REVOCATION | DEFEATED SANITY| FUMING MOUTH | WEEPING

THE SETUP…

A celebration for both the death and thrash metal masses, as Boston’s own Revocation once again returned to Toronto for the 20 Year Torment tour. With a hell of a lineup which included Weeping, Fuming Mouth, and Defeated Sanity, Saturday night was poised to be heavy at Lee’s Palace, once again brought to metalheads by Inertia Entertainment.

WEEPING

There is something to be said for seeing a band for the first time; without any context beforehand, it can go well or not well—subjectively, of course. That said, I had no idea what to expect from Weeping. Ahead of the posted schedule, the band stormed the stage, bringing a massive wall of sound from both the instruments and endless feedback between riffs and song sections. With this nonstop approach, Weeping left a sonic mark on the venue and announced they’re from New Jersey. Not much else was said, as intense as this music was; the band’s set was just past the 19-minute mark and was over before we knew it. Even though it wasn’t my favourite genre of all time, the riffs were powerful, and I heard melodic notes and patterns that tickled my brain.

FUMING MOUTH

Some time has passed since I last saw this band, so even with a previous interaction, my memories from 100s of shows ago feel like a lifetime ago, and it doesn’t help that I’ve missed some times they swung by the area. With a taped intro, this was nothing tied to the band or anything I could reference from a movie or TV show, but we were robbed of the full intro: about a minute in, the audio feed started to drop out in portions and then completely. The band, much to their credit, didn’t show any frustration related to this blip in the set. “Hey, how the fuck are we doing, Toronto? I said, How the FUGGK are we doing?” Then the band ripped into some of the finest guitar distortion riffs in death metal. Fuming Mouth released a record earlier in the summer, The Ringing Bell, and the setlist was dominated by songs from this 3rd full-length album. Musically, it was a great performance; the “Stockholm” style death metal riff and subsequent extended notes really hooked me into the band and also telepathically made the floor of the venue turn into a circle pit, which needed a bit of coaching from the vocalist, and thankfully Toronto gave to the polite demand. I will have to go out of my way to check out Fuming Mouth when and if they return.

SETLIST
‘Cheat Death’, ‘A Blaze Of Nihilism’, ‘Hidden In The Moor’, ‘Self‐Exhumed’, ‘I’ll Find You’, ‘Respect Mortality’, ‘Visions Of Purgatory’, ‘Finally Fearless’

DEFEATED SANITY

Another band I’ve seen previously, but I remember this band filling that set years ago with seemingly thousands of notes. With a horror movie-style intro, the three-plus-decade Defeated Sanity, originally from Germany but now residing in the USA, came to shred. In tandem with the evil sounds over the PA, three musicians took over on stage, and at this point in the show, some of the heaviest bass notes thundered through the venue’s speakers. The vocalist soon joined the stage and emphatically growled, then headbanged with the rest of the band, which ultimately had the crowd eating up every minute of this brief, note-filled intro. What started as a father-and-son project is now driven by Lille, the drummer, who, by all accounts, drums with the ferocity of someone decades younger, resulting in a lot of vocal feedback from the audience between songs. One of my favourite crowd responses was “holy fucking shit.” On the band’s most recent album from 2024, the setlist leaned heavily on an older album, with choice songs from 5 other albums in the band’s tenure. For close to forty minutes, there was little banter; right out of the gate, “Let’s keep the bullshit to a minimum, and keep the music flowing,” and man, did the music flow. This subgenre, brutal technical death metal, while not for everyone, kept the floor of the venue moving, especially the infectious bass notes, which dominated the sound for this band while they were on stage. I don’t know how much longer they could play at these higher BPMs, but I would see them again.

SETLIST
‘Introitus’, ‘Consumed By Repugnance’, ‘Verblendung’, ‘Liquifying Cerebral Hemispheres’, ‘Accelerating The Rot’, ‘Martyrium’, ‘The Bell’, ‘Dislimbing The Ostracized’

REVOCATION

Celebrating anniversaries is important, from the band being formed to albums celebrated, and for other reasons I can’t remember; every single milestone should be celebrated no matter the size of the anniversary. Boston’s Revocation, with tongue-in-cheek “20 Years Of Torment,” returned to Toronto less than a year later and back to Lee’s Palace for another round. My history with the band is complex; I’ve been wanting to review a show for a bit, as I was fortunate to see the band the first time they visited Toronto and was immediately a fan from the performance alone. I haven’t been able to see them every time they have visited Toronto, but one of my best memories is seeing them on Halloween, with every band member dressed head-to-toe in Spider-Man costumes. A prerecorded intro set the tone for the antics to come, a monotone evil voice speaking of the sheer nostalgia of Revocation with the highest praise of Revocation enduring, all while ‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ pumped through the speakers as well, ending in a crescendo of “let’s fucking party” with all of the band members throwing out party favours, hats, and streamers, just pure fun. The floor didn’t take long to get moving. Dave immediately showered the crowd with praise, saying they were “grateful to be back in Toronto and Lee’s Palace” for just over an hour.

The band played a song from every single album; in doing so, they managed to bring some deep cuts from their massive discography, even playing a song from the only EP they released, Teratogenesis. “We haven’t forgotten anything,” Dave said triumphantly, pointing it out. Of course the album with the most songs coming from the most recent release, New Gods, New Masters, from 2025, in doing such a diverse setlist, especially with the other members of the band not from the whole discography, there was something for every possible fan of the band over the decades. David even took time out of the set to explain the meaning behind the new album and the possible upcoming demise of the human race in the ever-present, rampant age of artificial intelligence. Throughout the course of the just-over-an-hour set, Dave and the band showcased the best blending of elements of both subgenres for that Revocation sound that has kept the band here to this day, worth noting not only the seriousness of death metal but also the screaming and yet pleasing guitar solos from Dave’s signature bright yellow guitar. One thing is for sure and not up for negotiation: the band loves Toronto, with countless moments of vocal appreciation to the crowd and, of course, the crowd responding with joy and continuous movement on the floor. The “20 Years of Torment” tour came to Toronto; thankfully, minus the torment, it was filled with joy, a party, and still brought the seriousness of both death and thrash metal subgenres. Revocation‘s live performance continues with the intensity and aggression; with more than a dozen visits to the city over the years and the crowdS continuing to show up, they will be back before we know it!

SETLIST
‘Nihilistic Violence’, ‘Scorched Earth Policy’, ‘Fracked’, ‘Confines Of Infinity’, ‘The All Seeing’, ‘Data Corpse’, ‘Of Unworldly Origin’, ‘Dismantle The Dictator’, ‘Chaos Of Forms’, ‘Summon The Spawn’, ‘Only The Spineless Survive’, ‘Bound By Desire’