***Review and photos by Blair Burch***
OPENING ACTS: Summoning the Lich, Cognitive and Inferi
Hi folks. Blair here. Tuesday night I headed to The Dance Cave above Lee’s Palace to take in some death metal with SUMMONING THE LICH, COGNITIVE, INFERI and PSYCROPTIC during their 2026 North American tour. With Gustavo away dealing with family, I’m covering both the writing and photo work for this one, so we might as well start at the beginning. First out the gate, I was stunned by the crowd in this room. I have never seen this many bodies in The Cave; and the crowd got denser as the night rolled on. Noel Peters of Inertia Entertainment certainly knows how to throw a metal party. It’s always a good sign when the early crowd is a big one. Opening the evening we had SUMMONING THE LICH from St. Louis, Missouri. They are a self-described fantasy-themed death metal act. Now, for those who don’t know me, I met my wife playing D&D, so we can all guess what I thought of these folks.
I spent 30 minutes watching a haggard-looking Elminster (David Bruno) rain vocal brutality on us while regaling us with the tale of a rising dark power. He waxed and waned between a straight-up guttural attack, interspersed with moments of seriously killer, dynamic traditional metal vocals. The twin-guitar drive and pulse-pounding rhythm section provided the perfect backdrop, with melodic elements that felt Ren Faire inspired under the wall of distortion. It was powerful and intense, and pulled me right along for the ride. It took three songs before the circle pit opened up.
Band members
David Bruno – vocals
Ryan Felps – guitar
Nick “Muck” Muckerman – guitar
John Flynn – bass
Uncpole Jones – drums
Our second act of the evening was COGNITIVE from Jobstown, New Jersey. These folks are a tech-death band with a decidedly hardcore underbelly. Looking like a random group of dudes from any small town I’ve ever been in, their sonic assault was a serious contrast. These guys are an in-the-pocket groove ride from start to finish. They aren’t fancy, and don’t pretend to be. They let their music kick us in the teeth with a no-nonsense wave of energy. Taylor Pace held the crowd in the palm of his hand from the moment he stepped on stage. This was already headline energy, and we were only two bands in. It took two songs before the circle pit opened up, and we saw our first crowd surfers.
Band Members
Taylor Pace – vocals
Rob Wharton – guitars
Eric Benites – guitar
Tyler Capone-Vitale – bass
Alex Nourse – drums
Direct support for this tour was Nashville, Tennessee-based INFERI, supporting their Heaven Wept album that dropped back in April. This was the only act on the bill I knew coming in. I spent most of my life in Sault Ste. Marie, where not a lot of bands like this would make the drive into the middle of nowhere to play to a small audience. Inferi did. Twice. They spent the days being social with the local crew and left an awesome impression on me.
For this show, they brought exactly what I remembered: a blistering shred attack that makes my guitar heart warm and fuzzy. They are intense and in your face. Harmonized sweep-picking guitar work that would make the most ardent power or prog fan happy, interspersed with absolute bone-crushing riffs….this is my musical nirvana. Stevie Boiser is an impressive frontman. Always in motion. Always interacting with the front row. Always smiling. He’s also departing after this tour; a strange bookend for me, as that first Sault show was his first tour with the band. I can’t say when exactly the circle pit opened up. I felt it pulsing behind me while I got my shots in. I don’t think it took a full song before it was alive, and the crowd surfing wasn’t far behind.
Setlist
The Rapture of Dead Light
Feed Me Your Fear
Master of Nothing
Eternally Lie
Heaven Wept
Atonement Denied
Of Rotted Wombs
Godless Sky
Band Members
Stevie Boiser – vocals
Malcolm Pugh – guitars
Sanjay Kumar – guitars
Adam “Big Twiz” Skinner – bass
Nathan Bigelow – drums
…and then there was a headliner…
PSYCROPTIC came all the way from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia to bring their newest album, The Pulse of Annihilation, to Canadian shores. They rode in like a tsunami. Their music is proggy, off-time riffing melded with absolute face-melting energy. Their show seemed almost sedate compared to the scene they inspired. There was no countdown to a circle pit here. I was dodging flying bodies while trying to capture it all from the moment they started. I haven’t experienced this sort of crowd-band interaction in decades (remember, I’m from a small town in the middle of nowhere). It brought back fond memories of Dayglo Abortions, Random Killing, and Head Cramp coming to town in the ’90s and making venue owners nervous about what was happening.
In the eye of this storm stood frontman Jason Peppiatt. He’d hug the surfers as they landed on the stage and send them off to dive back into the maelstrom. This was a man clearly enjoying the scene he inspired, and we were all there for it with him. This is how a death metal party should play out. It was intense from the first tune of the first act, starting with the intensity dial clearly at a 9.5—and then it just kept ratcheting up. The frenzy for the headliners was truly something every metal or punk fan should experience at least once in their life. No amount of pictures or videos can truly encapsulate that vibe. It’s really life in the pit.
Setlist
Architects of Extinction
The Watcher of All
No Blade of Grass
Cold
Enslavement
Gathering a Venomous Herd
Euphorinasia
Frozen Gaze
Ashes of a New Dawn
Ob(Servant)
As the Kingdom Drowns
Encore:
Rend Asunder
Band members
Jason Peppiatt – vocals
Joe Haley – guitar
Todd Stern – bass
Dave Haley – drums
