Spiter @ Piranha Bar
w/ Desolus, Shroud, Mistwalker
May 26th, 2024
Dungeon Works Productions
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I’ve been a fan of Spiter since the release of their first album, Bathe the Babe in Bats’ Blood, which completely ripped my head off in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I was stoked the first time I caught them live at Turbo Haus here in Montreal when they made their way north, but I found the bill they were on to be a bit odd. Sharing the stage with noise rock bands like Greber and Cell Press seemed like a strange fit to warm people up for the vampyric blackened metalpunk of this Philadelphia three piece. Thankfully, this time around the band would be joined by artists much more in line with their vein of extreme music, namely their tour mates in Desolus alongside local openers Shroud and my own band Mistwalker. I obviously won’t be reviewing my own performance that night, so let’s just hop straight to Shroud.
The guys in Shroud and I had been talking for the better part of last year about playing a show together, and there was no better night to make it happen than this one. After leaving the stage Shroud set up their gear and immediately launched into their set of straight up Dissection and Aura Noir worship. Sounding like a mixture between melodic black metal and blackened thrash metal, they absolutely destroyed and laid waste to their set. It’s always enjoyable to see a band comprised of such top tier musicians who aren’t just great at playing their instrument but are fantastic at composing compelling tunes as well. Shroud have easily become one of my favourite black metal bands in Montreal and seeing them live again just made me ever more excited for their forthcoming debut studio album.
Up next was the first of the touring bands, Desolus, hailing from Washington, D.C. Now, let me tell you, if you’re a fan of any of the old school Teutonic thrash bands, especially their material from back in the 80’s, then you are absolutely going to love Desolus. These guys do the worship of that particular style almost flawlessly. With drums that pound away at a breakneck pace and riffs that sound as violent as a buzzsaw to your neck, they wasted no time in ripping through their set, track after track, brutalizing everything in their path. On top of the ungodly instrumental side of things the vocals from guitarist and bassist Vivek Rangarajan and Jimmy Frost were pure, unbridled terror. They combined the black metal-adjacent rasp of old school 80’s aggro-thrash like Sodom and Kreator with the occasional high pitched falsetto screech entirely derived from Slayer. It was a glorious sight and sound to behold. If you get a chance to catch Desolus live you absolutely need to do it.
With that it was time for the final act: Spiter! Unfortunately their touring drummer couldn’t make it across the border so the fill-in drummer from Desolus, who wasn’t the primary member of either band, also filled in for Spiter. As a result their typically 9-song set was cut down to 6 tracks, but still the band soldiered on. As Richard Spider and bassist Dan (ex-The Lousy) took the stage the small but eagerly-awaiting crowd may not have been fully prepared for what they were about to witness. As Spiter ripped through a selection of tracks from their first album such as the infinitely catchy “Foreshadow” and “Suicidal Blood Fucker” they showed no signs of slowing down, running around the stage, blood-drenched tongues dangling down, and capes a-gust in the wind. They also performed “Enter the Gates of Fucking Hell”, the lead single from their brand new record of the same name. While their set was short, Spiter once again blew the fucking roof off the place, and made it work in spite of the less than stellar conditions of their Canadian visit.
If you get a chance to see any of the remaining shows on the Shock from Hell Tour that Spiter and Desolus are currently on then you need to do so. While the amount of people that came out to this Montreal show was unfortunately small it’s certain that both of these bands deserve much bigger crowds. Music of this level of ferocity and intensity absolutely demands a packed house with never-ending circle pits, moshing, and crowd surfing. Make it happen people. For the love of Satan, please your dark overlords.
~ Akhenaten
Where Strides The Behemoth? 