Metal
Behemoth (w/ Arch Enemy, Napalm Death) Blow Away Rebel in Toronto [Photos]
A hurricane of extreme metal hit Toronto’s Rebel nightclub when Behemoth, Arch Enemy, Napalm Death, and Unto Others came to town. Check out Andrew Hartl’s coverage.
Monday night brought a torrential downpour to the city, along with a hurricane of extreme heavy metal at Toronto’s Rebel nightclub when Behemoth, along with Arch Enemy, Napalm Death, and Unto Others, came to town. Doors at Rebel opened at 5:30, with the first band, Unto Others, hitting the stage at 6:30.
I arrived in time for the second band, England’s grindcore godfathers, Napalm Death. These guys are like the OG metal guys. The band was initially formed in 1981, and they are loud! The set lasted an hour, and Napalm Death managed to play 17 songs in that amount of time. Just long enough to get fans excited and people surfing over the crowd’s heads to the waiting arms of Rebel’s amazing security crew.
Napalm Death is Mark “Barney” Greenway (vocals), Shane Embury (bass), Danny Herrera (drums), and Mitch Harris (guitar).
Next to take the stage was Sweden’s melodic death metal mainstays, Arch Enemy, with Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz, guitarist Michael Amott, drummer Daniel Erlandsson, bassist Sharlee D’Angelo and last but certainly not least, guitarist Jeff Loomis.
This band was really fun to watch, the singer’s blue hair whipping through the air as she worked her way across the stage. And what a voice; from really melodic sounding to incomprehensible growls, it was my first time seeing this band live, and I was not at all disappointed.
Now the crowd surfing has really begun! One after another, people were being passed over the heads of everyone. And I didn’t see anyone get dropped all night. Pretty impressive.
With all the excitement thus far, it was now time for tonight’s headliner…. all the way from Gdansk, Poland, Behemoth! When I looked it up, one of the definitions that I found was;
Behemoth: “in the Bible, a name used for the Devil, refers to an impure animal and unclean spirit. Behemoth is derived from the Hebrew word behemet, meaning ‘beast’ or ‘large animal.’”
Well, Behemoth always uses a lot of pyro and fire during their outdoor shows, so I was interested in what they were going to do. Smoke replaced fire, which did look pretty cool. But, fire is cooler, IMO!
During Behemoth’s impressive set, they managed to send the already riled-up crowd over the edge. There were so many people surfing now it looked like two separate levels on the floor. The upper level being fans shuffled over top of the heads of the lower level. It was quite the spectacle to see. Judging from the huge grins of everyone that surfed to the front of the stage, it was worth all the possible bumps and bruises. You’ve just got to love metal shows because the fans are almost as entertaining as the show.
Behemoth is vocalist Adam Nergal Darski, drummer Zbigniew Inferno Prominski, bassist Tomaz Orion Wroblewski, and guitarist Patryk Seth Szyber.
Napalm Death Setlist:
1. Silence Is Deafening
2. Fuck The Factoid
3. Backlash Just Because
4. Contagion
5. Lucid Fairytale
6. Everyday Pox
7. Invigorating Clutch
8. Narcissus
9. Scum
10. Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
11. The Kill
12. Suffer The Children
13. When All Is Said And Done
14. You Suffer
15. Dead
16. Nazi Punks Fuck Off
17. Siege Of Power
Arch Enemy Setlist:
1. The World Is Yours
2. Deceiver Deceiver
3. Ravenous
4. War Eternal
5. My Apocalypse
6. House Of Mirrors
7. The Eagle Flies Alone
8. As The Pages Burn
9. Handshake With Hell
10. Dead Bury Their Dead
11. Nemesis
12. Fields Of Desolation
Behemoth Setlist:
1. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
2. Wolves Ov Siberia
3. Ov Fire And The Void
4. Evoe
5. Christians To The Lions
6. Bartzabel
7. Conquer All
8. Ov My Herculean Exile
9. Decade Of Therion
10. Slaves Shall Serve
11. Chant For Eschaton 2000
12. Chwala Mordercom Wojciecha
13. Oh Father Oh Satan Oh Son