On January 16th, 2015, Black Breath took their first steps onto Canadian soil. Many of us in the Great North were worried that the border pigs would stop them from coming through, but when our co-presenters Nothing is Heavy sent out word that they had made it over, we all breathed a black sigh of relief. It was one of the more packed nights I’ve been to at the Astoria, and the crowd was ready to be blown away by the Seattle filth mongers and openers Baptists, Auroch and Amnesian.
Victoria’s Amnesian took the stage first to warm up our eardrums with their brand of grinding hardcore, and smashed their way into my eardrums with crushing blasts. Vancouver’s Auroch were up next, coming through with a mighty blast of death metal that kept the crowd’s heads banging. They were in full attack mode and decimated all nonbelievers in their path.
By the time Baptists hit the stage, the crowd was ready for their favorite local band, and showed it in the crush of people packed against the stage and the pit that opened up like the gates of Hell in the middle of the floor. Normally vocalist Andrew would have jumped in, but a broken foot kept him seething up on the stage as the crowd surged in front of him. Baptists played a set from both Bloodmines and Bushcraft to a crowd that no doubt has both LPs memorized, and loved every minute of the mayhem that follows this band.
Black Breath continued the onslaught on our senses, but we were ready for them as they stepped up the audio violence with their massive energy and killer stage presence. The crowd was pumped up on good music and cheap beer, and ready to smash each other, jump off things and scream their lungs out. Black Breath have that violent earth magick in their tunes that hits you like an earthquake, and though I’d heard they’d prepped a long set, it went by all too quickly. It was my second time seeing them live, but the first time I wasn’t protecting a pregnant belly. The whole night was captured by Taylor Ferguson on film (yes, you read that correctly – he had to get these developed), so check out his photos below and make sure to catch any of these bands the next time they come through your town!
AMNESIAN
AUROCH
BAPTISTS
BLACK BREATH
