Conquerors Of The World

 Holy shit, just look at that sexy lineup. If you missed the show in Albuqurque on the 11th (or anywhere else they already played), sucks to be you. Here’s what happened during their performance at Blackwater Music.

Endless Infection, from Albuqurque,  opened the show with blackened death metal.  The drums and riffs persisted at breakneck speed, accompanied by nasty, heavy growls. Their overall sound was primally aggressive yet complex, setting the standard for the rest of the night.

Deforme, also from Albuqurque,  was a flashback to old-school death metal like Vital Remains and Suffocation. The ruthless music was a catalyst for rowdy mosh pits. Beastly gutterals and thrashy guitar riffs, layered over heavy percussion, resulted in a truly evil sound.

Necronomicon, a 3 piece  black metal group from Montreal, rivaled the headliners in theatrics and musical prowess. Their performance style was defined by atmospheric yet brutal soundwalls. Mid-paced guitar melodies were juxtaposed over dark growls and, for one especially memorable track, haunting female vocals.

Black Crown Initiate diversified the concert, being the only prog band amongst a plethora of black and death metal groups. The vocals were a combination of maudlin cleans and death growls. The melodies were multilayered and melancholy.  Although they were more ambient and less aggressive than the other acts, the music was heavy and the performers are clearly talented musicians.

Fleshgod Apocalypse was fucking ace. They were at their peak when playing their magnum opus, The Violation. The astounding range in the clean vocals sounded better in the studio than on the stage. However, the relentless gutteral vocals  sounded excellent, especially when juxtaposed over Francesco Paoli’s exquisite drumming, who is not only insane but inhuman playing over 300 BPM. Not to mention the eye candy of a bunch of hot Italian dudes wearing tuxedos and corpse paint.

Septicflesh sounded drastically different from their performance at Hellfest, which I’ve mentioned was nearly identical to their studio recordings. Conquerors Of The World was more like a live show, with more improvisations and audience interaction. I especially enjoyed when Spiros Antoniou would say: “On the count of three, together we destroy,” inciting furious headbanging and lethal mosh pits. Three days later, and I still have whiplash.