CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and CROWBAR Liquefy The Opera House with Help from THE OBSESSED and MOTHERSHIP [Photos & Show Review]

Last Wednesday night, amid a freezing rain downpour in Toronto, Corrosion Of Conformity, along with Crowbar, The Obsessed, and Mothership, played to an absolutely jam-packed crowd at The Opera House. Fans seemed oblivious to the brutal winter weather and, instead, were simply having a great time and getting their metal fix. It was a sea of clenched fists and devil horns which, by the way, if you look that up in the “encyclopedia of metal”, is defined as “having a blast.” Which is exactly what we did.

Mothership, out of Dallas, Texas, started the night off and all I had to say after their set was “did anyone get the plate # off that truck?” Brothers Kelley and Kyle Juett on bass and guitar, Judge Smith on drums… for a three-piece band, they really pack a big punch!

Mothership’s Setlist:
01. Lunar Master
02. Hot Smoke and Heavy Blues
03. Crown Of Lies
04. Angel Of Death

This band is helping to keep “City Nights” alive!

Maryland’s The Obsessed were next and, after word got around that the group might be held up at the border crossing, everyone was thrilled when Scott “Wino” Weinrich (vocals, guitar), Reid Raley (bass), and Brian Constantino (drums) hit the stage. Always ones to deliver the goods, that’s exactly what transpired over their nine-track set.

The Obsessed’s Setlist:

01. Climate Of Despair
02. Mourning
03. Skybone
04. The Way She Fly
05. Sacred
06. Streetside
07. To Protect And Serve
08. World Apart
09. Neatz Brigade

This is one damn “Sacred” song form The Obsessed.

New Orleans “sludge metalers”, Crowbar were the third band of the evening and, not to take away from CoC, could have easily headlined the show. Frontman Kirk Windstein, along with Matt Brunsen (lead guitar), Shane Wesley (bass), and Tommy Buckley (drums) played a wicked tight set. They tore through eight songs in a totally seamless manner that made time flew by. A little piece of “Metal Trivia,” two of Crowbar’s videos, “All I Had (I Gave)” and “Existence is Punishment,” have appeared on Beavis and Butt-head!

Crowbar’s Setlist:

01. All I Had (I Gave)
02. …And Suffer As One
03. To Build A Mountain
04. The Cemetery Angels
05. Walk With Knowledge Wisely
06. To Carry The Load
07. Planets Collide
08. Like Broken Glass

This band is most certainly not “Falling While Rising”.

Headlining the night was none other than North Carolina’s Corrosion Of Conformity, another one of those bands of seasoned musicians that never disappoints in the live setting. Pepper Keenan (vocals, rhythm guitar), Woody Weatherman (lead guitar), Mike Dean (bass), and a new touring drummer (Reed Mullin, the band’s regular drummer, underwent knee surgery last March, so I’m not quite sure if that was the reason he wasn’t playing) had a blast on stage, the energy from which seeped directly into the crowd. After delivering fifteen hits of hard-hitting metal, everyone left the venue feeling more than satisfied.

Corrosion Of Conformity’s Setlist:

01. Stonebreaker
02. Wiseblood
03. Wolf Named Crow
04. Born Again For The Last Time
05. The Door
06. Diablo Blvd.
07. It Is That Way
08. Vote With A Bullet
09. Seven Days
10. Paranoid Opioid
11. 13 Angels
12. Who’s Got The Fire
13. Albatross
14. My Grain
15. Clean My Wounds

The album No Cross No Crown dropped on January 12th, 2018, via Nuclear Blast Records.