THE THRASH TITANS KLASH IN TORONTO, CANADA
Toronto, Canada – Wild forest fires in Northern Ontario and Quebec left the Toronto skies filled with a blanket of brownish/gray smoke during the week of June 5th, 2023. The evening of Thursday, June 8 was no different. As I headed down the Don Valley Parkway, on my way to cover the 2023 Klash of the Titans Tour, featuring Sepultura, Kreator, Death Angel, and Spiritworld, Toronto’s iconic landmark, the CN Tower, was barely visible due to the thick smoke filled skies. The air was stifling and I suspected the air inside the Danforth Music Hall was not going to be any better, due to the insane show that was about to take place. Three powerhouse thrash metal bands from the genre’s heyday in the 1980s, and one up-and-coming band that is taking the metal world by storm were sure to bring the heat to Toronto.
As I arrived at the venue, I was astonished to see the line outside stretched all the way down Danforth Ave, to the corner where the same street turns into Bloor Street. I had arrived only about 30 minutes ahead of the doors opening, so this sight blew my mind. I had known this was a sold-out show, but to see a crowd of this magnitude for the opening act was insane to me. It’s not that the opening act, Spiritworld was unworthy. Quite the contrary. But it’s a very unusual occurrence, despite the metal scene thriving in Toronto.
Spiritworld
With 4 bands on the bill, this show got underway bright and early, with a 6:30 start time. As the lights in the packed house went down, we were greeted with a dry desert cowboy hymn. 6 cowboys appear before us, in full garb, including cowboy hats, boots, western clothing, and the whole kit and kaboodle. The band blasts into their opening track, “Comancheria”. Things aren’t quite as they seem. The rhythm is completely groovy, despite it being heavy as hell.
You see, Spiritworld is Las Vegas’ Death Western Metal band. Perhaps the first ever of its kind. They released their first album in 2020 called Pagan Rhythms and followed up with the 2022 release Deathwestern which is completely insane and one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time. It holds no punches, and kicks your ass for the 36-minute hell ride, and is a complete throwback to the glory days of thrash metal. There is no doubt that their inclusion on this tour is not just to be a throw-in act. They pair well with the other 3 heavyweights and are completely worthy of their spot on the tour.
The crowd is engaged immediately with the sounds emanating from the stage. Even as guitarist Matt Schrum bellows out “TORONTO! FUCK YOU!!!!” the crowd goes crazy. I mean, where else, other than a metal show can you say that to a raucous roar? With little time to spare in the band’s 30-minute set, they plow through their 8 tracks, the aforementioned Schrum being the most active, running back and forth across the wide stage and the body surfers singing as they cross the threshold of the security barriers. Engagement! A band’s best friend, and a fan’s payoff for the ticket price. There’s nothing quite like it, and this event of the decade was about to get crazy!
Death Angel
The San Francisco Bay Area is where thrash metal has its roots. Having bred giants like Exodus, Metallica, and Testament, one of the key bands from this movement was Death Angel. Having formed in 1982, they were one of the first, despite not recording their first album until 1987, when they released The Ultra-Violence.
Death Angel, unfortunately, broke up in 1991 after an accident took drummer Andy Galeon out of commission. The Metal Gods shone down on the metal maniacs, however, and the band got back together in 2001 for a benefit concert for Testament’s vocalist Chuck Billy who had been battling cancer. They have been together ever since, and are woefully one of the most underrated thrash metal bands of all time.
At 7:15, the band hit the Danforth Music Hall stage. Thick smoke filled the stage, not unlike the thick layer of smoke that hovered over the Toronto skies. As the band appears before our eyes, it’s easily recognized that these guys are pros! Their presence is felt immediately, as we’re thrown back in time to the glory days of thrash metal. The band’s set starts off with the 2008 track “Lord of Hate” and then goes into the 1987 track “Voracious Souls” from their debut release in 1987. Vocalist Mark Osegueda takes a moment to share that the band loves Toronto, and if you didn’t know that, then this was your first time seeing the band live. He goes on to share a story about “Voracious Souls” sharing “That song you just heard came from ‘87 and MTV wouldn’t play it so we fucking came to Canada!! Our first time here, we played 2 shows in one night at the El Mocambo (another legendary Toronto music venue), so when we say we fucking love you, we mean it!!”.
Death Angel continued through their set and was outstanding. The music was tight and sounded fantastic, and the stage presence was just unmatched. As with Spiritworld’s opening set, the crowd was completely going wild. I’ve seen a lot of intense shows, and this one was shaping up to be one of the best, based on the first 2 acts, and the engagement from the crowd. At the conclusion of the band’s set, Osegueda tells the fans that he remembers being here the last time. It was the night his mother had a quadruple bypass, so his mind was elsewhere that night, “and you fucking guys got me through it!!” A real genuine love of the city and the fans was displayed and the crowd reciprocated with cheers.
Kreator
Ahead of Kreator’s appearance, I take some time to chat with some fans about this unbelievable show. One fan, Morgan, (a massive fan who travels from Canada’s furthest eastern province of Newfoundland to Toronto multiple times a year (month??) to catch metal shows, due to the limited shows that reach the island), shares that this is the only show of the tour that Kreator was not headlining. Apparently, this was due to Sepultura’s following being greater in Toronto. I can’t dispute it, but these German heavyweights are clearly no slouches.
Like Death Angel before them on this bill, Kreator was formed in 1982. With 15 studio albums to their credit, the band is another monster in the world of thrash metal. Despite a few lineup changes, their lead singer and guitarist Mille Petrozza, and drummer Jurgen Reil have been with the band since its inception. I remember first hearing Kreator in the mid-80s and they opened a whole new door of German metal. Of course, we all knew about the NWOBHM, and the thrash movement in California in the early 80s, but German metal to that point was unknown to me. That was until I discovered Kreator. One of my treasured possessions is the band’s 1990 album release Coma of Souls that I have on “painful purple” vinyl.
Back at the Music Hall, impaled bodies flank the stage, hanged bodies dangle in front of the backdrop, and a giant Satan is perched behind the drum kit. Plumes of smoke come billowing from the front of the stage and the band appears, blasting out their lead track “Hate Uber Alles”. A quick guitar change for frontman Mille, I was given a head’s up from Morgan that this guitar was purchased by him as a stage played instrument from the band. Now that’s cool!
The bodies are flying during the Kreator set. Heads are banging, fists are pumping and you can literally feel the rumble of the bass vibrating through your feet on the floor. The band sounds great and Mille’s vocals are incredible. He pushes for the crowd to rise up, and through some unseen force, they gather up the energy to push even harder. Mille calls out “Thank you very much Toronto! It’s good to be back. I only have 1 question Toronto… are you ready? I SAID ARE YOU FUCKING READY??? We are Kreator, and we are HORDES OF CHAOS!” and with that, the band transitions into their 7th track of the set. The crowd chants “KRE-A-TOR, KRE-A-TOR”.
A throwback to the 80s, which I actually haven’t seen in a long time, is where the band gets the crowd divided into sections to see who can scream the loudest. Here, Mille gets the crowd into a duel, having the front half of the auditorium battling against the fans in the back half. Not to be outdone by each other, the screams and cheers get louder with each rendition, but my thought is that the front half was the winner! With that, 2 demons appear with red torches. Each takes a position on each side of the stage as the band goes into “Violent Revolution.” It’s just simply more great interaction with the band and the crowd, each feeding off the other for a phenomenal set of thrash metal music. Amazingly, there’s still one act to come!
Sepultura
Sometimes, I wonder if the person who set the lineup got it right. I’ve been to a few shows in my time where the opening acts have blown away the headliner. As such, I simply wasn’t certain that the headliner’s on this night were going to be able to match the energy and aggression from the opening acts, and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how the crowd was going to muster up the energy for another hour plus of the same stuff they’d been doing for 3 ½ hours already. And then, Sepultura hit the stage.
This Brazilian thrash metal band from Belo Horizonte was formed in 1984 by the brother tandem of Max and Igor Cavalera. Although neither brother is still with the band, and in fact, there are no original members of the band currently on its roster, bassist Paulo Jr. did join the band shortly after its inception in 1984. Guitarist Andres Kisser has also been around since early in the band’s tenure, having recorded each of the band’s studio albums, since the debut Schizophrenia in 1987. And even though the founding members are no longer in the mix, Paulo Jr. and Kisser are Gods in this band, and they let it all shine on stage.
On June 8, headlining the Klash of the Titans Tour in Toronto, Canada, Sepultura open their set with Isolation after which lead singer Derrick Green tells the crowd that the band is going to play songs from their most recent album (Quadra) but we are also going to play some fucking old shit!!!” That brings a massive roar, because, who doesn’t want to hear old Sepultura?
Guitarist Andreas Kisser takes a lot of the duty of interacting with the crowd, thanking them, and telling them that they’re great! Sadly, Kisser lost his wife in July of 2022 after a battle with colon cancer. The loss resulted in Kisser understandably stepping away from the band for a brief time to grieve. Now that he is back on this tour, the man has an amazing stage presence, and his ability to shred his electric 6-string is not matched by many. During the band’s 6th track “Guardians of Earth”, which frontman Derrick Green dedicates to all the indigenous people around the world, Kisser opens the song with a classical guitar strumming and plucking, proving he’s not just a shredder. This guy is the real deal.
With a set that brought just as much energy as the rest of the show, the band, and the crowd kept the security at the barrier insanely busy, as bodies piled over the wall one after the other, seemingly non-stop through the whole hour-plus set. With that, Green tells the crowd that they’ve been one of the best audiences on the whole tour. “I’m not just saying that. We’ve been to a lot of great places but this is something special here tonight”, but he’s not going to leave it at that. He asks them for one special favor… “ARISE”. And of course, the band transitioned to the 10th track of their set. Green is impressed at the end of the song. Again, he mentions how awesome the crowd has been all night, but he still wants more! “I want this whole place moving for the last song”. With another burst of energy, the crowd goes into a frenzy for “Ratamahatta”. The whole venue is hopping and finally into “Roots!”
The streets outside of the Danforth Music Hall were abuzz at the conclusion of this show. How does it get any better? I’m always a major skeptic. And I’m not certain I’ll see the likes of this again. But I somehow recall saying this before….
See The Full Gallery of the Night Here!
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