Summer Slaughter Tour

featuring Arch Enemy & Born of Osiris

August 13, 2015

Rams Head Live

Baltimore, MD

The Summer Slaughter tour slammed Maryland with an all day metal fest that started at 4 PM and didn’t let up until a little after 11 PM.

I will admit for the record that I had no intentions of covering the entire show; I was primarily there to catch Arch Enemy. I arrived a little after 8 PM and caught the majority of Veil of Maya’s set. The band sounded intense and the crowd devoured all of their energy and heaviness. This show was just barely 1/2 filled when I arrived and the entire upstairs was shut down due to low ticket sales. The sad reality is that once Born of Osiris finished their set about 1/2 of the crowd left which meant Arch Enemy played to just around 200 people tops; regardless of the audience size Arch Enemy played a kick ass set!

Born of Osiris; they sounded thick and heavy BUT their onstage lighting is best described as nonexistent! Trying to photograph Born of Osiris was a challenge because they never used any lighting other than what their amp pyramids omitted. My tirade for the evening was directed towards Kanye West and the long t-shirt trend he’s made popular. The long t-shirts that skinny guys wear are NOT t-shirts, they are basically man-dresses because once a t-shirt goes to knee length it’s a dress. Seeing various band members sporting the Kanye dress this night made me laugh because that “trend” is fine if you’re a cross dresser OR in a glam band; seeing modern hardcore guys dressed like Kanye is just freakin’ weird.

Arch Enemy were the nights headliner and they had the best sound, the best stage presence, the best EVERYTHING, yet the crowd dissipated rapidly once Born of Osiris left the stage.

Michael & Jeff traded guitar licks superbly and this was one of the better metal shows I’ve seen all year simply because the overall guitar tone was superb! Loomis adds to Arch Enemy’s live show and his riffs and solo’s are a defining staple to what made this show great.

Alissa is a great addition to the band and her presence adds an overall “fun” quality to the band. Angela defined the vocals for Arch Enemy but her presence was dark; Alissa’s vibrant blue hair, her shredded in layers attire, her poppiness....her presence adds a ray of light to the gloom that is Arch Enemy.

What was a little upsetting was the crowd. Between songs you could LITERALLY hear a coin drop! There was dead silence between songs and the crowd had gotten so small that it was like the band was playing an intense show for a hand full of friends.

Regardless of the crowd size Arch Enemy killed it, they played an amazing set and their hour long set was a great closer to an all day metal fest!