Live Review: Thy Art Is Murder w/ After The Burial, Currents, & Brand Of Sacrifice at Bossanova Ballroom, Portland Oregon June 18th, 2022
Review & Photography by: Casey Conemac
Artist: Thy Art Is Murder, After The Burial, Currents, & Brand Of Sacrifice
Location: Bossanova Ballroom, Porltand Oregon
Date: June 18th, 2022
So when it was announced that After The Burial and Thy Art Is Murder would embark on a co-headlining U.S. tour with Currents and Brand Of Sacrifice it made a lot of fans happy. This show was the last tour date of Back From The Gulag Tour. And it was completely sold out the day of the show.
The opening act Brand Of Sacrifice opened up the show to a strong start. Hauling all the way from Canada, they are a death metal band that has reunited the flames in the metal scene of music. Most recently they collaborated on a track with We Came As Romans for a reimagined version of their song “Darkbloom”. Probably some of the most brutal heaviest metal you would ever see. Their set included songs like “Lifeblood”, “Enemy”, & “Demon King”.
They closed out the show with the fan favorite “Eclipse”.
By this time in the show everyone was fired up and ready for some more. There was no barricade at this show; there was chaos everywhere with people crowd surfing and jumping on stage. With no exception, Currents took to the stage to bring on more chaos. What made Currents stand apart for me from the other bands, is that they talked about heartache, physical abuse, abandonment, and trauma. These personal issues help fueled the rage in the songs and at times brought up the energy in the show.
Some of the songs that were in their setlist were “Better Days”, “Monsters”, & “Kill The Ache”. Every band brought their A-game on this tour.
It was After The Burial’s turn to take to the stage. The only way to describe After The Burial is that they are a force to be reckoned with. An extreme assault on your ears of pure heaviness with sprinkles of technical metal wizardry.
Halfway through their set the lead singer was telling a story about how he was touring in this band for 13 years and then the pandemic hit. He went on to explain how all he ever knew was touring and was glad at first he was going to be able to come home and get much needed time off from the road. But as we all know the pandemic loomed on for almost two years. That sent him into a spiral and eventually lead him to seeking help. “It’s okay to not be okay sometimes,” he said. Before this tour they were direct support for The Black Dahlia Murder. In memory of Trevor Strnad they dedicated the next song to him and his memory.
Some of the songs in the set list included “Lost In The Static”, “Exit, Exist”, & “Neo Seoul”.
The last band to take the stage was Thy Art Is Murder. The lead singer CJ McMahan approach’s the stage with his bandmates. First song gripping his skeleton pedestal ready to annihilate the crowd with the song “Death Squad Anthem”. They preceded with heavy hitters like “Make America Hate Again”, Holy Wars”, & Human Target”. They closed out the show with a two song encore of “Puppet Master” & “Reign of Darkness”.
