Review: Summer Slaughter Tour at Irving Plaza -

Monday, April 29, 2024

Review: Summer Slaughter Tour at Irving Plaza

Ok metal fans, here’s the deal, if you’re looking for a festival show and refuse to shell out the cash for Ozzfest or Mayhem Fest tickets, get to your nearest club and go do some slam dancing with a few thousand of your closest death metal, metalcore and deathcore friends because that is what the Summer Slaughter tour is all about. We’re talking 10 bands and 6 hours of some of the heaviest metal you’ll find on tour this summer. Since its annual inception in 2007, many of the bands have come back year after year to play on this tour and if the August 1st stop at NYC’s Irving Plaza is any indication, it’s because the fans are absolutely rabid from start to finish.
I admittedly arrived late and missed Animals As Leaders and Vital Remains, which I’m rather pissed about because I expected the show to start later than it did with doors opening at 5PM. However I got there just in time for Carnifex’s set which I have to say was one of the best of the night. They were absolutely killer and had excellent stage presence and brought the crowd out of its early warm up moshing and ready for the reminder of the evening.
After Carnifex came Decrepit Birth who I took a min to get into but were totally working the crowd over. They encouraged the audience to challenge themselves to mosh harder than everyone else and prove they were the most brutal fan out there, all for a copy of their new album. Needless to say it worked.
Next up, Cephalic Carnage. They were absolutely high energy and no holds barred however, they had some bass trouble. Like the bassist was missing for close to 2 songs with technical problems, however this didn’t stop the band from their grinding assault.
Veil of Maya, the most hardcore influenced group of the day, took the stage after Cephalic. They had a huge following, designated by the high population of donned shirts in the audience, and caused some havoc during their set.
The Red Chord. I had never seen what these guys looked like and nearly cracked up when I realized they were all redheads. When it comes to metal though, looks don’t matter, it’s how good you play that counts. These guys were another one of my picks for best of the night. They were loud and heavy and encouraged their tour manager to go crowd surfing to get back his man hood after being mugged the previous night.
Now we get into the last 2 hours of the night starting with All Shall Perish. If anyone in the crowd was thinking of being tired at this point they caught their second wind because All Shall Perish was huge with the crowd. Frantic speed and heavy guitar pedal work characterized their performance and they had the ground shaking.
Two bands left, The Faceless and Decapitated. Now, a brief aside, as you can tell, or if you do some research, the line-up was predominantly of the –core variety. I personally had never heard of The Faceless until I saw the tour announcement but they truly deserved the direct support slot. Technical and uncompromising, they were easily the most talented of the deathcore bands of the day.
If you didn’t know any better, you might have thought they were headlining and that Decapitated was an added bonus for the night based on the exile after their set. Personally, I was rather shocked to see this, as Decapitated only played to a venue two-thirds to three-quarters full. Well all those morons that left didn’t know what they were missing. Decapitated were absolutely punishing. They brought the place down with an absolutely crushing set heavy with the brutality only Polish death metal can supply.
So back to my original point. If you want a day of crushing metal for a reasonable price, get out and go to the Summer Slaughter tour. If deathcore, metalcore, and death metal are your thing then you’ll find yourself right at home with this tour. If this review doesn’t convince you, nothing will.