Review and photos by Danielle Griscti
Empyrean Plague opened up the night after making the long trek to Toronto. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing these guys many times over the years and now through a lineup change. They started things off with a solid half hour offering of their signature atmospheric black metal.
The lights went down and things got a little thrashier with Sylvus. I have to say these guys have really done a number on their sound in the last couple of years and I am digging it immensely. Once they could have been described as folk/black metal but that’s definitely not the case anymore. The guitars are faster, the drumming is more precise, the vocals are about ten times more evil, especially with the occasional spine-tingling scream thrown in. Shivers in the best way.
Even while just setting up, the presence of Absu was entrancing. Stage backdrops featured the cover art from their latest, Abzu.
With two hours of an unforgiving black metal assault to look forward to, the crowd understandably went bat-shit insane. Proscriptor McGovern was clearly channeling the power of the underworld to keep up a relentless pace while continuing to scream out the majority of the vocals.
