Tag Archives: weeping

Concert Review – Revocation (Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON, 09/12/2026)

Posted on by
Reply

A feast of absolute raging Death Metal turned up the heat even more on an already hot night in the city of Toronto.

OPENING ACTS: Weeping, Fuming Mouth and Defeated Sanity

We’re lucky the weather is still quite warm in Toronto now that the summer is “unofficially” over (when kids get back to school, parents consider the summer as over, and will sport sweaters and jackets even when the temperature is above +25oC and sunny), and even luckier to host the awesome 20 Years of Torment 2026 Tour with WEEPING, FUMING MOUTH, DEFEATED SANITY, and the guys celebrating those 20 years of pure metal magic, REVOCATION, another great event brought to the city by Noel Peters of Inertia Entertainment. The cozy Lee’s Palace was the place chosen for such a nice gathering, and I was actually surprised it wasn’t too hot inside the venue during the entire night. Keith Ibbitson of Metal Paparazzi is still recovering from his injury and surgery, which means our friend Blair Burch once again helped us with his sharp photography skills to make this review of the concert as incendiary as the bands onstage. Also, traffic to get to Toronto has become a true nightmare no matter what time or day of the week, but fortunately as the first band was only scheduled to play after 7:30pm there was plenty of time to get to the venue before the celebrations started.

It was around 7:40pm when New Jersey’s own Death Metal/Hardcore/Powerviolence quartet WEEPING kicked off their insane performance, melting our faces mercilessly with their scorching heaviness and undisputed technique. Having released the album Spiritual Barbarism back in 2024, plus a new single titled When You Beg now in 2026, all available on BandCamp and on Spotify, the band formed of Theo Vlahos on vocals and guitars, Thomas Deabreu also on the guitars, Anthony Izworski on bass (who’s also the bassist for Fuming Mouth, by the way), and Jon Lievano on drums crushed our damned souls with a no shenanigans concert, kicking some serious ass onstage and, therefore, inspiring everyone on the floor section to already go mental inside the circle pit. Those guys are simply insane, and if you know nothing about them, go check their music asap and keep an eye on their tour dates, because if they ever take your city by storm, you know what to do.

Band members
Theo Vlahos – vocals, guitars
Thomas Deabreu – guitars
Anthony Izworski – bass, backing vocals
Jon Lievano – drums

Perhaps the most anticipated attraction of the night, besides obviously Revocation, was Milford, Massachusetts-based Death Metal/Metalcore/Hardcore outfit FUMING MOUTH, who are becoming a fan-favorite in Toronto when it comes to violence and heaviness. Mark Whelan, Patrick Merson, Anthony Izworski and Jay Weinberg made sure no one was left alive with an overdose of venomous roars, crushing riffs, thunderous bass lines, and demented beats and fills. Of course, the fact that their 2026 album The Ringing Bell (available on both BandCamp and on Spotify) is insane made their task a lot easier, as the crowd was eager to witness some of those new songs live, like Cheat Death, Self‐Exhumed, and Finally Fearless. It was really nice to see Mark explaining what Fuming Mouth means, this evil entity that will kill everyone, saying to several people in the crowd “You will die! You will die! You will die!” and, therefore, creating this fun connection between the band and the fans. We will all die eventually, and if we have the live music by Fuming Mouth to entertain us during our last moments, we’ll surely die happy metalheads.

Setlist
Cheat Death
A Blaze of Nihilism
Hidden in the Moor
Self‐Exhumed
I’ll Find You
Respect Mortality
Visions of Purgatory
Finally Fearless

Band members
Mark Whelan – vocals, guitars
Patrick Merson – guitars
Anthony Izworski – bass
Jay Weinberg – drums

After a short break, German-American squad DEFEATED SANITY kicked off their onrush of demonic, visceral and grim fusion of Technical and Brutal Death Metal, making the foundations of Lee’s Palace tremble so heavy they sounded. Having released the album Chronicles of Lunacy in 2024, available on BandCamp and on Spotify, frontman Josh Welshman alongside the extremely talented guitarist Vaughn Stoffey, the incredible bassist Jacob Schmidt, and the ruthless drummer Lille Gruber were insane onstage, with the circle pit getting out of control due to the extreme violence blasted by all band members. I honestly do not remember a kitchen so technical yet demolishing like the one crafted by Jacob and Lille, and if you enjoy extreme music with a strong technical vibe, go check the music by Defeated Sanity because those guys are amazing both in the studio and live.

Setlist
Introitus
Consumed by Repugnance
Verblendung
Liquifying Cerebral Hemispheres
Accelerating the Rot
Martyrium
The Bell
Dislimbing the Ostracized

Band members
Josh Welshman – vocals
Vaughn Stoffey – guitars
Jacob Schmidt – bass
Lille Gruber – drums

REVOCATION

After three opening bands that were all 10 out of 10, the crowd was more than warmed up for the lecture in Technical Death and Thrash Metal by Boston, Massachusetts-based crew REVOCATION, who might be celebrating 20 years of existence, but the ones receiving all the presents were us fans with each and every song played by those first-class musicians. It doesn’t matter if it was a late start, already close to 10:30pm, because the entire venue was burning with the blend of classics and new songs from their 2025 album New Gods, New Masters, which you can listen in full on Spotify. David Davidson, Harry Lannon, Ash Pearson and Alex Weber proved why they’ve become one of the most important bands of the current tech death scene with an impeccable performance, kicking our asses hard until the very end.

Songs like Nihilistic Violence, Chaos of Forms, Dismantle the Dictator, Summon the Spawn, and Bound by Desire were all played to perfection by those four extremely talented musicians, and the result was of course an intense circle pit that was dragging everyone into it in celebration of our good old Death Metal. There’s this very small Asian girl that’s rockin’ in every single show in Toronto, and of course she was there Saturday night. No idea how she can handle so much alcohol and how she can venture inside those demented circle pits due to her tiny stature and very low weight, but one thing I can say is that she knows how to party, and that’s exactly what Revocation wanted us all to do. They simply asked Toronto to party with them after 20 years kicking ass with their unique heavy music, and we partied hard. Needless to say, I don’t think it will take long for us to see such a phenomenal band in the city again, and we’ll all be there yet again to raise our fists and horns while they melt our faces with their killer tunes.

Setlist
Nihilistic Violence
Scorched Earth Policy
Fracked
Confines of Infinity
The All Seeing
Data Corpse
Chaos of Forms
Of Unworldly Origin
Dismantle the Dictator
Summon the Spawn
Only the Spineless Survive
Bound by Desire

Band members
David Davidson – vocals, guitars
Harry Lannon – guitars
Ash Pearson – drums
Alex Weber – bass

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Album Review – Overtoun / Death Drive Anthropology (2026)

Posted on by
Reply

This Chilean unrelenting outfit offers in their third album a true Book of Death forged in sound, channeling the death drive into a relentless exploration of human rituals, mortality, and cultural collapse.

Expanding their fierce Chilean/American identity, channeling the death drive (Thanatos) into a relentless exploration of human rituals, mortality, and cultural collapse – a true Book of Death forged in sound – Santiago, Chile and Boston, Massachusetts-based Progressive/Technical Death/Thrash Metal beast Overtoun returns in full force with their third offering, entitled Death Drive Anthropology, the follow-up to their 2021 sophomore This Darkness Feels Alive. Recorded at Estudio del Sur, and produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Martín Furia at Somma Productions, the new album by Yoav Ruiz-Feingold on vocals, Matias Bahamondes on the guitar, Matias Salas on bass, and Agustin Lobo on drums further cements the band as one of the most compelling and forward-thinking forces emerging from the Latin American metal landscape. Rooted in the primal force of 90’s death-thrash yet sharpened by a modern, incisive edge, the album fuses Latin rhythms, folk-tinged guitars, and razor-tight riffs, being therefore a must-listen for admirers of the music by Carcass, Atheist, and Revocation, among others.

The album couldn’t have started in a better and more demented way than with What Unites All, featuring guest vocalist Max Phelps (Cynic, Death to All), with Matias Salas and Agustin sounding absolutely mental with their heavy-as-hell, groovy kitchen. Yoav keeps roaring like a beast in the very technical, melodic yet brutal The Final Beat, blending the most caustic elements from Death and Thrash Metal, and after a cryptic intro the music evolves into another feast of progressive violence in Memento Mori, featuring guest vocalist Enrico H. Di Lorenzo (Hideous Divinity), where Agustin once again dictates the pace while Matias Bahamondes slashes his axe nonstop. Their wicked riffs and pounding drums are the main ingredients in the electrifying Dur Khrod, inviting us all to slam into the pit in the name of our good old Death and Thrash Metal; whereas their progressive vein pulses even harder in Jade, Gold, Obsidian, led by the intricate and flammable riffage by Matias Bahamondes. And in Yūrei they offer a more modern side of their core musicality, alternating between groovy moments and extreme aggression.

Matias Salas  beautifully steals the spotlight with his metallic bass in Weeping, as if Sepultura, Dream Theater and Machine Head had a bastard son (who loves Death Metal), which of course translates into total sonic brilliance. Guest Shantanu Vyas (Hazing Over) lends his desperate vocals to the band in Wind and Water, keeping the album at an extreme level of violence and progressiveness; and we then face a killer three-part extravaganza, starting with the 30-second intro The Waves Suite: Siren, setting the stage for The Waves Suite: Ocean, where the band goes almost full tribal with their ruthless sounds, flowing like an arrow on fire in the dark until The Waves Suite: Caleuche puts a very melodic ending to such an interesting aria. The band still has the icing on the cake to offer in the album, the title-track Death Drive Anthropology, inviting us all to slam one last time with them to the sound of the demonic roars by Yoav.

As mentioned, Death Drive Anthropology aims at channeling the death drive into a sonic Book of Death that examines how different cultures confront mortality, violence, collapse, and rebirth through ritual and art, and if you want to feel part of such an exciting metallic ritual, you can start following the band on Facebook and on Instagram, stream their amazing music on YouTube or on Spotify, and above all that, grab a copy of the album from the band’s own BandCamp, as well as from the Time To Kill Records’ webstore. In other words, simply open the Book of Death written by these talented Chilean metallers, and let their sounds bring to your soul the always exciting duality between life and death.

Best moments of the album: What Unites All, Weeping and Death Drive Anthropology.

Worst moments of the album: Wind and Water.

Released in 2026 Time To Kill Records

Track listing
1. What Unites All 5:23
2. The Final Beat 4:46
3. Memento Mori 6:38
4. Dur Khrod 3:54
5. Jade, Gold, Obsidian 4:00
6. Yūrei 5:25
7. Weeping 5:28
8. Wind and Water 4:05
9. The Waves Suite: Siren 0:23
10. The Waves Suite: Ocean 4:11
11. The Waves Suite: Caleuche 1:42
12. Death Drive Anthropology 4:23

Band members
Yoav Ruiz-Feingold – vocals
Matias Bahamondes – guitar
Matias Salas – bass
Agustin Lobo – drums

Guest musicians
Max Phelps – vocals on “What Unites All”
Enrico H. Di Lorenzo – vocals on “Memento Mori”
Shantanu Vyas – vocals on “Wind And Water”