great idea until I realized I had probably drank enough beer to make it a not-so-great idea. Needless to say, I didn’t actually pay that much attention to Behemoth and thus it would be unfair to write much of a review of their set.
Overall, in spite of a venue that is really not set up to host these kind of events, I have to admit that I will likely be looking further into Aeon’s material, will probably forget about Tribulation, and that I am quite pleased to have finally caught Cannibal Corpse live.
