Live Review: Suicide Silence w/ Boris The Blade @ Woolly Mammoth

We always knew that this was going to be a brutal evening. With some of the biggest names in death metal on our shores, we stretched our necks and braced ourselves for a night of merciless aggression, because Suicide Silence and Boris the Blade were dropping by Brisbane to wow lusciously long haired, metal-loving punters.

The crowd gathered at the feet of Boris the Blade as frontman, Daniel Sharp, made his way onto the stage with his back turned, viciously stomping on the stage. Erupting into the massive Serpents Crown, the Melbourne quintet showed us just how brutal they could be with their tech-death style and incredibly intricate drums.

The intensity of their performance was alarming and for brief moments, we were pretty sure Sharp was actually insane with his crazy-eyes and violent gestures.These actions suited their performance perfectly, as we were hit with insane breakdowns, guttural pig-squeals, some pretty violent moshing, and insane guest vocal appearances on Like Wolves. This show seemed to have it all! Some moshers may have gotten a little too ferocious as we witnessed one punter literally fly-kick another.

Ending with a call for a wall-of-death during Wastelands, which amounted to a bit of a let down as virtually everyone missed the cue. Nonetheless Boris The Blade really brought it with an insanely tight, high-energy performance.

Up next were the tour headliners: the mighty Suicide Silence. Returning to Australian shores for the first time since their Soundwave appearance in 2014, the Californian metal giants have successfully continued a legacy which really shows by the number of people that packed into the Woolly Mammoth that Saturday evening.

Opening with a huge blast beat, Unanswered kicked the night off with the mosh going off straight from the start. Despite the small stage, Eddie made a point to touch every inch of it beckoning the crowd to do the same as he asked, “Are you mother f*ckers gonna move?!” No Pity For A Coward was next as a blast from the past, and this crowd favourite always goes down well. The crowd screaming back at Eddie as you could literally feel the wooden floors were bouncing through the insane breakdown together with the spine chilling echoes of “Pull the trigger bitch!” reverberating around the room.

After absolutely killing Wake Up, Eddie commanded the crowd to put their middle fingers in the air for the angsty banger F*ck Everything! While this song seemed to get everyone moving, guitarist Chris Garza seemed a tad static and almost bored in comparison to the other members.

Eddie had a bit of fun with the crowd, expressing his approval of how often he can drop the “ C-bomb” in Australia before exploding into Cease To Exist. Guitarist, Mark Heylmun busted out some crazy sweeping solos along with some Pantene-inspired headbanging.

It was nice to see some of their newer material live and they absolutely nailed Sacred Words. As the most melodic song Suicide Silence has, the catchy yet brutal chorus was a nice change up from their usual sound. Insanity soon returned with Slaves To Substance causing a huge ruckus in the mosh. Again Garza looked a bit bored, but he impressed us with really nice volume swells.

After a bit of banter with the Crowd, some people got a bit loud heckling some utter bollocks at Eddie who eventually told the kid to shut up. A bit disrespectful to the stars of the night, but they handled it well and went on with the show.

Overall, Suicide Silence delivered an incredible example of showmanship.

Of course, no Suicide Silence show is complete without a wall-of-death, and while it was slightly smaller than their last visit to Soundwave, the intensity of the crowd definitely made up for it! One slight issue was all the bands’ gear being stored next to the mosh pit. With people being flung into drums kits and such at times, the venue may want to think of another option.

Wrapping up with You Can’t Stop Me and Destruction Of A Statute before leaving the stage, the crowd straight up refused to settle for that. Huge cheers of “One More!” filled the room. Thankfully Suicide Silence took to the stage again with a crushing bass riff and Eddie’s immense growls! With a slow build up, Eddie led the chant of “Live Life Hard!” before exploding into You Only Live Once. With impressive precision this classic banger set the crowd off. At times the crowd was even louder than Eddie himself and wirh bodies flying everywhere this frenzy was a great way to end the show!

Overall, Suicide Silence delivered an incredible example of showmanship. While it would be to see a bit more enthusiasm at times, their musicianship cannot be overstated! Their tenacity and energy is infectious.

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