Monsters Of Death Tour – Monstrosity, Origin, Reject The Sickness, Intrepid – Boston Music Rooms 10th Jan 2023
As the new year begins so does hopefully another year of top-notch brutal music!
Just by this tour, the aptly titled Monsters Of Death we have the legendary Florida natives Monstrosity returning to the UK for the first time in many years! The ultra space grinders Origin, the melodic metalcore Belgians Reject The Sickness & finally old school death metal newcomers Intrepid.
As the early doors open, people start to creep in as Intrepid takes the stage. These guys are young, but what comes with youth comes drive & passion and you can tell these guys have it by the bucket loads. Mixing the traditional HM2 Swedish style with some more American death metal like Cannibal Corpse & Morbid Angel.
These guys had me floored honestly. They were tighter than a lot of new bands playing on such a big tour, and they had the stage presence to pull it off. Playing tracks from their newly released E.P. “Slaying of Sanity/Murder of Mind” this is a great showcase for what the band has to offer coming into 2023. Remember that name, Intrepid because you will be hearing it a lot this year!
Now for the Belgian Reject The Sickness. Brandishing a more technical metalcore twinged with Melo-death elements these guys are getting the crowd ready for the next two bands perfectly.
The technical ability of the band shows through, keeping the intensity while still being technical is a hard feat.
Vocalist Guy commands the stage with his wretched vocals & stellar stage antics. These guys might not be the most brutal band of the night but where they are less in heaviness they make up for in exciting song structures & great thrashing & pounding riffage.
Next up is the intergalactic titans Origin. Now i’ve been unluckily when it comes to seeing Origin, a band i’ve wanted to see for years but always missed & after reviewing their last album “Chaosmos” i knew i had to see them live. And tonight they affirmed to me why people say they are one the best live bands in the game.
The band’s chaotic talent isn’t just for on record. No… even in the live setting these guys are hitting 150mph. A relentless barrage of double kicks, 100 notes a second guitar riffs & gutturals from Jason Keyser one of the most entertaining front men i’ve seen in a while!
Even busting out deep old cuts like “Disease Called Man” sees the crowd in a frenzy. With the help of Keyser who even gives the crowd a lesson in crowd surfing & headbanging increases the pure chaos the band are putting the crowd in.
Closing the set with something a bit different, a silent wall of death & waiting for the crowd to charge as there cue to start the song, a simply brilliant yet hilarious take, Shows that Origin might be the kings of tech death by they are also the kings of having fun while listening to tech death too! Well worth the wait!
And now the time has come for the monolithic sound of Monstrosity.
Opening with the ethereal “Cosmic Pandemia” from the band’s last album “The Passage of Existence” which showed & still does tonight even though the band has been around since the 90’s they still are able to craft punishing & brutal music!
Heading into the fast paced “Firestorm” these guys are on full blast. No missed note or slowing down here, Full throttle.
The melodic leads that are now legendary with Monstrosity on record shine bright here. Both guitarists’ trade licks show just the talent that Lee Harrison rangels for the live touring lineups.
Now let’s talk about Lee Harrison. One of the most brutal & sought after musicians right now. And after seeing him perform tonight I can see why. One of the tightest & best “old school” death metal drummers i’ve seen in a while. The guy still has amazing chops!
At the set’s halfway point we hit upon the reason why we are here, Monstrosity celebrating their fantastic debut 1992 album “Imperial Doom”. Kicking things off with “Final Cremation” the crowd turned it up even more. Double the amount of crowd surfers, a bigger pit, more fans at the front singing along. You can tell people have been waiting a while to celebrate such a prestigious album!
As the night comes to an end closing the set with the classic track “Manic” the fan favourite from the “Millennium” album. Giving the audience one last lesson in brutality & how death metal is REALLY played.
Monstrosity are no way a shadow of their former selves. They are diamonds in the rough that will show not all legacy tours are cash grabs or musicians losing touch, The show with enough passion & love for death metal you can still be at the top of your game & give the fans the amazing show they deserve!
Review: Joseph Mitchell
(Photo Credit: Topi Davalos)
The Floridian beast MONSTROSITY returns to Europe and will have technical death metallers ORIGIN as direct support. Opening up will be REJECT THE SICKNESS (Belgium) and INTREPID (Estonia). With an all-encompassing setlist that spans MONSTROSITY’s 30+ year career plus a special Imperial Doom set.
Monsters Of Death European Tour 2023
MONSTROSITY
+ ORIGIN
+ REJECT THE SICKNESS
+ INTREPID
06.01.2023 CH – Geneva – L’Usine
07.01.2023 CH – Zürich – Dynamo
08.01.2023 DE – Trier – Mergener Hof
10.01.2023 UK – London – Boston Music Room
11.01.2023 BE – Roeselare – De Verlichte Geest
12.01.2023 NL – Amstelveen – P60
13.01.2023 DE – Dortmund – Junkyard
14.01.2023 NL – Apeldoorn – Gigant
16.01.2023 CH – Martigny – Sunset
17.01.2023 IT – Milan – Legend
18.01.2023 IT – Rome – Traffic
19.01.2023 IT – San Dona di Piave – Revolver
20.01.2023 AT – Graz – Explosiv
21.01.2023 AT – Innsbruck – Livestage
24.01.2023 SK – Bratislava – Randall
25.01.2023 CZ – Ostrava – Barrak
26.01.2023 CZ – Brno – Melodka
27.01.2023 DE – Zwickau – Club Seilerstrasse
28.01.2023 DE – Berlin – ORWO Haus
29.01.2023 PL – Poznan – U Bazyla
Comments MONSTROSITY´s very own Lee Harrison: „We’ve been primarily focused on recording the new studio album. We wanted to take a break and do some live stuff to let everyone know we are still kicking. I’ve been working on the new record with guitarist Matt Barnes. Matt has been with the band since 2010 and he has become an important force in what we are doing now. He has really come into his own on this upcoming album and I think people will be blown away when they hear it. We have guitarist Justin Walker, who did the 2019 Europe tour and has been playing with us off and on since then. He’s young and is a team player, so it’s nice having him on board. Our original bassist, Mark Van Erp is back in the lineup. People will remember Mark from the Imperial Doom album back when George Corpsegrinder was fronting the band. He’s always been a killer bassist and things worked out where it made sense to bring him back in. On vocals, we have been working with Ed Webb, who people may remember from his previous tenure with the band Massacre. Ed has been with us about a year now and it will be good to get out on a full tour and really stretch out with full sets every night. As for the tour, we wanted to give everyone a preview of what we have coming up in the future. The new album is turning out great, but there’s still a lot of work to be done so we didn’t want to wait to get back on tour. It delays the album a little, but it also keeps us in the fan’s minds while they’re waiting instead of being quiet for too long.”
MONSTROSITY:
Ed Webb: Vocals
Lee Harrison: Drums
Matt Barnes: Guitar
Justin Walker: Guitar
Mark Van Erp: Bass
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