The Decibel Magazine tour annihilated Theatre Virgin Mobile Corona (photos & review)

Decibel Magazine Tour
Theatre Corona Virgin Mobile
April 9, 2015
All photos courtesy of Jason Hughes

We’ve seen our fair share of solid metal package tour recently, but it seems unlikely that anything else this year will top the incredible lineup for 2015’s Decibel Magazine Tour, featuring At the Gates, Converge, Pallbearer, and Vallenfyre.

The last minute venue change from Metropolis to Corona made for a more intimate setting, and all the bands on the bill seemed to thrive off of the rowdy crowd’s energy.

I missed PHOBOCOSM (though we do have photos of their set below) and made it to the venue just as UK’s Vallenfyre were taking the stage. The band inhabit some especially dark and depressing regions of the death metal spectrum, but that was tempered live by frontman Gregor Mackintosh’s dry stage banter. “Anyone here believe in God?” he asked early on in their set, which got the evening’s first real laugh from the crowd.

Unfortunately, Pallbearer‘s bassist never made it into the country, leaving the band to perform as a trio for the majority of their set (the band was joined by Vallenfyre’s bassist for their closing number). With their progressive, doom-laden songs often stretching towards the 10-minute mark, the band only had time for three songs during their opening slot, which still managed to transfix the swelling crowd. With no bass for the majority of their set, the band’s techs seemed to have their hands full trying to manage the sound, which frequently alternated from muddy to aggressively loud. Hopefully the (complete) band will be back for their own headlining slot soon enough.

Converge were up next, and received a hero’s welcome the minute they took the stage. The Massachusetts metal-core pioneers haven’t been to Montreal in a few years and wasted no time with formalities, launching straight into “Eagles Become Vultures,” off 2004’s You Fail Me LP. A huge pit broke out form the band’s first note, with the crowd lunging for frontman Jacob Bannon as he ran back and forth across the stage, shouting out his trademark guttural vocals.

The venue security seemed taken aback by the crowd’s energy, especially after one elusive fan managed to sneak over the security barrier for a side stage-dive (to be fair, it’s rare to see a hardcore band play a venue the size of Corona). Although it’s been three years since Converge released a new record, they played with the intensity of a new band, running through their exhilarating 45-minute setlist with total abandon. Closing with the one-two punch of fan favourites ‘Concubine” and “Jane Doe” was a perfect way to wrap up their set.

Following Converge is no easy task, but Sweden’s At the Gates were more than ready. The last headlining show the band played in Montreal was back in 2008, and the enthusiastic crowd was beyond primed by the time they took the stage to the pre-recorded into of “El Altar del Dios Desconocido,” before kicking into the brutal “Death and the Labyrinth,” off of 2014’s At War With Reality. Luckily the band’s first proper album since 1995’s genre-defining Slaughter of the Soul is a ripper, as the band split their set evenly between new material and tracks off of Slaughter of the Soul.

Impressively, the newer material blended nearly seamlessly with 20-year old tracks like “Under a Serpent Sun,” demonstrating that At the Gates have lost none of their brute forth in their prolonged absence. Let’s hope it’s not another 20 year wait for new music the next time around.

Check out additional photos from each band’s set below, courtesy of Jason Hughes, 

At the Gates

Converge

Photos of Pallbearer, Vallenfyre, and PHOBOCOSM on page 2 below