Carnifex brought their Dead In My Arms 15th anniversary tour to the Concourse on Wednesday and left fans screaming “what the f*ck!”
For me and so many others, metal shows feel like home. And Deathcore bands like Carnifex, The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Thy Art Is Murder, and Suicide Silence single-handedly shaped my love for deathcore. Seeing a heavy hitter such as Carnifex touring with the bands that are reinventing deathcore gives us all hope that the genre will live on forever. So when they announced their Dead in My Arms Tour with Spite, Oceano, Left to Suffer and Crown Magnetar, I knew I couldn’t miss their stop in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Crown Magnatar and Left to Suffer started the night off strong. These guys may be considered still fairly new to the genre but don’t let them fool you. Both bands brought enough breakdowns to go around. It took no time for a pit to form in the middle of the venue, once their sets commenced so did the moshing. This new age of deathcore was exactly what this tour needed. Mark my words these two bands are on their way to headlining massive tours of their own.
Oceano and Spite were up next and they did not disappoint. These guys have been around for a minute so it should come as no surprise that they dominated the stage. They delivered some melt-your-face-off breakdowns, dynamic vocal ranges, sick dance moves, and an intense amount of stage presence. The headbanging and moshing intensified with each guttural growl. Both bands interacted with the crowd throughout their entire set. Oceano even gave the crowd a performance of one of their new singles and Spite hit us with all of the fan favorites.
After hours of intense moshing and crowd surfing with the support acts, it was finally time for deathcore titans Carnifex to take the stage. Being a fan for years this was somehow my first time seeing these guys live and I have to say I was just as excited as the rowdy Tennessee crowd was to finally see them live. As vocalist Scott Lewis enters the stage and utters the words “Knoxville let me see them up” the audience comes undone and the whole venue begins to shake. They open with Intro from their Dead In My Arms album as a massive pit begins to form in the middle of the room. I truly was taken aback by the whole band’s magnetic energy, I was entranced by their every move. They paused several times throughout their set to interact with the crowd, encouraging a circle pit and wall of death, even returning an “I love you too” to diehard fans posted against the barricade. Fans went absolutely wild for A Winter in Remorse as this is the first tour the band has performed the song and they couldn’t be contained when the intro to everyone’s favorite Myspace profile song, Collaborating Like Killers began to play.
If you have followed Keynote Music Collective for any time you would know that we advocate for mental health and suicide prevention. So it was an absolute honor to witness to what happened next. After nearly 40-minutes of soul crushing deathcore melodies Lewis slowed things down and spoke directly to the now hushed crowd. “Friends I am going to get real with you for a minute. These next songs are about witnessing a suicide and how it will fuck you up forever. If you have lost a friend or brother or sister, a mother or father to suicide, me me see your hand go up.” In that moment almost every hand in the nearly sold out venue was in the air. Lewis continues, “These songs are for everyone that we have lost.” his words fading into the intro to Dead in My Eyes followed by Dead in My Arms. At this point those who were once strangers in the circle pit are being embraced and comforted by each other as they remember those they have lost to suicide.
Without skipping a beat concert goers wiped the tears from their eyes and joined back in on the moshing and crowd surfing. Sadly the night was coming to an end just as soon as it began and they closed their set with Hell Chose Me. But it left fans begging for more. If you haven’t made it out to see Carnifex on tour, you unreseverdly need to. Every moment of their performance is immaculately calculated. I would go as far as to say they’re even better live than recorded and the crowd interaction is top tier. As I mentioned before metal shows feel like home and this one was no exception, when leaving the show you felt like you had just spent four hours headbanging with family.
