That's a very solid line-up and if I have the money come that date, I shall attend the Tempe show.

Not a fan of Ex Deo, but love Melechesh and the other bands are pretty good too.

For anyone who is interested in seeing this show in Portland OR. on the 26th, the venue has been changed to the Ash Street Saloon.

Any Bay Area people planning on attending the Tahoe gig?

...The hell? Hahaha. Anyway, Edmonton, Oct. 22 FUCK YEAH! Maybe I'll attempt to mount the stage and have sex with it when they're all done just to immortalize it in my memory.

Haha, yep. In fact, I had that dream when I was back home in Edmonton. I'm not there anymore though; I'm in Regina for school.

Will be at the cleveland show tomorrow! Hopefully all the bands will be good! The lineup looks awesome!

Caught the tour at the Trois-Rivières Metalfest last saturday. It was absolutely fucking awesome, each band gave a great performance with great setlists. Major props to Septicflesh, whose frontman is probably the best I've seen live. He bends the crowd whichever way he wants and this sets up some great moments during the more symphonic passages of songs. The setlist was near-perfect IMO, although they mostly played songs from the last two albums.

Krisiun fucking blew me away. Brutal, relentless, technical, impressive, those guys are very impressive and their live gig was a relentless assault of top notch death metal. Loved it.

Ex Deo... heh, they were maybe the weakest band of the lineup. Their stuff is efficient, easily headbangable, but the songs are not that distinct from each other and when they left, I was kinda glad they were finished. Not that their songs are bad, but compared to the four other bands, it was a bit underwhelming. It's a damn shame they got more scene time than Melechesh and Inquisition.

Melechesh were very good and the guys look like they're having a lot of fun on the stage. Good setlist, great energy. Ashmedi is a great frontman, and his live vox is awesome and very powerful.

Inquisition are a great band live, which was my personnal surprise of the evening. While there were only two guys on the stage, the songs still felt massive and their scenic presence was great. Dagon's facial expressions are hilarious though.

All in all, it was a great show, worth every penny. I travelled 5 hours in a car with two friends to catch it and I certainly don't regret it.

That show sounds like it was awesome! Yeah I really want to go to it.

I saw Ex Deo a year or two ago and they were decidedly mediocre. Your description of them is pretty apt when I saw them. And I think the only reason they get more time than either Inquisition or Melechesh is the fact that Ex Deo is basically Kataklysm.

Anyone in the valley of the sun want to go to the show on the 29th?

I'll be seeing them next Friday in Portland. After a hard few quarters of college, I need this show.

I see them in two days. I'm still in the heat of midterms. In fact, I have a midterm the day after. But I'm still going. Because Septicflesh and Melechesh.

I went to the show in Cleveland @ Peabody's! Great performance from all the bands! Ex Deo and Septic Flesh both put on an amazing show by the way they interact with the crowd! Krisuin was awesome too, with their brand of death metal! I like how they did the lighting during their set! Melecesh was alright. They were different sounding, but put on a stellar performance!

Bought my ticket and blagged out of work tomorrow. Not terribly fussed about Speticflesh, but Krisiun are great live and I'm really looking forward to seeing Melechesh.

Saw this bastard last night. Here's my take.

It started with Inquistion. They were the only band I didn't care about seeing. Nonetheless, I bought a ticket and am a nice guy so I still watched them to support them. They put on a decent show. The fact that there's only 2 of them and they were the openers really took away from their energy. But they were still moving around a decent amount. I'm not a big fan of them in the studio but they came across a lot better live, for me at least. I still could not get over the vocals though. They're not for me.

Next was Ex Deo. These guys went all out. I think every one of them had some sort of costume attire. The vocalist had this full old-looking leather outfit thing, where as most of the other guys just had some leather pieces like an arm brace or a shoulder pad. These guys had the most energy of all. Constantly moving around, trying to get the crowd involved, moving around in unison. The vocalist was even making whipping gestures at one point with his mic. Only problems with them was both the guitars and symphonic tracks were too low. I knew half their songs decently well so I could follow along to it all but someone who has never heard them might not even know they're symphonic. At one point the base cut out for a good 30 seconds. It was fixed promptly though.

Third on the bill was Melechesh. They never showed up on stage until it was time to play (they got other people to do sound check). One of the guy was wearing some sort of syrian slave-warrior mask (which was funny and weird because he was white as they come). That same guy was also smiling the entire show, as if he was delighted to be playing with the band. The frontman, Ashmedi, was the highlight. Constantly moving around, going balls out on the guitar. Some chord sections he would play without strumming (and yet it was still loud enough to hear). At one point in the middle of one of their songs (Triangular Tattvic Fire), he dropped his pick, grabbed the drummers drumstick, and used that to play/strum before continuing the song. The worst part of the show was the drummer. He's a great drummer in the studio but he just looked so incredibly bored up there that it took away from the experience.

The fourth band was Krisiun. 3 big, buff Brazillian brothers (alliteration not intended) who all kick ass at their instruments. All of them are extremely talented, with the drummer being the highlight. Non-stop blastbeats, essentially. He was really energetic the whole show. The guitarist played some insane solos. You could tell that the material was so difficult to play that they couldn't show off that much but it's still great watching how they play. The guitars cut out twice during the show and had to be fixed twice (the songs kept playing).

Finally, it was Septicflesh's turn. These guys were mildly dressed up; not in costumes, but not just a normal t-shirt. I'd say these guys were just like a standard headlining band. Nothing outrageous but a very consistent, good performance. They riled the crowd up pretty well. The highlight for this band, like Krisiun, was the drummer. He had the most energy out of them. During the outro to the final song, he was slamming the toms so hard I'm surprised they didn't break. Just a note: obviously, the symphonics were all just tracks played through a speaker. However, the clean vocals and some of the more atmospheric guitar sections were also tracks. Was a little disappointing but not a big deal. Also, I think the frontman screwed up some of the vocals. Now I don't know every work to every song from Septicflesh, but I know certain sections and some of what he was saying was not matching what I was calling out. One example that I knew was at the end of Lovecraft's Death, he's supposed to yell "You stared at the abyss" followed by "You'll never rest in peace" x2. He switched the order of those. Again, not a big deal, but it's kind of hard to scream along when he switches stuff up.

All in all, it was probably the bets show I've been to (I haven't been to many, though). Melechesh and Septicflesh were the ones I went for with Krisiun and Ex Deo being bands I still wanted to hear. Ex Deo put on the best show (it's a shame that people have been saying they were the worst) with Melechesh and Septicflesh probably being the next best two.

If you want to see any setlists, search them up on setlistfm. I put up 2 complete setlists and 2 incomplete setlists for the city Regina.

One more thing. You probably shouldn't expect to talk to any of the bands. None of them were anywhere to be seen in the main area (usually bands walk around or hang out at merch tables or something. None of these guys did) and they were all pretty hidden after their sets. I saw Ashmedi and tried to talk to him but he seemed like he was in a hurry and gave me the "Well thanks for coming out. Later." pretty soon after I approached him.

First off, thank you so much for posting about your experience. Great to read how the bands interacted. I'm going for Ex Deo and Melechesh primarily, but I listen to all of these bands.

Second, I was just going to ask whether or not any of these guys hung around the venue. Sucks that they didn't at yours. Even a band like Immolation headlining stay at the merch table for fans. Same for semi-headliners like Vader and God Dethroned. Would have liked to chat with a member from each band at least, but I guess that isn't happening.

Asmedi is a really cool dude and took the time to talk to a lot of people when they toured with Rotting Christ, maybe he had a bad night or something, musicians are human beings too!

No problem, I'm more than happy to share!

It's possible that they may not have stayed around because of the location. Regina is a pretty small (not only is it a Canadian city but it's one of the smallest cities that isn't quite a town) and the venue itself is pretty small. There's a small bar at the back but it's not really a place to drink, just a place to get drinks while doing something else. Maybe if your venue is better they'll stay. Also, it might be because they're touring literally every single day until the tour ends.



I'm guessing it must have been because he was in a hurry or something. I caught him after Septicflesh so 2 full sets had already gone after his and he was probably ready to leave. When I saw him, he was walking back in the building after me and my friend had just walked out. As we talked he seemed like he wanted to go inside so I let him go since I didn't want to hold him. I dunno, I guess I was just a little sad seeing how I'm a middle-easterner and there aren't many middle-easterners in bands nowadays. Maybe next time, though it was Melechesh's first time in Regina so who knows when they'll come back next time.

6 PICS FROM A SHITTY PHONE!!!


My own short rundown of Seattle's show:

Terra Morta opens - decent sounding black metal. Lots of leadwork, but ultimately just a speed bump to the rest of the bands. Mildly enjoyable.

Inquisition - just two guys end up being masterful on stage. Dagon is always walking around the stage, playing hypnotic buzz of riffs over and over to keep us headbanging. At one point he literally bolts off stage like Abbath in the "Blashyrk" video .

Ex Deo - lots of drama with the frontman, but I enjoyed them. They got shafted in terms of sound, because you could barely hear the "symphonic" aspect of their music (the essential part). Still fun, and I got a t-shirt after the show.

Melechesh - this is where things got intense. Melechesh are probably the best band I've seen live in terms of a fantastic rhythm section. Like Indecency said, they had a session guitarist who wore a headwrap for the first song (looked like every terrorist we've all seen). Then he takes it off to reveal the most Dutch-looking, long blond-haired, blue-eyed white dude. Skinny as hell, but always had a smile. Ashmedi was phenomenal fronting for the crowd. He did the drum stick playing, too. Got a hoodie after the show.

Krisiun - within the first 10 seconds, I get nailed by someone from the moshpit. I was right up against the stage at the very center, and my hip collides right with the stage. Still hurts right now, but that shows how heated the crowd was with Krisiun. These guys had the tightest set and the best sound job. 3 buff Brazilians as Indecency put it.

Septic Flesh - Played mostly new material, though I was very pleasantly surprised when they played "Virtues of the Beast". Good times there, and of course the best lighting was saved for these guys. Not impressive in that way, but you could feel the greater scope with these guys. Almost non-stop brutality to match Krisiun.

Let me also establish that the crowd turnout wasn't very good - as expected. Septic Flesh are not the kind of band that can draw the extra bunch like Behemoth or something. They needed that level of a band to really get a good crowd response. There must have been 100 people tops, in a venue that could fit way more. Septic Flesh, the headliners, had 1 row of people against the stage, and behind us was a gap and then the rest of the crowd (maybe 2 rows of people). Not very good.

***** The guy that stole the show was Ashmedi. Now at Indecency's show he seemed out of it. However, at this show he was everywhere after his set. He came out while Krisiun was playing, dove off the stage, and was moshing and listening with the crowd. Very fun, and then he came back out to just hang around with everyone. I saw that he was at the merch table, and my inner fanboy rushed over to talk to him. We shook hands and I exclaimed my love for the band, and I thought his response was immitating my enthusiasm, but I forgot that he has a thick accent. Still a fun guy that didn't mind me completely breaking up his conversation with the other guy.

Last night was the Portland Show and boy....it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, and when I say worst, it's not because of the bands.

Opening for the show was some local band called Anomylia. They where.....OK I guess. They had the unforntionat position of being the first act when hardly anyone showed up. They joked around that they no one was their and they only came for the beer. Give them credit though, they stayed strong throughout the performance despite the low number.

Inquistion was good and thankfully we got a lot more people arrive at this point. I felt for them at first because the drummer had a drum trigger problem and they had to restart their opening song three times. Thankfully it was fixed and they played a good show.

Ex Deo was pretty fun. I dug the armor and theatrics, I've seen most of the members with Kataklysm and they just did straight up Death Metal in it's brutality, Ex Deo seems to be more for them to fullfill a theatrical style of music. I prefer Kataklysm's music, but they where still worth while.

Melechesh........jesus tapdancing christ, they fucking blew away the show. I was right in front of Ashmedi (and when I say right in front, I mean his sweat beaded off onto me, I was that close) and after seeing him play live, the man disserves to be higher in the rankings of Metal Guitarists. Just fucking amazing.

Krisiun was really good, they just wheren't my favorite sound of the night. That and Melechesh is a hard act to follow. They still did a really good show and the crowd really dug them, so much so that the singer/bassist actually got speechless.

And then came Septic Flesh. Oh god do I feel so bad for these guys. First off, I don't know why, but it seems like more people where there for Krisiun then Septic Flesh, but it got full for the first half. What really hurt the show was that the band had technical problems from the get go, and you could tell too cause Seth wasn't in the best of moods when he started, but he did lighten up and started enjoying himself as the show went on. The problems occured with the pedal mikes or something, the band had to take a few minutes to fix the problem before they got started again. Then it went fine for a while....until it happened again and it litterally took like 10 to 15 minutes to fix it. And sadly, nearly half the room emptied out because of this. Give the guys props though, they fixed the problem eventually and finished the show.

I even got to speak to the band members after the show and they where very apoligetic about everything. I can't blame them for being frustrated either, technical problems plus a lower then expected turn out. At first, I thought the turn out was due to booking problem they had (They where supposed to be booked at the Hawthorne, it was even on the tour shirts, but the Hawthorne double booked and the tour moved to Ash Street Saloon, although no major announcement was made about that so I don't think nearly as many people knew). That's what I thought until I just read Ozzy's post, so maybe the NW isn't offering as good a turn out right now, which is sad.

So it was a damn good, if not great show, until the tech. problems occured. But I forgave it because it's going to happen, there will be nights where nothing goes right, and that night just so happened to be the night they played in Portland. On a side note, I surprised Seth of Septic Flesh by asking when they're doing their next album, he said in a year, so I'll be hoping for that next year.

It's too bad the crowd was as empty for you as it was for me. For us, I think Ex Deo had the biggest turnout. Since it was a sunday show, everyone was taking off as the night went on.

Also, good to see Ashmedi wasn't a ghost at your venue. I literally saw him twice all night. There was one guy doing merch for Ex Deo, Melechesh, and Septicflesh so we never saw any band members at any of the tables.



It's unfortunate that Septicflesh had all those problems on top of the fact that the venue changed. Still sounds like you had a fun night, though!

There was someone else managing the tables, but Ashmedi was there for probably 5 minutes and I knew this so I bolted over to talk to him.

As for the crowd, if you see this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJGQiQvbhNg - then it looks like a full house. I'm the glasses-wearing guy directly below the (really long-haired) guitarist's boot / left and down from the microphone (short hair and wearing a Behemoth shirt which you can see silver wings on the back of). Whenever I turned my head around, there were probably 3 rows and enough of a moshpit to form the gap between the people against the stage and the ones one row apart. The rest of the place was empty, though there were probably lots of people on the top floor (where the bar was). I know Maurizio of Ex Deo was up there hanging out, too.