Arch Enemy and The Black Dahlia Murder Bring Their Wrath To St. Pete
We’ve officially entered the time of year in Florida when you can walk around outside without profusely sweating. Honestly, I would even go one step further and say the weather this week has been delightfully ‘cool’. It’s the kind of weather that makes you want to spend all your time outdoors and actually enjoy it before another heatwave or before it gets painfully chilly. But, as of right now, we’re in that perfect sweet spot.
So when I heard Arch Enemy, along with The Black Dahlia Murder, were teaming up and bringing their fall Wrath Across North America Tour to the outdoor stage at Jannus Live in St. Pete, I knew it would be the perfect venue to match that fall atmosphere. Add openers Thrown Into Exile, Crypta, and Septicflesh into the mix, and you’ve got yourself the perfect pre-Halloween metal show.
THROWN INTO EXILE
One of my favorite parts of Jannus Live is the sun shining onto the stage during the openers. It leads to a unique experience for the opening bands, and Los Angeles’ Thrown Into Exile got the crowd right into it. These guys brought a great energy for an opener and had a ton of stage presence. Their sound was a mix of melodic death metal and early metalcore, but they fit the vibe really well, and the crowd was really into them.
They blasted through their material super quickly, and after their set, I saw them hanging around and interacting with a ton of fans throughout the night. As an opener, it can be awkward because you’re playing to a crowd that isn’t super familiar with you or your music, but the guys in Thrown Into Exile made a great effort to make themselves easily accessible for fans to get to know them.
CRYPTA
Next up were São Paulo, Brazil’s favorite daughters, Crypta. I missed them the last time they came through Tampa, and I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice. They really got the crowd moving, and they were maybe my favorite to watch play. They brought a ton of energy and riled up the crowd with their brand of face-melting death metal.
Most openers don’t overstay their welcome, but this was an instance where I was bummed their set was over so quickly. Next time Crypta runs through Florida, I’ll cross my fingers it’s on a headlining tour.
SEPTICFLESH
Not to be outdone, Septicflesh took to the stage as a three-piece, currently missing cofounder and lead guitarist Christos Antoniou, who is missing a portion of the tour after breaking ribs in a fall earlier this month. Performing without the primary songwriter and lead guitarist would sideline almost any other band, but Septicflesh played like nothing was amiss.
It was really impressive seeing the band work through their highly complicated catalog of music with only three members, but everything sounded great to my ears. A highlight for me was bassist and vocalist Spiros Antoniou hyping the crowd up and teaching them how to sing along to the melodic chorus of ‘Anubis’, and the crowd did a great job at chanting along.
Septicflesh sounded particularly great, and it was interesting seeing an older crowd work its way to the barricade for their set. These guys have been crushing it since the 90’s, and it’s amazing when a band still sounds at the top of their game.
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
I saw The Black Dahlia Murder about a year ago in Tampa, and they put on a great show alongside Lorna Shore. The elephant in the room whenever The Black Dahlia Murder is brought up is the pre- and post-Trevor Strnad eras, and when I saw them a year ago, I thought longtime guitarist and now lead vocalist Brian Eschbach did a pretty serviceable job in his new role, but it’s kind of an impossible (and unfair) task to live up to. This time, however, these guys never sounded better.
I was curious what they would pull out of the back catalog, and boy, they truly did not disappoint. The band opened with ‘Necropolis’ from 2009’s Deflorate before kicking it all the way back to ‘Contagion’ off of their first album. They continued to dip into their entire discography throughout the night, including a back-to-back-to-back combo of ‘A Vulgar Picture’, ‘Miscarriage’ (maybe my favorite TBDM song), and ‘Statutory Ape’, all off of 2005’s Miasma. Statford the Ape showed up and threw some inflatable bananas into the crowd, which got whipped through the air for the rest of their set. It was really a dream setlist built to please almost everyone in the crowd.
The band ended with arguably their most popular song, ‘What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse’, and it still kicks a tremendous amount of ass. The band teased their return in the near future, along with some news that will be coming out after the tour concludes, which is almost surely details about their next upcoming album.
After more than 20 years, these guys are still at the top of their game. It’s not easy to keep it going for this long, and even harder still to continue writing new music and blaze new trails. Plenty of bands have taken the easy way out: hit the road, play the same old hits, and cash in. The guys in The Black Dahlia Murder have clearly agreed that that path is incredibly lame, and I’m more than excited to get my hands on what’s next from them.
ARCH ENEMY
Finally up were the co-headliners, Arch Enemy. This is the beginning of a new era for the band, as this is their first tour with new lead vocalist Lauren Hart. I was always expecting to be in for an entertaining show, but what I wasn’t expecting was to be completely blown away.
Without burying the lede too much here, this was maybe a top-3 live show experience for me. Right out the gate, the band got the crowd hyped up with ‘Ace of Spades’ over the sound system. With the crowd now ready to go, the band took the stage and ripped into ‘The World is Yours’. For her first major tour out with the band, Hart performed with immense skill and experience. She sounded amazing, but she also expertly worked over the crowd and the stage. It was easy to focus entirely on her, as she was absolutely the center of attention.
Guitarist Michael Amott made sure Hart didn’t steal the show entirely, as he frequently took center stage to rip off a guitar solo or two. Even though he just turned 57, he’s still got plenty of gas left in his tank and was shredding easily with tons of energy to spare. Guitarist Joey Concepcion frequently joined Amott in some dual shredding, and he ripped off a few solos himself.
The stage show was really impressive. The strobes were a bit much at points, but the giant video boards were cool, the lighting was amazing, and all the fun interstitial moments of the show really made for a cohesive experience. It’s really something seeing a band at the top of their game, putting together a beautifully choreographed stage show to delight longtime fans. It also made my job incredibly easy, as I always had something interesting to frame up.
The band closed out with ‘Nemesis’ as giant balloons rained down on the crowd, which was extra fun in the giant outdoor space with decent gusts of wind. After the final song, the band came back out with a giant ‘Thank You St. Petersburg’ message to the crowd, and stood on stage and threw out setlists and guitar picks, posed for pictures, and took a bow.
As I said earlier, this was a fantastic show with 3 incredible bands leading up to an absolutely mind-boggling pair of headliners. The show really just kept getting better as the night went on, and not a single note was amiss the entire night. If the Wrath Across North America Tour makes a stop in your city this fall, you absolutely better make sure you’re in attendance.
ARCH ENEMY | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE
THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER | WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE