The Summer Slaughter tour made a stop in Cincinnati as a part of its annual tour of extreme music. Many fans felt that this year’s lineup was not as strong as it had been in previous years. However, that did not seem to be an issue here. The fans came out in droves to Bogart’s for a night of metal and mayhem.
With several bands on this bill and only stage, most sets were limited to 20-30 minutes in the early part of the show. The road crew was like an experienced pit crew turning over sets in just a few minutes. Bands were coming on fast and furious and left the stage just as quickly.
Rings of Saturn was one of the first sets that I was able to see for the evening. This was a group that I had been wanting to catch for some time and they did not disappoint. With their screeching vocals and insane guitar sounds, they got the crowd going and left them wanting more. Fans started chanting, “One more song! One more song!” Unfortunately, the house lights went up. Hopefully we will see Rings of Saturn headline a tour in the near future.
Origin played next further working up the crowd as they organized a “wall of death” near the end of their set. The wall of death worked well with their “wall of noise” style of technical death metal.
Oceana had an amazingly strong performance that went over well. In between the brutal music vocalist Brennan Taulbee had some strong words of wisdom for fans saying the band is around to spread the message of unity for race and gender and when fans leave this evening to remember to do something for someone else.
Dying Fetus has been a death metal giant for years now and has been yet another act I haven't seen yet. Being one of the headliners it was nice to hear a longer set. Playing a mixture of old and new, Dying Fetus quickly turned the concert floor into a pile of bodies and energy. The group’s brutal death metal was loud, chunky and in your face. Everywhere you looked people were head banging, mosh pitting and throwing the horns. They were definitely one of the better performances of the evening.
Finally, the band that most people have been waiting all evening for was about to take the stage. Most fans had been here all day but still had plenty of energy for the concert’s headliners. The Black Dahlia Murder closed the show by playing fan favorite album, “Nocturnal” in its entirety. This sounded fantastic live. Sometimes bands go on tour and play an album in its entirety and part of the set falls flat. Fortunately, that did not happen here. The group also played a new song of their upcoming album which really excited the fans. Even though many fans were wiped for the day, it did not look like anyone went home disappointed.
