(Blood) On The Floor: Obituary
When I heard that the Floridan death metal legends were coming to Winnipeg back in February, I thought ‘Obituary?! That’s once in a lifetime. And it’s months away, I’ll be able to set fifty bucks aside.’
Well, when Sunday September 20th rolled around, guess who was penniless and had amassed a thousand dollar debt thanks to my inabilitly to save enough money for my petty three course term? Yeah, that was me alright. Do yourself a favour and heed my advice: do not work at Clear Lake for the summer in hopes of saving any money; there is just far too much alcohol consumption in that park over a summer.
On the day of the concert I had already resigned myself to day of homework and lamenting not being able to see five great bands for a mere thirty-five bucks. But, in a last minute turn of events my buddy offered to buy my ticket if I paid for gas. Yet again I was coersed into using that dreaded MasterCard with its Brandon University logo that mocks me every time I pry it from my wallet.
Arriving at the Royal Albert Arms Hotel at around 6:30, we were already a few minutes late for Warbringer’s set, which I was a little upset about because I was almost more exited to see them than the headliners. Touring for their Walking Into Nightmares album which was released over the summer, Warbringer was a perfect opening act for this five band onslaught of Winnipeg’s most notorious metal bar. The lead singer, eyes bulging and at times looking possessed, really got the crowed thrashing and ready for what would prove to be a rowdy show.
The next act was an Aussie band called The Berserker which, in my opinion, were not the greatest, but certainly lacked nothing in the way of extremity and just plain, raw death grind. Wasting no time, the next band to set up were Krisiun. These guys are three brothers from Brazil that really know what it means to make straight up brutal death metal. I saw them open for Destruction in March, and had to attend when I discovered that they were playing the Albert again. They put on such an intense set that surely took years off of my neck’s life. Plus, you could not ask for a more thankful band; between each song they would say things like (and you have to say this in a Portuguese accent): “Thank you for coming out and supporting the show. Without you there is no show. So keep supporting death metal!”
Following Krisiun, were Goatwhore. This band has been gaining a lot of popualrity in the last couple years, and with the release of this summer’s Carving Out the Eyes of God album, a record that is a major stylistic change from previous releases, they have cemented their place as a leading act in the scene. On our way back to the truck we actually saw the lead singer and guitarist standing out at the back of the venue. On stage Goatwhore look like the incarnation of evil – armored in spikes and leather – but when we talked to the vocalist he was really thankful and shook our hands. The same goes for Warbringer: after Goatwhore’s set we met the guitarist and drummer who were both really chill. So it just goes to show you, metal is not about gutting goats and drinking blood; it is about strength of community and just making music and having fun.
Finally, after a full evening of blasphemous fun, the mighty Obituary took stage and the crowd erupted in absolute violence. There were people diving off the stage, drinks and elbows flying and just all around madness as the legends pummeled the crowd with over twenty years of historic songs.
Admittedly I did not know a lot of what they played, but I know for sure that they played On the Floor close to the beggining and closed with an encore of Evil Ways and Slowly We Rot right after a devastating drum solo. It was strange to see a Death Metal band play an encore, but it was worth it see the crowd refuse to leave and chant the name Obituary. It was such an exhausting experience, but well worth the 1:30am return.
