Metal Blade 40th Anniversary Tour

Elton John famously sang “Saturday night’s alright for fighting!” When it came to the fiery crowd at Iron City in Birmingham, Alabama, “Wednesday night’s alright for raging!”

Historically, shows in the middle of the week tend to be a little sparse in terms of crowd attendance, but Birmingham said “hold my beer” and promptly showed up and showed out.

With gobs of metalheads hanging from the balconies, to packing the pit floor, this damn near sold out crowd opted for beastly brutality over adequate beauty sleep this evening.

Connecticut’s resident blackened death metallers, Shadow of Intent, were up first, and they undoubtedly set the tone for the evening. As vocalist, Ben Duerr, proclaimed, it was their first ever visit in Alabama, and the ravenous fans responded accordingly. Ripping through six tracks with laser point precision, Shadow of Intent left their mark, igniting the spark in the audience that would continue to grow the rest of the night.

Next up, Revocation revved up the crowd with their headbang-inducing, progressive death metal stylings. Vocalist/guitarist Dave Davidson and crew danced, stomped, and thrashed around the stage; fanning the flames of the now red hot, energetic metalheads. To close out their set, Revocation exuberantly announced they will be finally releasing a follow up to 2018’s The Outer Ones later this year.

Second only to the headliners of the night, Whitechapel easily had the most representation amongst the sea of black band shirts. By the time the Tennessee deathcore stalwarts hit the stage, the crowd was scorching with feverish fervor. The Southern hospitality was ripe with the fans as they treated every song in their set as if it were the last of the night. With Whitechapel’s hometown of Knoxville and Birmingham both being prominent belt loops in the Bible belt, the unholy sextet felt right at home inside Iron City.

Remember in the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective when Jim Carrey’s character gets on stage during a Cannibal Corpse set and starts raging, flailing about, and even throws himself back first on the stage in pure excitement? Yeah, that is EXACTLY what the Birmingham crowd was like in the pit during Cannibal Corpse. Back throwing and all. The inferno of passion burned through the diehard audience as the death metal legends played an incinerating 18 song set. With bloodsoaked classics, murderous modern mainstays, and every sliver between, Cannibal Corpse proved why they are undisputedly the kings of death metal. From a razor-sharp performance to Corpsegrinder’s ability to (hair) whip a crowd into a frenzy, the 30+ year juggernauts satiated the bloodthirsty appetite of the fans….in the middle of the damn week.

By: Amber Elkins

Image by: Micah Stackhouse