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This was another great Friday night in Montreal as the mighty Obituary and the legendary Immortal frontman Abbath were playing the Corona Theatre on October 18. For this tour, both bands were accompanied by Midnight and Devil Master.

Devil Master was the first band on stage and their theatrical set up was the first thing that caught the fan’s attention. Their spider web, capes and corpse paint made this look like a Halloween party more than a concert. Their sound was muddy and that did not help the band as all their songs sounded the same. The band members did not move a lot on stage and the singer grabbed his microphone during the whole set and never interacted with the crowd. Fans observed more than enjoyed their set except for the song “Skeleton Hand” where they pushed each other with energy. They sounded and looked more like a local opening act than a band that was playing on the whole tour.

Midnight was up next and the trio really got the crowd going with their aggressive music and dynamic performance. The band played songs from their three albums and the crowd created big mosh pits in appreciation for their music. Both Athenar and Commandor Vanik are always moving and are constantly interacting with the crowd. They even went to the security pit to be as close as possible to the fans. Midnight really knocked it out of the theatre once again. These guys are really fun to watch so do not miss them next time they are playing.

Armed with a new album called Outstrider, makeup and armour, Abbath is simply a treat to see on stage. He is intense, does his famous crab walk and even tells jokes to make his show entertaining. For this tour, the band has a huge 3D logo that is placed in front of the drums and that is something that stands out more than a high-quality backdrop or projection screens. Sadly, Mia Wallace was not on this tour and was replaced by Rusty Cornell who played with the band in the past. As expected, their set is focused on their new album with five songs. The band also played “In My Kingdom Cold” and “Tyrants From The Immortal” era as well as Warriors from the I project. Fans pushed each other constantly and many crowd surfed as the intensity of the music reached new heights with each song. “Winterbane” hit the fans like a ton of bricks before the band completed their set with “To War!” Abbath played an intense and aggressive set that left people wanting more.

It was now time for the mighty Obituary to come on stage to celebrate the thirty years of the album Slowly We Rot. As soon as the band kicked things off with the songs “Redneck Stomp” and “Threatening Skies”, fans knew it was going to be heavy, loud and totally insane on the floor as fans immediately started pushing each other like there was no tomorrow. John Tardy is once again in great shape and his vocals are still very powerful and intense. The band grouped their songs by album for this tour and started with a pair of songs from the album Back From The Dead, then moved to the album Cause Of Death before playing the songs from Slowly We Rot. By this time, fans were crowd surfing like crazy and created a huge mosh pit that even included a topless girl. The band ended their set with the songs “A Dying World” and “Slowly We Rot”. As always Obituary did not disappoint and the musicians were very pleased by the crowd reaction.

When you have Abbath and Obituary on the same tour, you can’t go wrong and the fans could not ask for a better way to start their weekend!