The monsters of the Midwest, Origin, had the privilege of being first to hit the stage. Despite the early hour there were still quite a few people there to see them. This has to be a first for me as usually the crowd for the opener is pretty thin and I got a nice taste of what it would feel like to wear my motorcycle jacket up in the pit. Origin played a speedy 30 minute set displaying their technical proficiency kicking out some of the fastest, most brutal death metal I have ever seen in a live setting. They were right on the money the entire time and the crowd was fully behind them. Drummer John Longstreth is a freaking machine, effortlessly raging nonstop at 200 miles per hour for the majority of the set. Unfortunately with the blazing speed and almost constant blasting the songs seemed to just blur together into one big blastfest. If they didn't stop between songs for vocalist James Lee to introduce the next one I probably would have gotten the impression that it was just one long song. Don't get me wrong, Origin is one of the best at the ultrafast brutal death genre and are VERY good at what they do, I just need a little more variance of tempos and melody in solos to keep my attention.

Hate Eternal, the band built on the musical hatred of Ripping Corpse/Morbid Angel axeman Eric Rutan, were the next to play. Though they were restricted to a very brief 30 minute set they managed to pump a shitload of energy into the crowd with their very aggressive onslaught of anger and hate. The dual vocal attack of Eric Rutan and Jared Anderson left my throat sore out of sympathy and Eric's melodic, flowing solos added a much needed respite to the overall brutality of the bands live performance. Drummer Derek Roddy is one of the top death metal drummers today and for good reason; he is simply brilliant and can replicate anything he does in the studio flawlessly in a live setting, from incessant blasting to quick stop/starts to countless temp changes. Unlike a lot of other three-piece bands they did not suffer from a lack of depth in their live performance due to only having one guitar. Hate Eternal is pretty big in the death metal scene now and I can only see them getting bigger, especially with Jared's departure from Morbid Angel allowing him to concentrate more on HE. If you are a fan of brutal death metal and want to check out some real masters of the craft you don't have to look any further than Hate Eternal.

After a short changeover Arch Enemy came out to play. This is their first US tour and fans in Seattle went wild seeing them live for the first time. Mike Amott showed his chops and succeeded in making people not miss his work with Carcass quite so much via his melodic yet abrasive guitar work and Charlee DeAngelo again showed that he is one of the hardest working bass whores in metal today. All of the members changed positions on the stage constantly to ensure that they could get close to everyone, something more bands should do. Angela Gossow had the crowd under her thumb and the hormones of a lot of the males in a rage, working the audience easily into "hey hey hey" chants and getting one hell of a reaction. Unfortunately I just wasn't able to get into it nearly as much as the other times I've seen them as their more melodic and thrashy brand of death metal just seemed somewhat out of place with the other bands on the bill. I was pretty much alone in that thought though; they did a great job and Seattle's metalheads are eager to see them again.

Arch Enemy Set List:
Enemy Within
Heart of Darkness
Bury Me an Angel
Diva Satanica
Beast of Man
The Immortal
Dead Bury Their Dead
Ravenous

After a somewhat lengthy changeover Nile's traditional Egyptian intro pumped out through the speakers letting everyone know that the Scourge of Amalek was finally upon them, this time a headliner rather than a support act for a "bigger" band. They made the most of their hour plus length set, covering favorites like "Black Seeds of Vengeance" and "Ramses, Bringer of War" as well as a few tracks from their upcoming album "In Their Darkened Shrines". I was somewhat concerned that the audience wouldn't be as receptive as they could due to the vast amount of energy expended during Arch Enemy's set but I was wrong, they went fucking nuts! New vocalist/bassist Jon Vesano showed more presence than most in the genre with his imposing physique and seriously psychotic facial expressions scaring the shit out of those unaccustomed to his on-stage insanity. Not very many people could fill the evil shoes of Chief Spires but Vesano does the job well, even better if you ask me. Karl Sanders laid down some of the most blistering leads I've heard for a while, the man is definitely one of the best death metal guitarists today. For a night filled with incredible drum work Tony Laureno took the trophy home as being the most impressive of the lot, showing off his technical brilliance while not completely overshadowing the rest of the band members. Their was a bit of delay with their encore as the sound man, probably thinking they were finished, killed stage sound and put on a CD, but they came back and did one last song to appease a (mostly) exhausted crowd. Not many brutal bands can convey a true feeling of evil and dread but Nile can, giving back the energy of the crowd with one of the darkest, most powerful performances ever.

Nile Set List
Smashing The Antiu
Execration Text*
The Blessed Dead*
Serpent Headed Mask
Chapter For Transforming Into A Snake
Sarcophagus*
Churning The Maelstrom*
Stones Of Sorow
Ramses Bringer Of War
Kheftiu Asar Butchiu*
Barra Edinaziu
Howling Of The Jinn
Black Flame
Defiling The Gates Of Ishtar
Black Seeds Of Vengeance
Destruction Of The Temple Of The Enemies Of Ra*
*New song

All in all, this was one of the best shows this year, just slightly below Immortal and Manowar in my book. The only thing that would have made it better for me would be if the venue had their coat check open. In understand it's the middle of July but some folks (such as people riding motorcycles) need one! If there's another show at the venue this summer I'll be sure to leave the bike at home so I don't lose so much precious fluids!

Nile web site - Arch Enemy web site - Hate Eternal web site - Origin web site

Photos from this show can be found in our Photo Gallery