Show Review: Whitechapel (The Summer Slaughter Tour) @ The Sound Academy (Toronto, ON) on August 09, 2011

Well it’s Summer and you know what that means… short shorts, over exposed man arm, and sweaty metal shows! The Summer Slaughter Tour hit Toronto’s The Sound Academy on August 9th and was headlined by The Black Dahlia Murder in support of their latest record Ritual with specials guests Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Powerglove and a shit ton more.

The day started off with some bad news as Within The Ruins’ singer and As Blood Runs Black’s bassist both couldn’t cross the border which means usually 1 of 2 things, booze or pot. Also, Six Feet Under just decided not to show up… the love has been shown! Anyways after a few bands like Oceano and As Blood Runs Black played Powerglove hit the stage and if you love: A) metal, B) cover songs and C) laughing incredibly hard, then you will love POWERGLOVE!!!

If you don’t know em, they’re like Gwar’s nerdy little brother. They wear big costumes while rocking hard and play song like the Pokemon Theme Song or Legend of Zelda Songs with a hint of Super Mario. They are tight as hell, but wow was it ever funny.

The next serious band on was Dying Fetus and it being my first time hearing and seeing them live I was very impressed. A solid 3 piece metal band that brings the pain. Darkest Hour hit the stage afterwards in their usual “buzzed off beer” state and they tore the place down. Toronto has never been the biggest Darkest Hour city, but the lack of crowd participation didn’t stop them.

Next up was Whitechapel and Toronto is for sure Whitechapel town. Everyone in the venue was watching and loving every minute of it. They’re a fairly young band, but they prove each show why they are in the position they are – shredding faces and stomping guts all day. Last but certainly not least was the black metal lovers in The Black Dahlia Murder. Such a mix of European and American metal, they are the perfect hybrid of styles to please any metal fan. There must have been 25 circle pits during the night at at least a third of them was for The Black Dahlia. All in all, my summer got slaughtered that night!

Check out the song: “This Is Exile”