The Coffin Dragger Tour – Baltimore, MD – 5.13.16

Australian deathcore heavyweights, Thy Art is Murder, made its way to Baltimore, MD as part of their “The Coffin Dragger Tour.”  They brought along Rings of Saturn, Fit For An Autopsy, and Dark Sermon for one of the heaviest and longest tours around.  Providing coverage for the night was Luis Rosales to witness the brutality of these bands.

First off was Dark Sermon, who definitely had a presence to them that made you think.  Vocalist Johnny Crowder sang to an animal skull he had on stage which was very different and made you look twice.  Especially when he throws his scarf over his face which added to the fear factor to their sound.  For the short set they had, they sounded great being the one of the opening bands.

Fit For An Autopsy was up next as they brought in a decent amount of people to the crowd.  Talking to some of the fans there, they were the sole reason for coming out even though the bands on this tour were pretty well known.  With that being said, there were some expectations which the band definitely met.  With Shane Slade and Tim Howley rocking right stage, there was a lot of hair moving.  Fans made their presence as one would continuously throw his hat on stage to Joe Badolato to the point where he wore it for a moment.  They played a fairly short set with 7 songs, mostly being their latest album “Absolute Hope Absolute Hell” while throwing one song from each earlier album as well.  Fit For An Autopsy left an impression on many.

Rings of Saturn took the stage next as everything seemed to be going fairly well during sound check, but as they started, vocalist Ian Bearer had trouble with his levels being that you couldn’t hear anything for about a quarter of the first song.  That got resolved quickly and show commenced like nothing had ever happened.  It was amazing seeing a band that can play something as musically complicated as they do and be able to stay in rhythm as they do.  From the blast beats to the extreme riffs, it is completely mind blowing as everything sounded clean.  Rings of Saturn isn’t a band that you want to miss in the near future as this tour comes close to an end.

Coming all the way from Australia, Thy Art is Murder made their way to states as they had Lochlan Watt fill in for vocals as many know CJ McMahon recently left the band.  However that wouldn’t stop the band as Lochlan did a fantastic job as this was his first time in the states like he mentioned on stage.  After a few moments, many people were impressed at his vocals and abilities to growl as well as he did.  Everything from guitars to drums were leveled perfectly where nothing was overbearing, that being said, the band did a fantastic job in filling in some pretty big shoes for vocals and is something to watch out for in the future.