Vile hit the stage first making their first appearance ever in New England. This was the band I was most anxious to see, since I am fan of both their albums, "The Stench of the Deceased" as well as 2002's "Depopulate". James Lee the singer of Origin, is covering vocal duties in place of founding member Juan Urteaga who is MIA, which is cool cause James is one of my favorite vocalist and a wicked cool dude if your able to shoot the shit with him. They ripped up mostly material from Depopulate. I was pissed along with several members of the crowd that their sound was so muddy, but nonetheless they still hammed up a great set of brutal groove oriented Death Metal which has been their trademark. Colin and Juan are both engineers and operate studios in California working exclusively with Death Metal. It's this type of leadership as well as comradely which separates and levitates Vile from the current in fluxing Metal scene which at times appears to be re hashing the same ideas every year. I will make a point to request these fuckers on the radio more because not enough people know about them or respect them, yet. These dudes need to come back again soon with a longer set!

Exhumed quickly appeared on stage next. These crazy fuckers are always a blast to watch. They were killer when I saw them headlining in Providence back in September and I have never really been disappointed with any live set that these bay area boys have put on. I am an asshole because I'm completely out of touch with their newest release "Anatomy is Destiny" but consistent listening to various Death Metal radio shows pits "The Matter of Splatter" and "In the Name of Gore" as some memorable tunes. The three axmen graced the front of the stage with their traditional duct taped guitar backs saying "GORE FUCKING METAL" and ripped into another sickening set of torturous thrashing grind held together by front man/vocalist/guitarist Matt Harvey and accompanied, as always, by fellow guitarist Mike Beams. Leon De Morte, formally of Impaled, is now playing bass for Exhumed. Leon's pretty nasty and executes the beer bottle slide quite well, and he's pumping out some nice guttural lows as well. Then there's John Longstreth, best known for his work with Origin, who is behind the drums for this tour. They played two of my favorites "Stench of the Crescendo" and "Open the Abscess". It's a bit odd seeing them play only a half hour when the last time I saw them they played a full hour but oh well, still a sick set and we all look forward to the day Exhumed will slaughter us all again.

Hypocrisy was back again for their 2nd time in 3 months. This time they played an amazing set compared to their last show with Dimmu Borgir. The set was highlighted best by the song "Adjusting the Sun" which is off my favorite Hypocrisy album "The Final Chapter". They played a few new ones "Eraser" and "War Within" as all well as other fan favorites "Fire in the Sky" and "Roswell 47" both dealing with the subject of extraterrestrial life. They even had time to play an old favorite "God is a Lie" off their first album Penetralia. Hypocrisy had an awesome mix and consistently displays top-notch musicianship and performance. I had no idea that Horgh, formally of Immortal, is now playing drums for these Swedish Death masters. He appeared quite comfortable in their mid-paced tempos, which is quite a change from his blasting work with Immortal. These dudes deserve a headlining tour, they're catalog is jam packed with memorable material, too many songs I want to hear live!

Cannibal Corpse completely massacred the venue! They played so much awesome material including several of my favorites. They opened up with "Shredded Humans" which caught several people by surprise, somewhat rare to witness the first song off a bands debut cd 15 years after it first surfaced, but Eaten Back to Life is a cornerstone Death Metal release along with half of their catalog. Overall, they played an amazing set consisting of 20 killer songs covering the span of nine different albums. The best set I've ever seen them play! Some highlights, "Fucked with a Knife" "Gallery of Suicide" "Stripped, Raped, and Strangled" "Unleashing the Bloodthirsty" "Devoured By Vermin" "Skull Full of Maggots" and my personal favorite "The Cryptic Stench". They played "Hammer Smashed Face" last and I think the pit opened up to be about 80 X 60 ft wide, it was fucking insane! I'm one of those assholes that has lost track of Cannibal Corpses newer material, but this set gave me some inspiration to buy their last two albums "Gore Obsessed" and "The Wretched Spawn". I also highly recommend their live album "Live Cannibalism" which is a great collection of various Corpse tunes with brilliant sound; it really captures their essence quite well. Anyways, I've seen Cannibal Corpse three times, many people I know say that "you see them once for the first time and that's it, every other set after that is boring" but after witnessing this one I have to disagree. Cannibal Corpse continues to pump out some great material. Running 15 years strong, they have neither changed their style nor strayed from their roots. They are a testament to the everything Death Metal stands for, whether it's brutality, gore, or just a fascination with the extreme, Cannibal Corpse are still standing strong after 15 years of insanity and it doesn't look like their gonna wimp out anytime soon.