Opeth, Mastodon and Khemmis Lay Waste to Toronto’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre [Photos]

Inertia Entertainment delivered an evening of heaviness from three talented bands as Toronto finds its footing after a painful two-year absence of live music. Opeth had a Toronto headlining show booked in 2020 a few weeks after the world got locked down that went on the wayside, so when this show was announced with Mastodon along for the ride, fans got very excited.

Opeth is still cresting high on the wave of their most excellent 2019 album, In Cauda Venenum. They only performed “Heart In Hand (Hjärtat vet vad handen gör)” from the new album. This saddened me as the new album is so good that I would have been satisfied if they played the entire thing. Instead, the band went through seven more songs that touched on seven of their albums, keeping their fans who have been with them for over twenty years happy. Mikael Åkerfeldt, Martín Méndez, Fredrik Åkesson, Joakim Svalberg and Sami Karppinen performed exceptionally well on all songs and left the audience eager for another 90-minute set.

Mastodon released a compilation album entitled Medium Rarities in the fall of 2020. Then a year later also released Hushed and Grim, a double album of almost 90 minutes of new material that was assembled mainly during the pandemic (it also serves as a tribute to Mastodon’s former manager Nick John, after his death from cancer in 2018). It’s a fantastic body of work, and fans were eager to hear some of it performed live.

Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, and Troy Sanders took the stage at 8 pm and delivered thirteen tracks in front of an eager Toronto crowd. Brann performed on a riser that spanned the width of the stage with video monitors on the face of the riser and then reaching from floor to ceiling behind him. Updated visuals spiralled behind them as each song was performed, accompanied by colourful spotlights and occasional laser lighting that shot into the crowd at random moments as they played. “Pain With An Anchor” and “Pushing The Tides” sounded terrific live. Troy and Brann addressed the audience after their set with heartfelt words about how happy they were to be back in Toronto and promised they’d be back soon.

This evening was my first time seeing Khemmis, a Denver, Colorado four-piece act with a new album (Deceiver) on Nuclear Blast Records. They sounded right at home on this bill, delivering a short but sweet set of heavy material with lots of guitar-face and bravado. They thanked the audience for coming early to check them out.

I enjoyed being in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre with the main section of seats removed. It allowed people to be on their feet up by the stage and provided some seats and balcony viewing on either side of the floor.

Opeth Toronto Setlist:

Livets Trädgård
Hjärtat vet vad handen gör
Ghost of Perdition
Cusp of Eternity
The Devil’s Orchard
The Drapery Falls
In My Time of Need
Sorceress
Deliverance

Mastodon Toronto Setlist:

Pain With an Anchor
Crystal Skull
Megalodon
The Crux
Teardrinker
Bladecatcher
Black Tongue
The Czar
Pushing the Tides
More Than I Could Chew
Mother Puncher
Gobblers of Dregs
Blood and Thunder

Khemmis Toronto Setlist:

Avernal Gate
Three Gates
Living Pyre
Isolation
Conversation with Death