After being a fan since high school, I was excited to finally get the opportunity to see Dark Tranquillity when they were announced for the Chance Theater.
As the days got closer it became more of a debate with money being short at times and car trouble (which turned out to be nothing) in the weeks leading up to it but luckily, everything turned out fine when it got close. After school I headed to the venue to finally catch the Swedish melodeath legends.
Striker
First main band on was the traditional metal throwback Striker. These guys will awfully generic and weren’t very good at all. They just felt like a weaker version of the bands they were paying tribute to and made me long-await Warbringer.
Warbringer
Second on were retro thrash titans Warbringer. I had not seen these guys since they opened for Iced Earth in 2012, so it was refreshing to see them once again. They didn’t play for long, but they made the most out of their minutes.
Dark Tranquillity
At around 10:30 p.m. it was time for the headliners. While I honestly wasn’t a big fan of their latest album Atoma, I didn’t mind anything they played live from it due to their good performance. I was also glad I got to hear a good amount of classics such as “Wonders at Your Feet,” “Mundane and the Magic,” “Misery’s Crown,” and my favorite track, “Terminus.” Not a dull moment went by at that show and it was one of the best I’ve been to at that Chance in awhile.
While The Chance gets some pretty cool metal shows from time to time, no one saw it coming when black metal icons Mayhem was announced with support from their Colombian counterparts, Inquisition. We then found out they were playing all of their 1994 album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, making this show an immediate must. After work, I grabbed my friend Jay and we left for the venue. When we got in the parking lot we saw that many a fan had also arrived early. We ran into Branden (another friend) and all headed for some food at Nutty’s, where we again ran into other friends who are normally mentioned in my articles. Prime time came around and we entered the venue. Although no band had started playing yet, the venue was already packed. Taking advantage of the open balcony, I headed up and found a sweet view before the first band started.
Black Anvil
I had seen Black Anvil once before when they opened for Watain at The Loft. I was never a fan, and wasn’t impressed at their performance then. Here it wasn’t much better. They had a new sound that had clean vocals that didn’t seem to match the music. After their set Inquisiton got on.
Inquistion
This legendary duo has always been one of my favorite black metal bands. Every time I’ve seen them they were killer – including this one. Their sound was spot on and they had a great setlist. Nothing that night could match the power of their set as Inquistion stole the show once more.
Mayhem
Last but not least, Mayhem got onstage. I had seen the controversial band once in 2015 with Revenge and Watain. At the time, I really enjoyed Mayhem’s set (though not as much as Revenge’s) as I finally got to see them and hear classics such as “Chainsaw Gutsfuck” live. Looking back, their sound was pretty off and they spent too much of the set promoting their last album (2014’s Esoteric Warfare), which wasn’t very good. Here, they were amazing. Mayhem brought out an altar while all the members wore robes. They performed De Mysteriis from front to back while doing over-the top-theatrics. The sound was much better this time around. The only problem I had was that they only played the album, making for a short set. Overall, it was a great show and made up for the near two month streak of not seeing any touring acts.
Only two days after seeing Diamond Head, Birdman and I headed back to The Chance for godfathers of goregrind, Carcass.
We arrived shortly before it started and ran into many of our friends inside. Unlike Diamond Head, however, the venue was pretty crowded.
Dissolve
First one were the Poughkeepsie-based hardcore/ noise rock band Dissolve. I had seen these guys once before two years ago play with All Out War. I found them to be one of the better openers on that bill. Again, they did a pretty good job. They sounded better than last time as the sound at The Chance is better than The Loft, and had great energy. The band made for a fun warm up.
Inter Arma
Next up was Inter Arma. I’d always heard good things about this band and had many friends who liked them, but never took the time to check them out. Inter Arma played a pretty interesting mix of death/doom, sludge and black metal. They were crushingly heavy and made me regret not checking them out sooner.
Deafheaven
After a crushing set from Inter Arma, came on the main support for Carcass, Deafheaven. Neither Birdman or I were ever fans of this band and weren’t excited to see them. We were both open-minded enough to wonder if they could at least be good live (they weren’t). The songs sound just as bad as they did in the studio and their performance was corny. The band all looked like Hawthrone Heights and seemed like they didn’t want to be there. The vocalist also moved his hands in a corny Broadway style.
Carcass
After Deafheaven got off the stage, all of the young hipsters started leaving the crowd leaving it a venue of mostly metalheads. I had once seen Carcass two years ago with Gorguts and The Black Dalhia Murder, and that show was amazing.
This time around, their live tone was unbeatable and Jeff Walker’s banter was hilarious. They had a great set covering greats from Surgical Steele, Heartwork, Necrotism, Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness (and believe it or not, they even played a track from Swansong for whatever reason). All these songs sounded great and I was glad to see them once more. After the show, we left and we both do plan to return in Febuary for Mayhem and Inquistion.
Thanks to an interview Birdman of Roargh had with the band’s guitarist, we found out about Diamond Head coming to The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY months before it was announced. Having influenced so many of our favorites, we both felt we needed to go see this classic NWOBHM band. Without stopping, the venue is 45 minutes from my house and we hoped to skip the openers as they weren’t anything special. We sadly only skipped one of the three. Normally I review the openers no matter how bad they are but these were so generic that they bleed into each other, which ironically saved them from any trashing . At around 10:30 Diamond head were set to play. We met up with my friend Ryan as well as Rock Fantasy owner Stephen Keeler and our buddy Brian.
Diamond Head
As Diamond Head was setting up I was curious to hear how they would sound live since they have a newer, younger singer named Rasmus Bom Andersen. At the time I had not heard anything from the new stelf-titled album and only really heard their debut and the song “Am I Evil” (yes, I’ve heard the originals and not just the Metallica covers). Birdman had seen them once before at Heavy MTL 2011, a lineup that included Cryptopsy, Opeth, Anthrax and Morbid Angel.
Diamond Head had a killer sound and Andersen sounded great. The energy was unbelievable. The set list was pretty great too. They played three songs off the new album which all sounded good while the rest of the set was dedicated to their first two albums. Classics such as “Helpless,” “Am I Evil,” “Sucking My Love,” “Shoot out the Lights,” “The Prince” and several more. After the show we met guitarist Brian Tatler and then headed home, although we would return in two days for Carcass!
After many years of success, hardcore legends The Dillinger Escape Plan decided to call it quits. When they got confirmed to play The Chance, Doug and I decided to go and bring our friend Jessie since he had mentioned liking them before. Our friend Nick also decided to tag along with us.
I had seen them once before, opening for Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden and while they killed at that show, I knew a headling performance would be totally insane. After eating at the sketchy Kennedy Fried Chicken, Doug and I went to the venue for Doug’s scheduled interview with the band’s vocalist Greg Puciato. After Doug’s interview ( where I helped contribute questions), the three of us got trapped in the dressing room due to the shitty carpeting. It wasn’t until Puciato’s brilliant plan to get the door open that we were able to escape Dillinger’s dressing room (also a good band name).
We regrouped with Nick and Jesse and noticed that the first band didn’t go on until 8pm (it was 6). We then decided to go to this local game store called Joe Gamer which sold games for almost every system known to man. Nick bought a copy of the Gamecube classic Tales of Symphony while Doug bought Superman 64 (because, why not?). We got back to The Chance around showtime, ran into my friends Rob from Roargh and Tom Wickland as the first band set up.
Bent Knee
Bent Knee started the set with some really bizarre music. They played some kind of prog rock with vocals that sounded like they were trying to be James Bond themes and keyboards that seemed like they belonged in different Square titles such as Final Fantasy, Life is Strange and Chrono Trigger. While I don’t see myself listening to this band on my own, I will say they performed well.
Cult Leader
The second band on this tour with Cult Leader. I knew nothing about them other than my friend Jason saying they were pretty good. They played a mix of doom, mathcore and grind. Most songs had very harsh vocals with a few of them having cleans that sound sort of like Nick Cave. They had a crazy energetic performance with a vocalist who was really over the top with his stage antics. They were by far the best opener I saw that night.
The Dillinger Escape Plan
After Cult Leader, we all went to hang out at Nutty’s bar and grill. After about half and hour we went back to The Chance to catch the feature presentation. Around this time I ran into Mers, DJ and Ryan from Black Table, who I saw put on a killer performance the night before. Dillinger had a machine gun performance with tons of energy and stage antics from Puciato as well as seizure-inducing strobe lights throughout the whole set. They had a great 90’s set list covering the band’s history while also promoting their just-released final album Dissociation at the same time. Classics like “Prancer,” “One of Us is the Killer,” “Milk Lizard” and even their pop songs such as “Black Bubblegum” were played – and all sounded great live. After the show Doug bought the new album while I bought a cheap Dillinger poster and we headed back to Montgomery hoping to make it back in time for Doug’s overnight shift.
Summer Slaughter, the biggest extreme metal tour in the U.S. is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary with a lineup that’s much better than most years (though it still contains too much deathcore). A big surprise came when it was booked at the Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY as this venue always skips out on big shows. I was able to get free tickets through Cannibal Corpse’s PR and thanks to Nuclear Blast I was able to schedule an interview with Terreance Hobbs of Suffocation. At around 2:15 p.m. I got to the venue and interviewed him fifteen minutes later. After a great time chatting with the living legend I got some dinner at Nutty’s and walked in, ran into many of my good friends and watched the first band set up.
Ingested
The first band I caught was the slam group Ingested. While some of my friends were REALLY hyped up for these guys I never gave two shits about them. Every song they played had the same chugging riffs and were full of slams over and over. They didn’t impress me or my friend Jay at all though several people seemed to really love them.
Slaughter to Prevail
Next up was generic deathcore from Slaughter to Prevail. They played songs that were extremely typical of that genre and since I don’t like deathcore I did not like Slaughter to Prevail. Moving onto something better, the next act set up.
Krisiun
These Brazilian death metallers were my first highlight of the day (wanted to check out my buddies in Lung Puncture but the interview time made that impossible). I had caught Krisiun once in 2013 with Funerus and Abnormality and they put on a stellar performance. Here they were no different as they totally killed and made up for how bad the previous bands were. I was watching from the balcony and the view was great (The Chance should have the balcony open for all shows). There’s nothing more brutal than watching Krisiun’s drummer Max Kolesne during their whole set.
Revocation
Tech thrashers, Revocation were on next. Another band I caught in 2013 on a bill with 3 Inches of Blood, Goatwhore and Ramming Speed. Revocation again reminded me how you can have tons of technicality and still be energetic.
Suffocation
After skipping Carnifex by hanging with friends as they got dinner, I went back to the Chance to watch Suffocation. Due to vocalist Frank Mullenno no longer touring with the band due to his work schedule, they had Ricky Myers from the classic brutal death band Disgorge. With this said they did well and Myers sounded great.
After the Burial
Since their is nothing interesting about this deathcore band, I just sat in the loft area and charged my phone. I could still sort of hear them and they did indeed sound awful.
Nile
Me and a bunch of my buddies worried about many songs Nile could play since they only had a 40 minute set and their songs tend to be long. The band was able to make due with this short set as they sounded great and played many classics like “Black Seeds of Vengance.”
Cannibal Corpse
Last but not least was Cannibal Corpse. I didn’t stay for their whole set as I’ve seen them four times before this and their set was very similar to the last one. That said, what I watched was excellent and sounded great like always.
Editor’s Note: In the wacky world of publishing, some stories don’t see the light of day. Whether they sit on the backburner until they become irrelevant, positions change hands or they just plain get cut, it’s just one of those things. Today, one of those unpublished articles will finally get its due as we traverse the archives of “The Vault.”
When Superjoint (formerly known as Superjoint Ritual) got booked only 40 minutes from me I was pretty curious. I’ve been a fan of Phil Anselmo’s work for many years and while I don’t like Superjoint as much as Down, Pantera, Viking Crown or Necrophagia; I do find Superjoint to be a fun project and way better then The Illegals. When I got to the venue I bought a ticket off of Kurt from Blast Furnace (the show’s local opener). After talking to a bunch of fellow metalheads at the door, they finally opened up and the show began.
Blast Furnace
First band on was Middletowns own Blast Furnace, who play really heavy old school death metal. Being from the area, I’d seen them play several times before and they are always a fun watch. Blast Furnace is definitely a band from middle to upper New York worth checking out.
Fulgora
Next up was one of several Housecore Records artists (including the headliner) Fulgoria. As mentioned in my Maryland Deathfest 2015 article, this band plays some sort of sludgy death metal. Album-wise I’m not a huge fan of the band but just like MDF they performed well.
Child Bite
Around this time the show started getting crowded. Because of this,the venue opened up the balcony. Child Bite plays some kind of weird post-hardcore. The set was mostly boring except when they covered “My War,” my favorite Black Flag song.
King Parrot
I have always heard hype about this band. Even at the show my friends Cheyenne, Mercedes and Ray all talked about how excited they were to see them and how over-the-top they are. Throughout the whole set vocalist Matt “Youngy” Young was wearing nothing but pants that were too big for him and shoes. This caused his ass to be seen during the whole set (not making this up). He would also spray the audience with water over and over. King Parrot played a mix of thrash, sludge and grindcore with vocals that were just high pitched squawks. These guys were the second best band of the night (the first seems obvious).
Superjoint
It was finally time to see the main act of the night. Superjoint’s sound is a little hard to describe. They play very short thrashy songs with sludgy riffs. This is mainly because Anselmo hates the use of subgenres – something he mentioned at the show. I was stoaked when he praised Blast Furnace and laughed when he bashed MetalSucks.
Superjoints energy was intense. They had a great set playing classics like “Fuck Your Enemy,””Dress like a Target” and “Ozena.” They also randomly covered “My Sharona” by The Knack. Sadly no Pantera songs were played but seeing Superjoint was good enough on its own… so good it made a random guy shit his pants (seriously).
After having a fun time seeing Children of Bodom a few weeks back, my next planned show at The Chance was none other than thrash titans Metal Church.
After getting my wipers fixed and buying a ticket from opening act Dark After Dawn, I went to pick up my friend Jay who was really excited to see them as their 1984 self-titled debut is one of his top albums. After 45 mins of blasting Demolition Hammer (another ridiculous thrash band) we made it to The Chance. We walked inside, met up with our friend Ray and the first band was just about to begin.
Dark After Dawn
First on were Goshen, NY’s Dark After Dawn. I had bought the ticket for this show off of vocalist/guitarist Maruf. They played a pretty heavy style of thrash metal. For a small local band they were pretty good and made for a fun warm up. After their set Jay left to the Nuddy Bar next door to get food – purposely skipping the next two bands as he had a hunch they would suck.
Christian Gisondi Music
Taking their name from their lead singer, next on were the local prog rock band Christian Gisondi Music. This band was awful. The members were all good players, but the music was all ruined by Gisondi’s obnoxious voice. Before the set he mentioned loving Metal Church saying “They are the only band to have a self-titled song on a self-titled album (Really, you never heard of Iron Maiden or Black Sabbath?).” Ray and I started to notice Jay made a smart move as the next band wasn’t much better.
Painmask
Painmask are a “tough guy” hardcore band from Kingston, NY. As people who aren’t into that sub genre, Ray and I weren’t impressed. Every cliche’ of this style was present in their sound and it made for a cringe worthy experience. Jay came in along with my old teacher/All Out War singer Mike Score towards the end of their set from a night of dinner and headbanging to classics by Celtic Frost and Carnivore on the jukebox at Nuddy’s.
Hatchet
Both Jay and I were really curious about Hatchet as we both heard of them and knew they were the band on tour with Metal Church. When it comes to new thrash bands I can be picky (and Jay even pickier) so it was all just a matter of checking them out. Hatchet really impressed both of us and pretty much everyone else there. They had a pretty cool thrash sound with melodeath-esque guitar work. The vocals sounded a lot like Schimer of Destruction which is always a plus. In short, Hatchet washed the bad taste of the last two bands right out of my mouth.
Metal Church
After all those openers it was time for the nights main band, Metal Church. The whole crowd was curious to whether they will play much off their first two albums (the 1984 self-titled and 1986’s “The Dark”) as they had the singer who joined after the third (1989’s “Blessing in Disguise”).
For some reason most of the songs Metal Church played were from the Mike Howe era. The only David Wayne era songs played were “Start the Fire,” “Beyond the Black” and “Watch the Children Play.” I found this weird because a) I saw their third singer Ronnie Monroe do a solo set in Kingston five years ago where played plenty of tracks from the first album, yet the full band is ignoring it and b) Seeing as their self-titled song is their most famous one, why skip it?
Having said that, they sounded great and we had a fun time seeing them. After their set we left to return to reality once more.
Cannibal Corpse and Cattle Decapitation are two bands I always make the effort to see when they come around. When a show was announced featuring both bands at a venue near me, I had no excuse not to go.
I went to pick up my buddy Jay (aka Keyboards) and we were off. After a ride that consisted of getting stuck in traffic and blasting Vomitory and early Samael, we arrived at “The Chance Theater” in Poughkeepsie, NY and bought our tickets from Will of Necroptic Engorgement. Many friends were at the show (including people I had no idea liked death metal) and Jason Keyser from Origin.
Necroptic Engorgement
First up were local favorites Necroptic Engorgment. I’ve seen these guys open for many bands including Macabre, Dying Fetus, the previous time seeing Cannibal Corpse as well as previous times seeing Cattle Decapitation. They’re always fun and this time was no exception. They played greats such as “Born in the Morgue” and “Blow Torch Castration” as well as a new song called “Sandpaper Masturbation” (which is now one of my new favorites).
Soreption
Out of the four bands, this was the only one I hadn’t seen before. I had never heard of this band before this tour was announced, but Jay’s friend Ralph told us they were “brutally good.”
Soreption is a Swedish technical death metal band. They were really heavy and had an awesome performance. Most modern tech-death bands tend to be forgettable song writers but this band was an exception as their songs tended to have more variety and didn’t sound too similar at all.
Cattle Decapitation
I had seen these death-grind legends at the buildings upper venue “The Loft” two months ago with tech-death greats Beyond Creation. I was worried of their set here not being as good as that one since they weren’t headlining. The band ended up topping that set due to better sound. As always, their set was very energetic mostly due to Travis Ryan’s incredible stage presence.
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse were the band that got me into death metal. Though I’ve explored the genre since then and found many hidden gems (such as Timeghoul), Cannibal is still a band I love.
What I noticed was their set was mostly later songs (except for “Stripped, Raped and Strangled”). I didn’t mind this as I enjoy all eras of the band, but there’s always the purists that only want the old material. Towards the end of the set they included more Chris Barnes era songs such as “I Cum Blood,” Skull Full of Maggots” and of course, “Hammer Smashed Face.”
The crowd was wild, the band had tons of energy with George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher twirling every chance he got as well as singing in a Broadway-esque voice between songs (not making this up). After the show, Jay and I got pics with his friends Ralph and Candy and we headed home after yet another kick-ass Cannibal Corpse show. This is my third time seeing both Corpse and Cattle but I know it wont be my last.
The Bonesaw 