Unleashed In The Midwest: September 2016
September brings with it another exciting month of metal concerts. Kansas City will be blessed with visits from several acclaimed black metal, death metal, and doom metal acts new and old. Bands from Greece, Canada, and other strange and mysterious lands such as Denver, Colorado will be coming to town.
September 13th - Marduk w/ Rotting Christ, Carach Angren, Necronomicon at The Riot Room
This will be the long awaited return to Kansas City for Marduk, one of the stalwarts of old school black metal. Starting with 1992's "Dark Endless" album, Marduk has never taken more than a few years between releases, becoming reliable for their quality album output and relentless touring. They are one of the most punishing black metal bands on the face of the earth today. Direct support comes from equally legendary Greek black metal group Rotting Christ who have been extremely active and influential in the underground metal scene since 1987. Openers include crowd favorites Carach Angren and extremely impressive Canadian black metallers Necronomicon. Blasphemy is the name of the game at The Riot Room on September 13th.
September 16th - September 17th - KC Blackdeath Fest II at Aftershock
Did you know Kansas City has its own black and death metal festival? And I don't mean just a bunch of local bands starting at 2 p.m. opening for a terrible touring group - I mean a full-fledged festival with two stages and a lineup of some of America's greatest extreme metal acts. In its second year, the KC Blackdeath Fest has moved to the Aftershock just outside of Kansas City to accommodate all ages and the lineup couldn't be more stellar. Of note is Chicago's Nucleus who are on the cusp of crossing over into metal's "next big thing" category along with Fin who put on one of the best sets of black metal at the festival last year. Support this festival!
September 22nd - Wolves In The Throne Room at The Riot Room
Before Deafheaven, before Panopticon, before Krallice there was Wolves In The Throne Room. One of the progenitors of what you might call "Cascadian black metal" has recently reactivated and are coming back to Kansas City. They recently re-released their critically acclaimed first album "Diadem of 12 Stars" and there are rumors of WITTR performing the album in its entirety. We're in for a treat.
September 27th - Blood Incantation at Davey's Uptown
It's a good year for suffocating, otherworldly, near-avant garde brutal death metal. Hot off releasing one of the year's most well-received albums, Denver's Blood Incantation are supporting that album -- "Starspawn" -- and it's not a performance to miss. Recommended for fans of crazy old school death metal in the vein of Gorguts, Demilich, and bits and pieces of the weirder elements of Death and Morbid Angel.
September 30th - Ghost at The Midland
The one band that has more chance to cross over into world-dominating mainstream success is the one with the Satanic undead Pope on vocals. You can actually track Ghost's surge to the top of the metal world by what local venues they've played at: The Granada in 2014, Liberty Hall in 2015, the second stage at Rockfest this summer and now The Midland. It's for good reason, Ghost plays an infectious-yet-heavy brand of catchy, melodic heavy metal and hard rock and their ultra-Satanic lyrics and schtick guarantee the shock factor. Ghost is one of the best live bands around today!
Jackson May is Kansas City (Kansas side, unfortunately) native that eats, lives, breathes and will eventually die by metal. After attending as many shows as possible for over a decade now, it's time for him to put pen to paper and blab about all things heavy music to anyone that will listen. Find him at any number of small heavy metal shows each month, or maybe at a few pop punk or hip-hop concerts.
September 13th - Marduk w/ Rotting Christ, Carach Angren, Necronomicon at The Riot Room
This will be the long awaited return to Kansas City for Marduk, one of the stalwarts of old school black metal. Starting with 1992's "Dark Endless" album, Marduk has never taken more than a few years between releases, becoming reliable for their quality album output and relentless touring. They are one of the most punishing black metal bands on the face of the earth today. Direct support comes from equally legendary Greek black metal group Rotting Christ who have been extremely active and influential in the underground metal scene since 1987. Openers include crowd favorites Carach Angren and extremely impressive Canadian black metallers Necronomicon. Blasphemy is the name of the game at The Riot Room on September 13th.
September 16th - September 17th - KC Blackdeath Fest II at Aftershock
Did you know Kansas City has its own black and death metal festival? And I don't mean just a bunch of local bands starting at 2 p.m. opening for a terrible touring group - I mean a full-fledged festival with two stages and a lineup of some of America's greatest extreme metal acts. In its second year, the KC Blackdeath Fest has moved to the Aftershock just outside of Kansas City to accommodate all ages and the lineup couldn't be more stellar. Of note is Chicago's Nucleus who are on the cusp of crossing over into metal's "next big thing" category along with Fin who put on one of the best sets of black metal at the festival last year. Support this festival!
September 22nd - Wolves In The Throne Room at The Riot Room
Before Deafheaven, before Panopticon, before Krallice there was Wolves In The Throne Room. One of the progenitors of what you might call "Cascadian black metal" has recently reactivated and are coming back to Kansas City. They recently re-released their critically acclaimed first album "Diadem of 12 Stars" and there are rumors of WITTR performing the album in its entirety. We're in for a treat.
September 27th - Blood Incantation at Davey's Uptown
It's a good year for suffocating, otherworldly, near-avant garde brutal death metal. Hot off releasing one of the year's most well-received albums, Denver's Blood Incantation are supporting that album -- "Starspawn" -- and it's not a performance to miss. Recommended for fans of crazy old school death metal in the vein of Gorguts, Demilich, and bits and pieces of the weirder elements of Death and Morbid Angel.
September 30th - Ghost at The Midland
The one band that has more chance to cross over into world-dominating mainstream success is the one with the Satanic undead Pope on vocals. You can actually track Ghost's surge to the top of the metal world by what local venues they've played at: The Granada in 2014, Liberty Hall in 2015, the second stage at Rockfest this summer and now The Midland. It's for good reason, Ghost plays an infectious-yet-heavy brand of catchy, melodic heavy metal and hard rock and their ultra-Satanic lyrics and schtick guarantee the shock factor. Ghost is one of the best live bands around today!
Jackson May is Kansas City (Kansas side, unfortunately) native that eats, lives, breathes and will eventually die by metal. After attending as many shows as possible for over a decade now, it's time for him to put pen to paper and blab about all things heavy music to anyone that will listen. Find him at any number of small heavy metal shows each month, or maybe at a few pop punk or hip-hop concerts.
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