Seven days into 2019 and I had my first of many shows for the year. The “Two Paths” Tour with Ensiferum, Septicflesh, and Arsis. When this tour got announced, I immediately got excited, as Arsis is always a good time and I just saw them a few months prior on the Bloodletting Tour back in October. Septicflesh has always been one of those bands that I love but never actively think about, but they are always a band that I could sit and listen to for hours. Ensiferum is just an all around good time. That being said, this tour is also a bit of a mixed bag of styles, Arsis is a band that used to regularly tour with the likes of Cattle Decapitation, Dying Fetus, and Misery Index. So seeing them on a tour bill with Greek Symphonic Death Metal (Septicflesh) and Finnish Folk Metal (Ensiferum), I knew this was going to be an interesting and worthwhile show… so let’s jump right into this bad Larry!

Preface: In my 13 years of going to shows and 16 years of doing photography, I’ve never actually been to a show at Brighton Music Hall. That’ll be important in a minute,

So like I was saying, I’ve never been to a show at Brighton Music Hall. So I assumed that for it being somewhere where a ton of shows come to that it would have at least somewhat established parking. NOPE! I spent 90 minutes circling the same three blocks looking for parking in downtown Boston… you can imagine how that turned out. In light of that, unfortunately, I missed Arsis. But from what I heard from friends of mine at the show and video that I saw, they put on a phenomenal performance.

Second up on the bill, Septicflesh. Symphonic Death Metal from Athens, Greece and a band that I’ve covered before years ago on the “Conquerors Of The World” Tour, co-headlining with Fleshgod Apocalypse at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA. That was also one of the first shows I ever shot. I was really looking forward to seeing my guys again.

Eight crushing songs, two of my personal favorites, and getting whipped in the face. I’d call that pretty damn solid. They opened with ‘Portrait Of A Headless Man’ off of their brand new album Codex Omega, and then immediately dove into ‘The Vampire From Nazareth’. My personal favorite song of the night was also my favorite song of theirs, ‘Prototype’ of their album TItan. Closing out with “Anubis” and “Dark Art” they left the stage steaming and ready for the main event. Oh! I also got whipped in the face by one of the dreadlocks of lead guitarist Christos Antoniou, so that’s a story I can tell my daughter when she’s older.

On to the main event, Ensiferum!

Last time I saw these fine gentlemen was at the 2013 New England Metal and Hardcore Festival alongside Trollfest and Tyr. Very much looking forward to this from the jump and I was not disappointed!

Fourteen songs (That’ll make sense in a second) and not a bad one to talk about. “Two Paths”, ‘Twilight Tavern’, ‘Treacherous Gods’, ‘Warrior Without A War’… I could go on and on and on. I love this band! Although, I am slightly disappointed that they didn’t play ‘Deathbringer From The Sky’ or ‘One More Magic Potion’ but they made up for it with the encore.

‘Guardians Of Fate’, ‘In My Sword I Trust’, and of course ‘Iron’. But there was a strange but all too welcome addition to this encore, Guns N’ Roses?! Yeah, you read that right! The broke out into a condensed version of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ which the entire crowd sang for them (myself included).

So all in all, this is was a great show to kick off the 2019 concert barricade. Also, a very nice introduction to Brighton Music Hall as a whole. It’s a great venue. Just needs better parking.

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CHRIS SMALL CWS PHOTOGRAPHY