I personally think The Ritz in Ybor City is one of the premier venues we have in Florida. It’s historic, it’s in a nice location, it’s got amazing and unique lighting, and it's got fun vantage points to watch (and take photos of) the show. There really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Most of the time, it hosts EDM concerts and raves, but on special occasions, they allow it to be overrun by metal-obsessed goblins.

Nekrogoblikon stormed into town this past Saturday with Aborted, Signs of the Swarm, and Party Cannon in tow, and they weren’t going to leave until they threw an absolute rager of a show.

PARTY CANNON

First on the bill were Scottish slam metal goofballs, Party Cannon. Party Cannon’s reputation precedes them, as anytime they are on some death metal festival or concert lineup, their multi-colored ‘Toys’R’Us’ bubbly logo always stands hysterically out of place compared to the squiggly mish-mash of stereotypical death metal logos. As silly as their logo is, I was not prepared for it to be the least silly thing about their live performance.

The band slammed into their first song, and they were without a doubt heavy as hell, which made the visuals, on-stage banter, and beach balls being thrown into the crowd all the more bizarre. This is a band that writes serious material but refuses to be taken too seriously. The band performs alongside an on-stage hype man, Vominic Stonebones, who holds up cardboard signs throughout the show with relevant phrases on them to the song, like something straight out of Looney Tunes. It’s completely absurd, but it is so much damn fun.

Knowing who is headlining, Party Cannon feels like a slam dunk inclusion on this tour, and they got the crowd limber and riled up with push-up contests, walls of death, and crowd surfing on inflatable pool toys.

SIGNS OF THE SWARM

Next up was Pittsburgh deathcore outfit Signs of the Swarm. I couldn’t possibly imagine a starker visual contrast between two opening bands, because Signs of the Swarm unleashed their brutal deathcore with very minimalistic and low lighting, and were all killer, no filler.

Vocalist David Simonich hyped up the crowd the entire show, mostly just yelling ‘Tampa!’ every time he wanted them to ramp up the energy. After several of these pleas, I found every following one to get funnier and funnier. There’s something really hilarious about gently negging a city into giving you more energy right before a breakdown by just saying its name.

These guys were super brutal, and the crowd was totally there for it. The whole lineup is full of vocalists who can do pretty insane things with their voices, and Simonich is no slouch with his guttural lows and his insectoid snarls. The Ritz sound system really shone during their set, with several sub-bass drops completely rattling the walls of the theater. Overall, a very enjoyable set.

ABORTED

Aborted have been one of my favorite long-running death metal acts, who have consistently been putting out amazing and fresh material for over twenty years. Obviously, I was pretty jazzed to get to finally see them perform live, and they really did not disappoint.

The energy vocalist Sven de Caluwé brings on stage at this point in his career is legitimately mind-boggling. He was all over the stage, hitting his head, headbanging so hard he was folding his body damn near in half, and hyping up the crowd the entire set. The band followed by playing with a type of surgical precision that is hard to come by these days, and they truly sounded like a studio backing track.

At one point, ‘Svencho’ had the entire crowd doing squats during the breakdown of "The Origin of Disease”, making sure to keep them limber for the headliners. The entire energy during their set was fast, brutal, and unrelenting. Along with Signs of the Swarm, Aborted are both pretty damn heavy and pretty damn serious. They had their goofy moments on stage, but they both felt like a nice foil to Party Cannon and the headliners' slapstick goofiness. They brought a really nice balance to the lineup that worked better than it had any right to.

NEKROGOBLIKON

Finally, it was time for everyone’s favorite goblin-themed metal band (perhaps the only goblin-themed metal band) to take the stage. In the very center of the stage was a gigantic inflatable goblin head, and to either side were two risers: one for the drummer and one for the keyboardist. It was a very uncommon stage setup, but it looked really cool.

Once John Goblikon appeared, the entire venue went absolutely bonkers. There were so many people wearing goblin outfits, or goblin ears, or goblin hats; it was clear they just can’t get enough of this guy. He commanded the crowd, along with harsh vocalist Dickie Allen, as both of them scurried around the stage. Mr. Goblikon wasn’t just some on-stage distraction though, he was the main attraction.

As well as being the band's mascot and the voice of the band in between songs, he also flexed his golden pipes throughout many of the songs. He brought such a fun energy to the songs and little gags in between. The guitar tech, Eddie, kept coming out to swap out guitars and was constantly ridiculed and subjected to more and more ridiculous situations. All of these theatrics really added to an already completely absurd show, and it made the whole thing super enjoyable.

Halfway through the show, Dickie Allen brought out his son ‘Little Dickie’ to help perform “Secret Elephants”, which was a fun and tender moment, prematurely cut short by him hilariously flipping off the crowd. It kept the moment from being a bit too sentimental.

The band continued to power through their material, with each new song having the antics and stage presentation be more outlandish than the last. At one point, John had a fog gun and was shooting it at the crowd and his fellow band members on stage. This also led to a funny moment where he handed it to Eddie in between songs, who then proceeded to ‘fall down the stairs’ with it. I really enjoy it when a band makes an entire stageshow out of their set instead of just playing a collection of their songs, and Nekrogoblikon have mastered that with this tour.

After leaving and coming back out, John Goblikon thanked the crowd for being with them for 20 years before belting out the power ballad “Goblins”. Eddie returned one last time to fix some power issues for “Powercore” before being electrocuted by accident after John Goblikon spat warm beer onto him while he was holding live wires. Eddie was able to crawl slowly off the stage while the band began their final song, “No One Survives”.

Nekrogoblikon are at the top of their game, and if they keep putting on tours like this, they’ll be able to keep this thing going for at least another 20 years or so. Not so sure about Eddie, though.

The Tampa crowd really came out in droves and packed the house, and they really got their money’s worth with this one. It was such a fun (and funny) show, where all the bands had something fun to add to the mix. A lot of people have these preconceived notions about metal shows being scary, but this was perhaps the exact opposite of what most people imagine a death metal show to be.