Report: Cannibal Corpse + The Black Dahlia Murder + No Return @ VEGA, Copenhagen

On the February 10th Cannibal Corpse took over Copenhagen’s Vega and left it with blood marks all over the place. The place was totally packed – show was reported ‘sold out’ in the end of December – which is not surprising, considering the fact that these death metal titans invited the younger death metal superstars from The Black Dahlia Murder to support them on the tour.

But before the biggest stars of the evening started their rituals, fans gathered in the club had opportunity to see French death metal veterans from No Return. Band started at 18:45 – early hour for metal fans but this had no impact on frequency in the club – the place was already filled with metal believers waiting for a good portion of heavy music. No Return started without any prior introduction or unnecessary delays with ‘Crimson Rider’, taken from their last record ‘The Curse Within’.  They closed a six song set with some tracks from the album ‘Despise Your Heroes’, while packing older stuff in the middle. This short set was played with brutal power, and was warmly welcomed by fans, which were already waiting for the first main course of this death metal feast.

The Black Dahlia Murder started around 19:30 leaving not more than 15 minutes for fans to rest – but time to rest was not included in the ticket price. The band entered stage with the loud cheer from the fans and immediately pulled first notes of ‘Widowmaker’.  The crowd, without hesitation went into mosh pit, adding even more heat to the already tropical atmosphere in a fully packed Vega. After presenting new material, Michigan based band returned to the past giving their fans something that they were waiting for, the song ‘Contagion’ from their debut album ‘Unhallowed’. The Black Dahlia Murder was in good shape and they provided a very energetic performance, as always, with Trevor Strnad running from end to end of the stage with a grin on his face. The band presented mostly new material from ‘Nightbringers’ but the whole show was closed with two classics – ‘Everything Went Black’ and ‘Warborn’. Thus the twelve track set was finished. The public received well deserved brake, which was used to rearrange the scene for the Cannibal Corpse.

The main act of the evening started with George Fisher standing with his back to the audience and dimmed red light coming from behind of the drum – this whole setup looked like one bloody silhouette with the big Cannibal Corpse logo in the background. Then it all started. Heavy guitars and machine gun drumming from Paul Mazurkiewicz initiated the ‘Code of the Slashers’ song, where after first part of vocals, Corspgrinder gave a masterclass hedbanging performance, something that every Cannibal Corpse fan was waiting for.

Cannibal Corpse continued with new material for the first part of the gig, and slowly moved back in time into the more classic songs. The well received ‘Pounded In Dust’ was followed by ‘Kill or Become’, whereas some hardcore fans were trying to keep up tempo with Corpsegrider screaming ‘Fire up the chainsaw – Hack all their heads off’. Later in the show we all got to hear some real old school classics: ‘A Skull Full of Maggots’ followed by the song everyone was waiting for – ‘I Cum Blood’.

The main part of the set was closed, and after questioning ‘do you want more?’, the band played the last track of the evening – another ‘evergreen’ on the Cannibal Corpse shows with descriptive title ‘Hammer Smashed Face’. The performance was over – 17 songs with George Fischer’s jokes here and there, mentioning his brain condition caused by years of headbanging. If this was all what Cannibal Corpse had prepared for the evening, it was definitely enough to satisfy all the fans in there.

It was a steamy, hot and brutal evening, which can be summed up with the sentence used by George Fischer during the show – ‘So Death Metal is dead – I don’t think so’. Fans of different ages that sold out the club were the absolute proof that he was right. Death Metal is still alive and well.

Special thanks to 3rd Tsunami Agency

Text and Photos by: Kasper Pasinski

Managing Editor: Rita Limede

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