WORDS AND IMAGES: CHRIS LOOMIS | Death metal in an arena . . . YES it happened in epic form on Saturday, May 25 as the Viking Metal Gods Amon Amarth made the final stop of their Metal Crushes All Tour 2024 at the 18,000 capacity Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. This culminated the 24-date trek across North America that had fellow Death Metal heavyweights Obituary and Cannibal Corpse in direct support with Dallas Texas youngsters Frozen Soul opening the show. This was without a doubt the must-see heavy metal event of the year.
With an early start at 6:30PM, Frozen Soul took the stage as fans were filtering into the venue, although the first third of the floor was already jammed packed with death metal die-hards. Vocalist Chad Green wasted no time getting the early-birds fired up as he belted out some serious guttural vocals and demanding the crowd to do push-ups in the pit. The band squeezed in seven killer songs in their short 30 minutes on stage and proved they are indeed part of the next wave of death metal giants to carry the metal torch for years to come.
Having toured with Amain Amarth on The Great Heathen tour in late 2022, Florida’s Obituary took the stage next with a seven-song set that weighed heavily on their latest album Dying of Everything. Opening with the killer instrumental “Redneck Stomp” then into the brutal track “Barely Alive,” John Tardy owned the stage with his unique Death Metal vocals. Tardy joined his brother Donald on the drums for the killer rhythms of “Slow Death” as the band proved their longevity in the death metal scene is not a fluke and that Obituary in 2024 is delivering their most brutal music and stage performances of their 30-year career.
Now things were about to get exponentially more brutal as Cannibal Corpse took the stage. From the first note of “Scourge of Iron” to the last beat of “Hammer Smashed Face,” Honda Center may have just experienced the most brutal performance in the venue’s 31-year existence. Vocalist George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher not only has the thickest neck in death metal, the most haunting, guttural voice in death metal, but he can headbang and do hair whips like no other human being can.