Arch Enemy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Septicflesh, Crypta, and Thrown Into Exile

There's nothing like an Arch Enemy concert. I was worried that Alissa wouldn't be able to fill the shoes of Angela (who could?), but she was incredible. There's an energy that Alissa has that I haven't heard from the band in a long time.

Arch Enemy has always been one of my favorite death metal bands to see live. A lot of them just can't put on the kind of performance that lives up to the albums. Arch Enemy has no problem doing that at all. It's a shame that Angela left the band, she's been one of my favorite vocalists in the metal scene, but Alissa definitely puts on a show. Hearing her sing "We Will Rise" was incredible, and the stuff from the new album was great too. War Eternal doesn't disappoint, and the band does it justice live. Nick does a killer job.

I'm going to be honest - I was really worried when I heard that Angela and Christopher had left the band. I hadn't heard about Chris leaving until I found out about Angela, and I was freaked out. The new album was great though, and then this concert? Amazing. I shouldn't have been worried. Definitely go see them live if you get a shot. Best concert of the year, so far.

The Black Dahlia Murder, a death metal five-piece from Michigan, have been going for about 13 years now, undergoing a few personnel changes along the way. Not being a person who follows the death metal scene too closely, some friends of mine who are more knowledgeable in the subject mentioned to me that TBDM got a lot of flack from the more purist metalheads round about the time they were starting out, and were dismissed as simply following the current trends. Watching their show at Bloodstock, Derbyshire, a few years back, was really refreshing (I say this as an outsider to the death metal scene). A topless Trevor Strnad bounds around the stage, sweating, showing his pasty, portly and tattooed torso, yelling out encouragement to the crowd before ripping into ‘I Will Return’ with his scorched-earth growl, which made my hairs stand on end. Shannon Lucas, the then drummer, is a machine - he almost sounds programmed, but there’s a blistering intensity to his playing, as well as actually being quite melodic and supportive of the onslaught of riffs played by Ryan Knight and Brian Eschbach. The crowd moshed like crazy. Very intense, very liberating, it made me glad to see the metal scene is alive and well.

The death metal and gothic metal shows are not for the fainthearted, but if you’re willing to get a bit sweaty and pushed around a little bit, a Septic Flesh show will be one of the best concerts you’ll ever go to. Although the band have broken up and added new members over the years, their reformation and current set up provide what I think is a fresh and exciting spin on their sound, stopping the music from going stale from being dormant over the years.

The show opened with a huge projection of the band’s name on a screen behind the stage, followed by an image of them all in costumes, to which they ran out on stage, arms in the sir, shouting out to us in the crowd. From the first chord that Christos Antoniou struck on his guitar, the whole band were totally immersed in the theatrics of the show, with Spiros speaking directly to the audience to get us hyped for the show.

They played a great selection of tracks, and when they sand Prototype, they had everyone create a circle in the middle of the floor and run towards and around each other, dancing like crazy. All the while, the band were playing incredible tracks to amazing standards whilst dancing intensely themselves. Their stamina and talent is astounding, and it really was one of my favourite shows.

Seen them in Joliet and they were incredible!
If they come to Illinois again would see them again.
They all are excellent musicians. Guitarist are shredders, Drummer gets you going, and the Vocalist/Bass is full of energy with a insanely killer death metal growl!