The Machine Shop Concert Lounge, located in an industrial section of Flint, Michigan, has been a cornerstone of the live music scene since its establishment in 2002 by brothers Kevin and Craig Zink. Over the last two decades, the venue has played host to countless rock, metal, and outlaw country bands. Tonight, two death metal heavyweights, Nile and Six Feet Under, unleashed their brain-pulverizing brutality alongside Australian tech death titans Psycroptic and Chicago’s Embryonic Autopsy as part of the Revenge Of The Underworld Tour 2025.

Walking into the club is like walking into a literal machine shop. The venue’s industrial aesthetic pays homage to Flint’s rich automotive heritage, creating a unique and authentic atmosphere. Another distinctive feature of The Machine Shop is its “hallway of photos,” a tradition that began in 2007. Photographer Jeff “Minty” Mintline captured the first hallway photo with the band The Exies, and since then, it has become a rite of passage for artists performing at the venue. Another interesting feature of the venue is the employment of cocktail servers, who canvas the venue, taking drink orders and delivering them to you directly. I have never seen this at a venue of this size. It’s quite handy if you find yourself stuck in the pit or at the front of the stage during a band’s set.

EMBRYONIC AUTOPSY
Straight outta the windy city, comes this relatively new death metal ensemble featuring vocalist Tim King of the legendary Oppressor. If you are familiar with Oppressor, you’ll know that they date back to ’91 and released three incredible technical death metal albums that same decade. Tim is also the bassist/backing vocalist of alternative metal band SOiL (who experienced mainstream success with their major label debut, Scars, released September 11, 2001). Far from his days in SOiL, Tim and his crew of death metal miscreants in Embryonic Autopsy blasted onto the stage of The Machine Shop with the ferocity of a nuclear fireball stripping flesh from the bone of anyone in earshot. They tore through a set of old-school inspired death metal ditties from their two full-length albums (2022’s Prophecies Of The Conjoined and 2024’s Origins Of The Deformed). The energy exuded from the stage was infectious and set the perfect mood for what would come.

Setlist
‘Regurgitated And Reprocessed’, ‘Dripping In The Vaginal Nectar’, ‘Orgies Of The Inseminated’, ‘Craving Of The Mutated Fetus’, ‘Cleopatra’s Spawn’, ‘Cauterized Womb Impalement’

PSYCROPTIC
If you are familiar with the Tasmanian Devil of the Looney Tunes cartoons, then you are about 98% on your way to understanding what it is like to catch the Tasmanian Devils of technical death metal, Psycroptic, live. While in motion, the Tasmanian Devil is often depicted as a spinning tornado, drilling himself through anything in his way. As a technical death metal band, the Tasmanians drill their brootal and noodle directly into the prefrontal cortex with the force of an F5 tornado. Tonight, the guys hit the stage with Origin frontman Jason Keyser behind the mic (filling in on tour for permanent vocalist Jason Peppiatt). Immediately, the guys slammed the unsuspecting with a tidal wave of intricate riffing, vociferous percussive calamity, and inhumane vocals. The brotherly duo of guitarist Joe Haley and drummer Dave Haley have truly raised the bar of technical death metal, and witnessing it live is akin to partaking in a masterclass of tech death.

Setlist
‘Cold’, ‘The Watcher Of All’, ‘Frozen Gaze’, ‘We Were The Keepers’, ‘Rend Asunder’, ‘Ob(Servant)’, ‘Euphorinasia’, ‘Enslavement’

SIX FEET UNDER
Chris Barnes. You either love him or hate him. There is often no in-between. Those on the love side have been with Chris since his iconic days in the mighty Cannibal Corpse. Those on the hate side, well, they’ve obviously never witnessed Six Feet Under live. If you went into The Machine Shop on this night as a hater, there is a good chance you likely came out of it with a new perspective on Chris and his six-foot crew. The guys busted out what can be described as a best-of set, hammering out tracks such as ‘Lycanthropy’, ‘Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane’, ‘Human Target’, and ‘Torn To The Bone’. Now, I will admit to not being in love with all of Chris’ vocal performances across their eighteen-album catalogue, but tonight, Chris sounded utterly brutal. In fact, it was like he was channelling his days behind the mic with Cannibal Corpse. Both his gutturals and screams were totally on point. As expected, they ended their vicious set with two Cannibal songs… and the crowd went absolutely ape-shit.

Setlist
‘Torn To The Bone’, ‘Revenge Of The Zombie’, ‘Silent Violence’, ‘Lycanthropy’, ‘Deathklaat’, ‘Murdered In The Basement’, ‘The Day The Dead Walked, ‘The Enemy Inside’, ‘Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane’, ‘Victim Of The Paranoid’, ‘Seed Of Filth’, ‘Death Or Glory (Holocaust cover)’, ‘Human Target’, ‘Beneath A Black Sky’, ‘Stripped, Raped And Strangled (Cannibal Corpse cover)’, ‘Hammer Smashed Face (Cannibal Corpse cover)’

NILE
When it comes to technical death metal bands, South Carolinian tomb raiders Nile are about as good as they come. Their ability to balance both the insanely complex and the utterly brutal is a skill shared by only a handful of bands (e.g. Dying Fetus, Suffocation). Typically, technicality in death metal equates to far more emphasis on the noodle than the brootal. Karl Sanders and his crew of Egyptologists appeal to both senses, which carries over into their live performances. Tonight, Nile were both mind-boggling in their technical proficiency and absolutely slamming in their brutality. The addition of Morbid Angel bassist Dan Vadim Von last year is proving to be the right choice, particularly when it comes to Nile‘s back catalogue, as he is a dead-ringer for long-time Nile frontman Dallas Toler-Wade. The man is an absolute beast onstage, adding a youthful zest to their high-intensity performance. Backed up in the vocal department by guitarists Karl Sanders and Zach Jeter, the threesome invoked the ancient dead with their a cappella of gutturals. Tucked out of sight is the glue that holds this beastly performance together… drummer George Kollias. It’s too easy to forget George whilst enraptured by the string section, but that immediately rectified itself when the band launched into the groove-heavy ‘Kafir!’ from their 2009 album For Whom The Gods Detest with George pounding the skins like a madman awakening ancient demons. The guys unearthed a collection of gems across their ten-album anthology, each sounding as fresh as the day they were summoned. If what we witnessed tonight is any indication, Nile has plenty of years left in them before taking their rightful place in the sarcophagi of death metal history.

Setlist
‘Stelae Of Vultures’, ‘To Strike With Secret Fang’, ‘Sacrifice Unto Sebek’, ‘Defiling The Gates Of Ishtar’, ‘Kafir!’, ‘Call To Destruction’, ‘Vile Nilotic Rites’, Sarcophagus’, ‘Lashed To The Slave Stick’, ‘Chapter For Not Being Hung Upside Down On A Stake In The Underworld And Made To Eat Feces By The Four Apes’, ‘Black Seeds Of Vengeance’