Finally! After three years the Devastation on the Nation Tour blazes through New York City! … with two, back-to-back, scorching hot shows!
I was lucky enough to catch the Saturday Matinee, in true New York fashion. I opted for the 430 PM show in an effort to save my aging infrastructure from a night of TOTAL obliteration.
The night started off with three openers- Ghost Bath, Vale of Pnath, and Wolfheart. Three bands that let the crowd know this night was off to an epically heavy night. If you’re so lucky to ever have any of these guys come to your town, I wouldn’t sleeping on the opportunity- they are a guaranteed great time.
Abigail Williams walks out, they drop the lights and immediately turn things up, the way they always do when they take the stage. The crowd is always so receptive to this band and their brand of heavy, especially at Sant Vitus. There’s something about Vitus that always manages to create a uniquely intimate feel, while also managing to create this huge sound- perfect for bands like Abigail Williams.
The wait time between sets seems to go on forever as the fully worked up crowd grows restless. They see the fellas from the almighty Borknagor make their way to the stage and the crowd starts roaring “Bork-na-gor!, Bork-na-gor!”. It’s not until they are well into their first song that the crowd settles down and becomes fully engulfed into Borknagor’s unique pagan melodic-metal riffs for the next forty-five minutes.
Borknagor’s set ends and the time comes for the almighty Rotting Christ to take the stage. At this point the crowd is so wrapped up in the energy of the show that they start cheering for the roadies doing the sound check, not totally sure which guys actually belong with the band until Themis Tolis takes a seat behind his drums. Everyone knows what’s coming …. Sakis Tolis takes the stage, throws his guitar around his neck and they’re off! Face melting as ever, Rotting Christ tear up the Vitus stage for an hour leaving the crowd not-wanting. Well worth the wait and exactly what the metal-heads of New York came to see. Hail Rotting Christ!
WORDS AND PHOTOS BY JAMIE SHERWOOD