Whenever the mighty Deicide announces a tour, you can bet your satan-worshipping ass that a legion of rabid fans will drop that ritualistic dagger and rethink that sacrificial suicide in a life-affirming effort to acquire a coveted ticket. If you haven’t experienced Deicide on the live front, you are certainly oblivous to evil… the kinda evil that’ll leave you dead by dawn. Sure, you can repent to die, but this is Deicide. So, fuck your god and release yourself as a slave to the cross and just enjoy this review of a day of darkness in Toronto.

CLOAK

Atlanta’s Cloak were the perfect choice for the opening band on this tour. Their mix of black metal with gothic undertones set the stage for the darkness yet to come on this night. Tonight, the guys mainly focused on songs from their last full-length effo (2023’s Black Flame Eternal). They threw in a few extra blackened goodies for long-time fans, with some tracks from 2019’s The Burning Dawn. Cloak‘s peformance was easily the most theatrical of the night, in the same way a Watain show is theatrical – lots of accoutrements of evil, candles, and the burning of incense. All in all, Cloak delivered the goods that brought both evil and musical prowess together in an engaging, enjoyable, black metal experience.

Setlist
‘Ethereal Fire’, ‘With Fury And Allegiance’, ‘The Cleansing Fire’, ‘Seven Thunders’, ‘The Holy Dark’


INFERI
Nashville’s Inferi (who take their name from the Harry Potter series, in which Inferi are corpses that have been reanimated by a dark wizard’s curse) were a surprising choice for this tour. Their brand of technical/melodic death metal certainly set them apart as a bit of a black sheep when stacked up against the brutality and evil of the two headliners. This isn’t to say Inferi were not enjoyable in their own right. If the insanity that erupted from the pit was any indication, these guys went over with flying colours.

Setlist
‘Cursed Unholy’, ‘Eyes Of Boundless Black’, ‘Eldritch Evolution’, ‘Heaven Wept’, ‘Tainted Pact’, ‘Heirs Of The Descent’

KRISIUN

The trifixion of death metal destruction, Krisiun, are hard to top on the live front. The three brothers, Max (drums), Moyses (guitars), and Alex (bass/vocals) have been doing this thing since 1990. It’s a complete anomaly that they’ve been able to hold this ship together, without member changes, for nearly thirty-five years. This works in the band’s favour to an unbelievable degree, as these guys know each other inside and out. To say that witnessing Krisiun live is the closest one can get to a perfect experience is an understatement.

Tonight, the guys were on absolute fire, and that energy was transferred to the packed-house who wouldn’t let the band leave the stage without rousing chants of ‘KRISIUN… KRISIUN… KRISIUN!’ that reverberated like thunder throughout the venue. It was obvious that the band were blown away by this reception, stating as much numerous times. It is safe to say that Deicide had their work cutout for them, but there is no better band to take that challenge up!

Setlist
‘Hatred Inherit’, ‘Ravager’, ‘Combustion Inferno, ‘Scourge Of The Enthroned’, ‘Necronomical’, ‘Serpent Messiah’, ‘Apocalyptic Victory’, ‘Black Force Domain’

DEICIDE
Having witnessed Deicide on their 30th anniversary tour for Legion last year in Bergen, Norway, we at Allfather-Metal had an idea of what to expect. That being said, always expect the unexpected from Glen Benton and his minions. Tonight, they ripped and severed their way through sixteen homages to the lord of the underworld without even blinking an eye. It is still an amazing sight to see these guys well into their 50s (Glen and drummer Steve Asheim, specifically) play like guys half their age. It’s uncanny the amount of energy they exude, and should be studied by scientists in an effort to understand how OSDM (old school death metal) defies the aging process. I mean, it is Deicide, so maybe they sold their souls to Satan to avoid aging. Who knows.

Unlike the anniversary tour for Legion, tonight saw the guys deliver a mixed bag of insineratehymns, which included nearly something from every album, both classic and contemporary (excluding anything from the not-so-greatly-received Til Death Do Us Part, In Torment In Hell, Insineratehymn, and In The Minds Of Evil). At this point, it is pretty much a given what you are gonna hear from Deicide live. Tonight, they actually shone much of the spotlight on their new album, Banished By Sin, which has been heralded by many as their best album since Serpents Of The Light (released way back in ’97). I, for one, am glad they did, as many of these songs fit perfectly alongside those early classics.

To say Deicide still have some life in them is an understatement. If what we witnessed tonight is portent of things to come, the band still have a lot of years left in them. The only thing that can hold them back at this point is their physical ability to play these songs live and still do them justice. But, as we mentioned earlier, it is almost certain souls were sold so Glen and crew can continue to do this thing until they are the children of the underworld.

Setlist
‘When Satan Rules His World’, ‘Carnage In The Temple Of The Damned’, ‘Bury The Cross… With Your Christ’, ‘Behead The Prophet (No Lord Shall Live)’, ‘Once Upon The Cross’, ‘From Unknown Heights You Shall Fall’, ‘Sacrificial Suicide’, ‘Woke From God’, ‘Satan Spawn, The Caco-Daemon’, ‘Sever The Tongue’, ‘In Hell I Burn’, ‘Doomed To Die’, ‘They Are The Children Of The Underworld’, ‘Scars Of The Crucifix’, ‘Dead By Dawn’, ‘Homage For Satan’