Casket Robbery has been on a whirlwind tour that lead up to Michigan Metal Fest, and they stopped over at the world-famous Cobra Lounge in Chicago on August 13th to bring death metal to the Sunday night crowd.
Casket Robbery started in Madison, Wisconsin in 2010. They play death metal in a brutal vein, showing their potential with the very first EP they issued, the self-titled affair in 2011. By the time their first full-length album came out, Evolution of Evil (2016), rumblings about them were reaching the territories, and a few visionaries started to predict they would move up quickly in the heavy music world. It turns out the soothsayers were right, especially with the release of The Ascension EP, Megan Orvold-Scheider’s first appearance on vocals with the band. I saw them for the first time last year at Tennessee Metal Devastation Festival on a chilly full-moon night at Beech Lake, and I was blown away. Shortly after that, the band’s second album came out through Blood Blast Distribution, Rituals of Death. Now, they are one of the death metal bands I most look forward to seeing.
The Cobra Lounge is a good place for metal shows, situated as it is in a parking-friendly neighborhood west of downtown Chicago, a couple of blocks from Union Park. It is in the same building as All Rise Brewing, so you can get great beer, and the food in the bar is a cut above as well. It is a small venue that attracts big acts – for example, late-night sets for Riot Fest are at the Cobra Lounge this year, Agent Orange is coming through soon, Venom Inc., and many more. On Casket Robbery night, a total of five bands performed.
Audiocide, a Chicago band, went on first. All the bands on the list were death metal bands of one stripe or another, with a tendency toward what is usually referred to as brutal death metal. Audiocide featured shortish songs that were noisy and thrashy, at times drifting into a doom arena for a bit. There was some vocalizing, but for the most part the songs were instrumental (and there was a technical issue with one of the microphones that made that distinction sharper). Altogether, they were a good group to shake things up early in the evening.
Next up was another Chicago band known as Greed Worm who describe their music as being “in the business of serving dank mean-spirited riffs for the disenfranchised.” The songs they played typically began with sound effects, and combined doom and speed with a hardcore sensibility. It was during their set that the first pit of the night opened. In the Cobra Lounge, when a circle pit opens it takes up a lot of space in the venue because of its diminutive size in the first place. Fans started to stretch out and limber up and get into the spirit of the sound.
Cannibal Abortion went up in the space of a well-lubricated crowd. Another Chicago band, Cannibal Abortion is an in-your-face kind of act. For example, singer John Chew spent a lot of the set on the floor singing in the crowd. The “hardcore dancing” and pit action started to get rough during this set, with a few fans hitting the floor, and at the Cobra Lounge the floor is hard as rock. Things got hot enough that security had to remove a couple of patrons, which is a shame, but it does sometimes happen when alcohol and other personality-altering substances are in play.
By the time Abaddonia started playing, the atmosphere was rather subdued after the aggression of the previous set. The band had creepy pre-recorded intros and distinguished themselves by unexpected Black Metal vocal hissing from time to time, and by vocals that were highly processed in other ways, too. Mainly, death metal was the rule and the ability of the band to expand their sound from that peninsula enhanced their performance.
Casket Robbery ripped and roared and put on an amazing performance. They focused on recent material and they had a lot to work with overall as their canon is growing. Megan Orvold-Scheider is a fountain of energy and verbal aggression, singing in ways that do not seem possible. The rhythm and lead performances were both raw and tight, a combination that lives on a razor’s edge. It was a great night altogether, and certainly, the indispensable feature of the show was Casket Robbery.
By the time this article hits the page, Casket Robbery will probably have wrapped up their current run. Look for them whenever you are in the mood for metal and they are on the road because if you are a death metal fan, you have to see them live. I do know they are headlining Tennessee Metal Devastation Festival again in October, so plan a trip to Jackson, or check out the tour page at the band’s website to see the latest dates.
Check out our latest interview with Casket Robbery here:
INTERVIEW: Cory and Meg from Casket Robbery – “Rituals of Death” Track-By-Track Breakdown
Buy Casket Robbery music and merch here:
https://www.casketrobbery.com/
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY WAYNE EDWARDS