ARCH ENEMY | THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER | SEPTICFLESH | CRYPTA | THROWN INTO EXILE

THE SETUP…

A busier-than-normal Sunday with seemingly endless concert options in the city to start the month off; however, metal reigned absolutely supreme at the Danforth Music Hall once again. No strangers to Toronto, Arch Enemy, one of Sweden’s finest and long-standing melodic death metal experts, returned once again with subgenre co-headliners from America, Detroit’s own The Black Dahlia Murder, and brought an opening lineup from all over the world with Septicflesh from Greece, Crypta from Brazil, and Thrown Into Exile from America as well. While any one of these five bands could be the headliner in their own right, the venue was poised to feel the wrath of all of them, and Inertia Entertainment brought this night to the masses.

THROWN INTO EXILE

For the second time in two years, Thrown Into Exile is opening for Arch Enemy on a tour, albeit under completely different circumstances. We started off this night and performance with a pre-recorded intro as the band slowly came onto the stage. Having covered the show in 2025, it seemed to me that some fresh faces were on stage, later briefly explained by the brand-new vocalist, as two different people handled bass duties for the set. It’s hard to pin this band to a specific subgenre, as they blend a bunch of them at once: moments of deathcore, death metal, melodic death, etc. The short performance, clocking in at just under thirty minutes, was riff-filled and even included two brand-new songs, with one not yet released beyond being played live. Just before the last song, a wall of death was called for, a bit early in the night, as a majority of the crowd was not in attendance, but still visually impressive enough to make a lasting impression on the American band for sure. Absolutely can’t wait to see this band again in a non-opening slot. If and when they come back with new music performed live, a new album should be coming very, very soon.

SETLIST
‘Send Me Below’, ‘Nihilist’, ‘Behind The Veil’, ‘Remorse’, ‘You’ve Fallen So Far’

CRYPTA

There is something equal parts really cool and really special to be said about Crypta. A commanding four-piece, all-female death metal band from Brazil, the band’s sheer confidence on stage that night was second to none, even before a single note was played. Four cymbal hits from the drummer, and the festivities began in full force. Blasting on twin guitars, bass, and drums, the band brought ferocity throughout the setlist. Because of the accelerated beats per minute associated with the genre and the band staying true to this, the performance felt like a quick snap of the fingers, and it was over.

Since they have headlined in Toronto before, the time on stage felt even shorter. One of the original members, Fernanda, on bass and vocals, left a lasting impression with a signature smile, a tongue-out grin, and some of the night’s most piercing growls. It’s not my first time seeing the band play live, but they are poised to take over the masses, with the crowd’s vocal praise and movement throughout the set. The band’s captivating presence is clear. With only two full-lengths in their discography, Echoes Of The Soul from 2021 & Shades Of Sorrow from 2023, new music should be due, and even though this band has toured the world, more doors will surely be unlocked with the newest album.

SETLIST
‘The Other Side Of Anger’, ‘Lord Of Ruins’, ‘The Outsider’, ‘A Portrait Of Decay’, ‘From The Ashes’

SEPTICFLESH

From one end of the world to the seemingly opposite end, Greece’s stalwart symphonic death masters, Septicflesh, returned to Toronto. With three members on stage, a commanding cadence of noise and a death metal growl kicked off the performance. No stranger to being animated on stage, Spiros, the band’s vocalist and bassist, used his arms and hands as if conducting an orchestra when he wasn’t thumping the bass strings, as pre-recorded symphonic strings and horns piped through the venue’s speakers. “Are you ready, my friiiiiiiends?!?!” at the very first opportunity—the very well-known catchphrase from this three-plus-decade band. It didn’t take long for the missing member to be addressed.

After an accident at home, one of the guitarists missed the tour with broken ribs. Unfortunately, I, having seen the band over the years, felt the depth and layer of the missing member very much subjectively; however, as a three-piece band, Septicflesh proved even with three members that the missing member could not hold the band back from putting on a blistering performance that kept the crowd not only captivated, moving on the floor, but also garnered a chant from the audience, the clearest audio approval for more! While spreading the word of Greek mythology to the masses through music, the most recent full-length being Modern Primitive from 2022, and the most recent EP, Amphibians, from 2025, a new full-length should be coming sooner rather than later.

SETLIST
‘Portrait Of A Headless Man’, ‘The Vampire From Nazareth’, ‘Martyr’, ‘Coming Storm’, ‘Anubis’, ‘Dark Art’

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

The deafening roar from the crowd during Brian’s (the vocalist and only founding member of the band) intro greeting to the venue, “TORONTOOOOOOOOO!!!!”, provoked enough vocal approval to set the tone for the first co-headliner. Bringing some of the best American-style melodic death metal, and no strangers to Toronto, The Black Dahlia Murder not only captivated the crowd with the sound coming through the speakers but also used four display screens on stage to project intense visuals unique to each song throughout the performance. In his commanding performance throughout the night, Brian reminded the crowd that surfing was welcome and that security would be enough to catch the masses coming over the barrier, while also asking the crowd more vocally. Brian, to his credit, did a lot of banter in between songs, to the point of comedically telling a story or a quip before the band launched into a song.

Being a co-headliner on this night, the band dove through a majority of their discography while also bringing out a very rare song in ‘Miscarriage’, followed up by a pre-recorded warning message about a gorilla seemingly going to destroy the crowd with sheer violence, only to have someone in a gorilla suit on stage with an inflatable banana—a reminder that some bands just incorporate that death metal can be serious and fun at the same time, with Brian proclaiming “go bananas!”. With just over two years since the most recent album, Servitude, was released in 2024, and after multiple visits, the Toronto crowd couldn’t get enough of The Black Dahlia Murder and their antics. Since the band most often comes here on five-band bills, they will be back sooner rather than later, and Toronto will surely welcome them back.

SETLIST
‘Necropolis’, ‘Contagion’, ‘Mammoth’s Hand’, ‘Moonlight Equilibrium’, ‘Panic Hysteric’, ‘Nightbringers’, ‘Everything Went Black’, ‘Cursed Creator’, ‘A Vulgar Picture’, ‘Miscarriage’, ‘Statutory Ape’, ‘Christ Deformed’, ‘Utopia Black’, ‘What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse’

ARCH ENEMY

With just over three decades under their belt, the melodic death metal Swedish band Arch Enemy had a mountain to climb; with a brand-new vocalist in the mix, the tension was thick before the band even graced the stage. After one of the most well-known songs, ‘Ace Of Spades’ from the legendary Motörhead, finished up, we were met with the absolutely insane guitar noodling of ‘Khaos Overture’ as the band came out to unanimous cheers from the crowd. “Pure fucking metal” adorned the bass drums of the elevated kit. With no video visuals like the previous band, this message served as a perfect warning before the blinding light show illuminated the venue from the stage. Lauren, the newest member of the band and the new vocalist chosen for the band, absolutely established dominance with a brutal death growl before any of the crushing and punishing vocals followed, and even addressed the situation in between songs that Arch Enemy was the sole reason she got into singing in the first place, which she was able to back up vocally over the course of the performance.

Being the second time touring on Blood Dynasty from 2025, this show was focused on some classic songs from the long-standing discography of the band while also focusing on the latest single that introduced the world to the newest member of the band, ‘To The Last Breath’. Clocking in at just over an hour, pure fucking metal was delivered in full: the twin guitars with alternating and trading solos, the melodic bass notes, and the hard-hitting drums together established Arch Enemy musically. As a band that remains a staple of not only the genre but metal in general, Lauren literally waving the band’s flag between songs was a great way to push them into hopefully larger venues on this side of the world. The band, not to be outdone, finished the show with red and black beach balls floating through the air during ‘Nemesis’, an absolutely fun way to end a night of heavy music.

SETLIST
‘Ace Of Spades’, ‘Khaos Overture’, ‘The World Is Yours’, ‘Ravenous’, ‘War Eternal’, ‘Blood Dynasty’, ‘My Apocalypse’, ‘To The Last Breath’, ‘Taking Back My Soul’, ‘The Eagle Flies Alone’, ‘Bury Me An Angel’, ‘Dead Bury Their Dead’, ‘No Gods, No Masters’, ‘Nemesis’, ‘Fields Of Desolation’, ‘Enter The Machine’