Live Review: The Black Opera Tour @ Warsaw (2024-09-23)
featuring Disembodied Tyrant, The Zenith Passage, Ingested and Shadow of Intent
Event Details:
Date: September 23, 2024
Venue: Warsaw Concerts (Brooklyn)
Ticket Price: $35.00
Artists: Disembodied Tyrant, The Zenith Passage, Ingested and Shadow of Intent
After a short breather yesterday, I’m back at this week with another metal show to kick things off. Tonight’s package was heavy on the deathcore side, all bands I had never seen before. The show was an early start, with doors opening at 5:30 and first band starting at 6:00. It was one of those rare nights where I was there to see the openers, not the headliners, so needless to say, I snuck out of work early because I wasn’t going to miss Disembodied Tyrant.
Disembodied Tyrant is probably the most flavorful of the deathcore bands that played tonight. I believe their lead singer and rhythm guitarist is the brainchild behind everything but the musicians he has filling out the band are incredibly talented as well. The drums just fly all over the place, with super flavorful use of the cymbals and of course some wicked blast beats. The bass had some super smooth thumping and the vocals were well balanced between gutterals and screams. I think this band could stick around for a bit, they sounded great and had a solid stage presence.
The original draw for me was The Zenith Passage, a tech death band from LA that I was introduced to via the Cali Death Podcast I watch fairly regularly. Their two guitarists are nasty with their instruments and write some really cool jams. They did not disappoint live and were awesome to watch. They have this really unique pulsing style to their rhythms that really stands out with whatever amps or modelers they are using. After getting familiar with their stuff, you can definitely tell them apart from others in the genre. Both of the first two openers had short sets, since there were five bands to get through before curfew, but they played a 12 minute track for one of their songs and it was so killer.
Next up was a band from Manchester, England called Ingested and it started getting more into the standard deathcore vibes of the evening. They played a solid set and the crowd had filled in much more by this point so things were beginning to get rowdy. The band had some fun with the audience and there was a good mix of everything from crowd surfing, circle pits, slam dancing, two-stepping and a even wall of death.
Shadow of Intent is when things started to get intense. They were the co-headlining band of the tour but this is kind of where I started to lose interest. They are cool but the music just starts sounding so repetitive after awhile. The crowd was all about it and you could start sensing a bit more tension in the room as the adrenaline was flowing. The collisions were getting more violent and the hardcore dancing started to become more prevalent. I know my cousin loves that stuff and I respect the hardcore scene but I don’t think I have the right temperament to just do that for fun, and tonight was a perfect example of what happens when things escalate.
Suddenly about midway through the set, two guys start going at it before the crowd tried to separate them. Eventually things calmed for a moment but you could tell they were both out for blood at that point and whatever started wasn’t over yet. Not even a couple of minutes later, the fists started flying this time and they were nearly collapsing into the mixing boards. Security eventually got the situation under control and I think they both got kicked out. I wasn’t even that bothered by the whole thing, it kind of comes with the territory, but I was a bit disappointed the singer just stood there and never said a word. If you want control of the crowd then you have a responsibility to make sure you keep the fans safe.
The main headliner, Fleshgod Apocalypse, is not my thing no matter how much I tried so I ended up leaving before their set but I feel like I got my money’s worth by seeing four bands for $35. I would have enjoyed longer sets from the two bands I was there to see but I have a feeling they will both be back on other tours soon.
Cheers and keep rocking!