Hate Eternal -- Montreal, Quebec -- March 7th, 2012

[VoidFlame]

Venue: Foufounes Électriques
Opening bands: Hymnosis, Impalement, The Catalyst

The concert was supposed to start at 8:00, but the booker decided to make the first band, Hymnosis, play at 7:30, so most people weren't already in the venue when they started. They're a local hardcore-influenced groove metal band in the vein of Chimaira, but with more polyrhythmic parts. I found their music to be a bit redundant after a few songs, but they gave a good show and they had a good frontman, although he was pushing a bit too much on the crowd; endlessly calling circle pits, and even a wall of death when there were about 30 people in the room.

Things started to get serious with the second local band: Impalement. This was my seventh time seeing them (not including when I saw them rehearse), because the guys in the band are my friends. Their singer is one of my longtime best friends and he also sings in my band. They play modern death metal with tech-death, melodic death and black metal influences and they're definitely one of the best new bands we have here in Montreal. The musicians in this group are extremely talented and the vocalist's growls and screams are extremely powerful and varied. They gave an excellent, tight and brutal performance, playing almost only new songs (except for the last one, that was on their demo). A lot of people had come to see them play and they didn't leave dissatisfied: the 25 minute set was one of the most intense I have seen.

Check out this video of their performance: Calculated Disbeblief

Then, for the last local band, The Ca(pi)talyst, the show took a drop in quality. I have seen them 4 times in the past 2 years and they always played the same 5 or 6 songs. I'm really getting tired of seeing them, because their songs are pretty generic ("catchy" modern melodic death/thrash). However, I have to say they have a good energy on stage, but they really should write new (and better?) songs. Most people had left the venue when they played and the frontman's attempts to start pits were futile. The were added only a few weeks ago on the bill, and in my opinion, the booker should have given more time to the two openers instead of adding them.

One thing that considerably reduced the number of attendees to this gig is the cancellation of UK brutal-deathsters Cerebral Bore. I know a few people that were going to the show exclusively to see their first canadian performance and that decided not to go when they announced that they couldn't get their working visas on time. As most of you know, the replacing band on the tour was the new american melodic death/thrash band Battlecross. I had listened to their album The Pursuit of Honor before and I didn't enjoy it that much, but their live show was totally pleasant. They had tons and tons of energy and their songs were much heavier and thrashier than their studio versions. The crowd didn't seem to know them, but I think they made a few new fans this evening.

Finally, the band most of us were looking forward to see took the stage by storm. Erik Rutan and his crew managed to create a really dark vibe, using atmosopheric tracks between the songs and introducing them by speaking in death metal growls. This is by far the best of their performances I have witnessed (better than with Origin and a lot better than with Cannibal Corpse). The sound was impeccable: the guitar was even more crushing than on record, the drums sounded like a fucking avalanche, and the vocal duo was at it's best. Though me, one of my friends (the vocalist for Impalement) and a few other people completely went crazy for them, most of the crowd was static during the set: those who didn't know the songs didn't seem to understand the explosion of (epic) rage coming towards them and the old school fans were enjoying the show in the back, going crazy in their own heads (two of them actually told me that it was Hate Eternal's best performance since the King of All Kings tour, back in 2003). I managed to start a few pits, but nothing really serious. Anyway, they were intense as fuck and the song selection was great, though it was a bit short. Seeing one of your favourite death metal bands is always a great time.

After they finished playing, I went to the merch tables to tip the bands: I got myself Conquering the Throne and Impalement's demo on CD.

Also, the epic attendee award goes to: Luc Lemay of Gorguts, sporting a Dodecahedron t-shirt.


Battlecross

Push Pull Destroy
Deception
Kaleb
Misery
Breaking You
Man of Stone


Hate Eternal

The Victorious Reign
Behold Judas
Lake Ablaze
The Obscure Terror
Haunting Abound
The Art of Redemption
Praise of the Almighty
Thorns of Acacia
Phoenix Amongst the Ashes
Powers That Be
I, Monarch
King of All Kings

[kalfitegrdan]

Great review, man. I agree with you that this tour was the best that I've seen them on. Better than on the Origin tour and when I saw them on the Cannibal Corpse tour, their set was just a joke, (Only 20 minutes...are you fucking kidding me?!?) I mean fucking Born of Osiris got a way longer set than them and that's just ridiculous.

[VoidFlame]

Originally Posted by kalfitegrdan

on the Cannibal Corpse tour, their set was just a joke, (Only 20 minutes...are you fucking kidding me?!?) I mean fucking Born of Osiris got a way longer set than them and that's just ridiculous.

Yep, ridiculous. And, I guess because of that, Erik Rutan didn't seem happy or much in the mood to play and this negatively affected their performance.

[GarageMetal468]

Luc Lemay?!

[VoidFlame]

Originally Posted by GarageMetal468

Luc Lemay?!

Talked to him for about a minute, he's a cool guy

[holy_nick1991]

Impalement décalice, j'voulais y aller juste pour eux mais j'ai pas pu

[VoidFlame]

Originally Posted by holy_nick1991

Impalement décalice, j'voulais y aller juste pour eux mais j'ai pas pu

Dommage. C'tait trippant!

[DefeatedSanity]

Awesome show.

We went to Montreal from Quebec 3 of my friends and I and were so fucking crushed by the performance of Hate Eternal...

We were right in front of the sound guy and we fucking broke our neck all the way through the set, yelling like hell... People were so fucking boring at that show god damn I was like what the fuck are you doing it's FUCKING HATE ETERNAL. Baddest crowd I've ever seen... Anyway, we made it better by giving it all.

All the King of All Kings stuff simply crushed everything.

Powers That Be. LOL

Simply AWESOME.

And yeah wtf Luc Lemay? :O

[hellawaits77ny]

Cool review, man. Seems like every show at Foufs has great sound.

[VoidFlame]

Originally Posted by hellawaits77ny

Cool review, man. Seems like every show at Foufs has great sound.

Thanks! And, yeah it seems like they got rid of their sound problems. Every show I attended there this winter had an excellent sound.