Some bands deliver poetic love songs to their fans, others prefer a political mindset. Hell, some bands just want the good old “Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll,” but there are other bands which are simply not for the faint of heart and thrive on warping your fragile little mind. When it comes to bands like Tampa Florida’s Cannibal Corpse and Norwegian Black Metal legends Mayhem, they are definitely not here to offer you a song of romance nor do they give much of a damn for the politics of the real world. Instead they offer Horroresque lyrics, grotesque imagery, and songs intended to unleash your inner maniac in the pit.
This in mind, Cannibal Corpse has spent the better part of over three decades releasing fifteen albums that included family friendly titles like 1990’s Metal Blade Records debut, Eaten Back to Life, 1991’s Butchered at birth, and the current #9 top US Hard Rock Rock Album (Billboard), 2023’s Chaos Horrific. Their unique crushing sound was unlike anything else going on in Metal at the time, and still is a sound that sets them apart to this day. After all, in a genre that prides itself on not only being underground but thriving despite little to no help from radio or television assistance. Though who can deny there is a special place in their Metal heart for Actor Jim Carrey and his classic Ace Ventura: Pet Detective for bringing in Cannibal Corpse for a cameo playing the classic “Hammer Smashed Face.” While Cannibal Corpse was disturbing album covers and songs about force feeding someone broken glass, Mayhem was looking to mess with your psyche through other means.
Formed in Norway in 1984, Mayhem were the godfathers of a movement of bands that were not content with merely putting out horrific imagery and lyrics, they were looking to live and embody it. Between the stories of original singer Dead killing himself, the murder of founding guitarist Euronymous, and the history of burning Norwegian churches tied to the band, they certainly proved they are the band that your mother warned you about and that your priest will request an exorcism over.
While the mentioned deaths in the band and legal issues delayed their first album, 1994’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, when it finally came out it offered a whole new approach to Extreme Metal, the Black Metal approach. The sound more raw and atmospheric than the material coming out Death Metal, Mayhem was a band that was looking to offer a dark soundtrack unlike any other experienced. Through their six album timeline, despite the line up changes that brought out some of Black Metal’s most haunting albums like 2000’s Grand Declaration of War, and 2019’s Daemon, they consistently proved to not only be the one who brought Black Metal to the masses but did it better than most.
Joining Cannibal Corpse with Mayhem for a tour only seemed the best way to celebrate the godfathers of their respective genres of Extreme Metal. Add to this the crushing Canadian Death Metal veterans Gorguts, as well as Blood Incantation, and you have one of the heaviest lineups this year. Intense, as the tour pulled up to Denver, Colorado on October 6, 2023 at the Mission Ballroom the sheer numbers of fans serve to show despite the bands often getting labeled as “underground” or at the least too “extreme” for radio and video play, their fanbase is massive and deeply loyal.
Kicking off the night was Blood Incantation which sadly we missed, but reception from fans was massively positive. Up next the titans from Canada, Gorguts, kicked off their set with their brutal track “Rottenatomy” from their debut 1991 album Considered Dead. One hint of the almost psychedelic bass line from bassist Colin Marston layered with slow grinding guitars of founder Luc Lemay and Kevin Hufnagel, topped by the pulverizing drums of Patrice Hamelin, and you knew just why Gorguts was held in such high esteem not only with fans but other bands. Even on their first album they managed to get Chris Barnes, formerly of Cannibal Corpse, and legendary Metal Guitarist James Murphy to guest on it.
The band stayed with the first album jumping into the punishing “Disincarnated” getting that mush pit moving and bodies climbing to start crowd surfing. As their set raged on, the fans almost got the complete first album as the band played “Considered Dead,” “Bodily Corrupt,” and “Inoculated Life,” and the only the only other tracks were “Orphans of Sickness” from their 1993 sophomore album Erosion of Sanity and the title track from their 1998 album Obscura. However for anyone just finding out about Gorguts, this was a great set to get introduced to the band with.
The term “most dangerous band” tends to get thrown around a lot, and sure some bands might deliver some frightening lyrical content, or image, Mayhem was one that brought it all together. Their loyal fans were seen everywhere adorned with corpse paint makeup, gauntlets, and unleashing their chant for Mayhem to hit the stage. Through a eerily lit stage engulfed in smoke came out guitarists Ghul and Teloch approached with infamous bassist Necrobutcher, Black Metal’s best Drummer Hellhammer, together tearing right into the chaotic “Worthless Abominations Destroyed” from their 2019 album Daemon.
Creeping into sight was the menacing figure of singer Attila Csihar, delivering some of Black Metal’s most disturbing screams. Staying with their more recent material, with one of their most bludgeoning and atmospheric tracks “Malum”. Though holding a disturbing presence, the vocal range for Attila was almost effortless as he proceeded to terrify new fans and fuel the old school ones.
The band closed out the first part of their set with “Voces Ab Alta” from their 2021 EP Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando, before disappearing into the darkness. Coming back out with the band adorned in black cloaks, the band took their fans back to their first album, the cult classic 1994 debut, De Mysteriss Dom Sathanas, with the song “Freezing Moon.” Fans went ballistic for a second part to the set with a trio of tracks from the first album, “Life Eternal” and the title track from the album. As Attila made his menacing presence felt with added props of nooses and skulls, the horror feel was thick and undeniable. In their third act Mayhem did four songs from the their first EP Deathcrush, kicking off with the title track, “Chainsaw Gutsfuck,” “Carnage,” and of course, “Pure Fucking Armageddon.” Capping off a set that if you were not a hardcore fan to start, you were now.
Now it was time to loosen up those neck muscles and find your nearest pit as the one and only Cannibal Corpse descended on the stage. The furious blitzkrieg of guitarists Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan, pulsating bass of Alex Webster, and pounding drums of Paul Mazurkiewicz jumping right into “Scourge of Iron” from 2012’s album Torture, signaled it was time to let your inner Metal Madman loose. As George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher joined the stage with circle headbanging in full motion, fans embraced it and new onlookers got welcomed to the force known as Cannibal Corpse. Cannibal Corpse continued their onslaught with the track “Blood Blind” from their hailed 2023 album Chaos Horrific, as bodies dropped from surfing the sea of screaming fans. A familiar guitar laden groove kicked in and old school fans knew it was time for “Disfigured” from 1996’s Vile, unleashing the full force of the pit.
One of the highlights to any Cannibal Corpse is the morbid yet hysterical humor of Corpsegrinder, as he challenges the audience to try and keep up with his headbanging, as George would say “you will fail miserably, but there is nothing wrong in trying.” Signaling the band is about to jump into one of their famed love songs, “I Cum Blood” from the infamous 1992 album Tomb of the Mutilated. Between tracks such as “Disposal of a Body” (1998’s Gallery of Suicide), “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” (1994 The Bleeding) you have to give it up for fans as they were as unrelenting in the pit as the band was in a pulverizing soundtrack. As the band closed out with their signature track “Hammer Smashed Face” from Tomb of the Mutilated, one cannot stop to admire what this band has managed to accomplish through the years without any mainstream support.
In fact, this point can be said for most bands on this bill. Despite the mainstream completely turning a blind eye to their genres, often treating them with hostility and disdain they are still at the top of the games decades later. All three bands could easily be put in the “Big 4” of their respective genres, as if they didn’t exist it would be hard to see how they would even come to be. If you are not able to make this tour, these artists should certainly be on your bucket concert list.
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