Concert Review: I Am Morbid, Suffocation, Uada, Mortiferum, Fulci, Knoll

Saturday, December 7th the 'Devastation On the Nation' tour reached Columbus Ohio. I just so happened to be in attendance. 

 The show opened with Knoll, I would describe them as progressive grindcore, I believe they describe themselves as 'funeral grind'. They had a very captivating performance, with a set resembling a victorian mansion, red velvet curtains and gilded lamps. Their energy was palpable, with a confusing variety of noises that I greatly enjoyed. Their guitar player looked like Tony Iommi and he pulled out a goddamn trumpet once or twice. They had their own seperate table for merch and the vocalist was the one selling.

Second out was Fulci, they are quite possibly my favorite contemporary death metal band, and they did not disappoint in a live setting. During soundcheck they seemed to be having fun, and played riffs from the other bands as a shout-out. They had clips of Fulci's films playing behind them on a huge screen, corresponding to each song they played. The whole set was badass, and they had the second biggest pit-presence. I wanted to get one of the shirts they had, it was yellow, and has some variety of Duck Face Killings art on the front. The back was a rip on that one Morbid Angel design, "EXTREME MOVIES FOR EXTREME PEOPLE". They were the only band to sell out and they did before Suffocation was even out. 10/10, Fulci Lives.

After that was Mortiferum, I don't know much about them, but they were pretty sick. I accidentally matched Hellhammer shirts with the old dude riffing it up. They had a sound reminiscent of Winter or Asphyx. I don't know if they exactly fit the vibe, but they rocked. I will definitely check them out more in the future.

Up next was Uada, this was when my dad walked out because he was bored LMAO. I enjoyed them well enough, but same as Mortiferum, I wouldn't say they fit. They came out all wearing black hoodies and leather vests, with their faces covered. Total Midnight vibes, and not just visually. They had a style reminiscent of Darkthrone and something like Witch Cross; crazy tremolo riffage, with heavy metal leads. Their merch stand had a deer skull and incense on it. 'Nuff said.

Afterwards were some real legends, SUFFOCATION!!! They were severely brutal and simply badass. For one, the pit during every single song was as big as a goddamn classroom. At least once per song Ricky said something along the lines of: "COME ON OHIO, SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT! I WANNA SEE SOME ACTION!" While doing the universal sign of "Start a circle pit". Eric Morotti had a drum pad that made a beat drop noise which drowned out every other sound. He abused that damn thing during every mosh-part. 11/10. Holy fuck.

To cap it off was I Am Morbid. Originally, the tour was planned to have Morbid Angel heading the whole thing, but for unknown reasons they dropped. To be frank I prefer seeing Pete Sandoval to Trey Azgathoth, even if he is one of my favourite guitar players. David Vincent's voice has definitely changed, which is no surprise considering the 40 year time difference. The two guitar players came out shirtless with leather vests on. About 3 songs in they took the vests off and some dude in the crowd was yelling "Take your pants off!" for the rest of the gig. They did a pretty good show though, Vincent had two seperate spiels introducing songs. On one he had a whole "Who here was alive when Altars came out? Now who was still in their mama's belly?" bit. He told the young'ins we have good parents. The second bit was before Eyes to See, Ears to Hear. Vincent had a whole thing about how "Times are weird" and "Everybody lies to you these days." I was fully expecting him to start talking about Trump and shit but he didn't. So either he's chill or held his tongue because he didn't want Sandoval to kick his ass. They ended with the triple-whammy of Where the Slime Live, God of Emptiness, and World of Shit (The Promised Land). Pretty friggin' sweet.

I got a nice Suffocation shirt. It's got the circle logo on the back and says "EMBRACE THE SUFFERING" in scary letters. They had a ton of cool merch there, CDs, signed records, picks, drum heads, strings, apparently if you bought Vincent's book he'd sign it after the show. I don't really know the mechanics of that; do they give you a slip to give to a guard and they chaperone you? Do they text Vincent and just hope he can find you based on the description? It was a confusing deal, but 20 bucks to meet the Morbid Angel guy is pretty sweet. Overall great show, but six bands is too many.