Uncompromising, relentless, and savage death metal filled the Civic Music Hall in Toledo as Cannibal Corpse feasted on the living and the dead with Hate Eternal and Harm’s Way.
The calendar might say it is Wednesday, but it feels like a Friday funday at Civic Music Hall in Toledo. The crowd is cranked up like a tweaker ripped out its mind on bath salts in anticipation of an epic death fest with the legendary Cannibal Corpse. The band has been waging a war of brutality in support of ‘Red Before Black’ which was release back in 2017. This tour packs a serious punch with supporting bands Hate Eternal and Harm’s Way.
Whipping the crowd up into a fury is Hate Unbound. The Detroit band held their own on this stacked line-up with a face melting set of technical death thrash. They included a couple of punishing songs from their ‘Plague’ album. Hinting at things to come, the band is polishing up newer material that incorporates neck wrenching beats and hammering riffs. Word has it that the band is heading into the studio to wrap up a new album for 2019.
Taking a different approach in musical brutality was Harm’s Way. The Chicago band blends hardcore with death and industrial elements to produce a mutation of devastation. Harm’s Way set featured a couple tunes of their new album ‘Posthuman’ which scared the shit out of me. I’ve seen intimidating bands, but Harm’s Way takes the cake. During their performance you could swear they wanted to rip everyone’s head off and shit down their throat.
Hate Eternal wasted no time in unleashing hell on stage. Their set was a firestorm of pyrotechnical death. Hate Eternal are easily the most devastating three piece in metal. Watching them play was like witness a nuclear detonation. Ripping and tearing into each song like wolves on a fresh kill, their performance shined when they dug into choice cuts from their new album ‘Upon Desolate Sands’. The songs “What Lies Beyond” and “Upon Desolate Sands” sounded monstrous live.
Fans pressed up against the barricade and erupted with a roar as Cannibal Corpse arrived on the stage. Underneath dead cold blue and blood red lights, the mosh pit seethed to “Code of the Slashers” off the latest album ‘Red Before Black’.
Cudos to the sound guy as Cannibal Corpse sounded feral and commanding. The drums of Paul Mazurkiewicz and bass of Alex Webster smashed like a jack-hammer as the guitars of Pat O’Brien and Rob Barrett ripped like hot chainsaws through freshly hewn limbs. At the center of this cyclone of death metal was George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher. His balrog roar and patented spinning head propelled the band through “Kill Or Become” and classics “Staring Through The Eyes of the Dead” and “Gutted”. If we could find a way to harness the power of George’s head spinning, we could power whole cities. The entire band was unstoppable as they hammered out song after song with barely a break.
Cannibal Corpse’s performance at the Civic Music Hall in Toledo painted blood-soaked vignettes of horror through the madness of death metal. The mosh pit churned in violence as the band pummeled the crowd with one pulverizing song after another. The legendary Cannibal Corpse never fails to deliver an outstanding show and this was no exception.
Also check out out photo gallery of the show here!