AGGRESSIVE PROGRESSIVE TOUR 2025

We at Allfather-Metal made the five-hour flight to Vancouver, British Columbia, to catch the Aggressive Progressive Tour featuring the incredible lineup of Rivers Of Nihil, Inter Arma, and Glacial Tomb. The venue, The Rickshaw Theatre, is located in the historic Strathcona section of downtown, which happens to be one of Vancouver’s oldest neighbourhoods. For a Tuesday evening, the venue was quite packed. Given the lineup, this was certainly not surprising.

GLACIAL TOMB

Born in Denver as a side project featuring Khemmis guitarist/vocalist Ben Hutcherson, drummer Mike Salazar, and bassist David Small, Glacial Tomb has steadily evolved into a force of sludge-corrupted, blackened death metal extremity. Their 2018 self-titled debut tore open a gateway to a sound both brutal and dynamic, drawing from across death metal’s spectrum and enriched by the trio’s pedigree in other prominent acts. With 2024’s Lightless Expanse, the band pushed even further into dissonant chaos and haunting melody, fusing Swedish melodic death, black metal aesthetics, punk-charged D-beat, and the oppressive weight of sludge. Tonight, Glacial Tomb summoned an impressively complex set of musical extremity that tore through the fabric of reality with an anguished brutality so cerebral and intoxicating that it left this listener’s jaw on the floor.

Setlist
‘Abyssal Host’, ‘Voidwomb’, ‘Stygian Abattoir’, ‘Wound Of Existence’, ‘The Lightless Expanse’, ‘Enshrined In Concrete’

INTER ARMA

Emerging from Richmond, Virginia, in 2006, Inter Arma has spent nearly two decades crafting a sound that blurs the lines of extreme metal, classic rock, and everything in between. They stitch together the doomy atmospherics of early Sabbath with the fjord and frostbitten carnage of Scandinavia. There is also a touch of modern psychedelia and post-rock in albums such as Sky Burial, Paradise Gallows, and Sulphur English, which translates incredibly well from the stage. Combine that with the best parts of Iron Maiden, Morbid Angel, Pink Floyd, ZZ Top, and Depeche Mode, and it is no wonder their pedigree and sheer talent behind their respective instruments earned them the sandwiched slot on this tour of chaos, beauty, and dread. If tonight’s performance was any indication, Inter Arma certainly deserves a headlining tour/slot of their very own.

Setlist
‘New Heaven’, ‘Citadel’, ‘Violet Seizures’, ‘Concrete Cliffs’, ‘An Archer In The Emptiness’

RIVERS OF NIHIL

For those of us lucky enough to have been in attendance, Rivers of Nihil treated fans to a setlist that spanned over a decade of evolution in a single, relentless performance. What began in 2009 as a tightly wound death metal project from Reading, Pennsylvania, influenced by the ferocity of bands like Decapitated and Meshuggah, has evolved into something far more challenging to define. The set pulled from across their catalog, with crushing performances of ‘The Sub-Orbital Blues’, ‘American Death’, and ‘The Silent Life’ showing their heavier roots, while tracks like ‘A Home’, ‘Water & Time’, and ‘House of Light’ leaned into their more melodic and atmospheric tendencies. ‘The Void From Which No Sound Escapes’ and ‘Episode’ seamlessly shifted from raw power to reflective calm. Nearing the end of their set with ‘Where Owls Know My Name’ and the hauntingly reflective ‘Clean’, the band truly showcased their stunning ability to move fluidly between dense, mechanical riffing and a flair of the cinematic, while also channeling the spontaneous, spacey weight of Pink Floyd combined with the dramatic tension of something akin to Muse and Radiohead. A truly inspiring performance from one of metal’s most promising bands.

Setlist
‘The Sub-Orbital Blues’, ‘The Silent Life’, ‘American Death’, ‘A Home’, ‘The Void From Which No Sound Escapes’, ‘Water & Time’, ‘House Of Light’, ‘Death Is Real’, ‘Episode’, ‘Where Owls Know My Name’, ‘Clean’