Welcome to The Saw’s Butcher Shop! Your Master Butcher, The Saw, went to see some of the premiere bands on the Extreme Metal scene on Saturday, April 1, 2023. The ‘Pain Remains Tour’ made a stop in Greensboro, NC with a stacked lineup – Boundaries, Bodysnatcher, Brand of Sacrifice, and Shadow of Intent were all in support of Lorna Shore. And the show was at a brand-new venue in the area, which, on it’s own, speaks to the state of Extreme Metal today.
The Venue
Piedmont Hall is a brand-new (2019) $4 million warehouse renovation on the Greensboro Coliseum Complex campus. The 20,000-sqare-foot indoor venue featured a huge multi-leveled open floor plan with multiple bars, V.I.P. areas, an outdoor patio, and large bathrooms. With general admission, the place holds 2,300 people in standing room only. They have partnered with Live Nation for events like The Pain Remains Tour.
As I have mentioned before, though Live Nation gets mixed reviews, their involvement really stream-lined the entire process – from buying tickets, to parking, and the entire experience at the show. The staff and everyone involved with the event were awesome!
An important note about this tour being at this venue was recognized by fans and the bands alike: This large venue was Sold-Out for this show, which speaks volumes to the state of Extreme Metal. The genre is better than “alive and well,” it is thriving, and blowing-up all over the country (and the world)! A couple years of severe isolation has awoken a strong and powerful yearning for social structures and experiences – like a Heavy Metal concert.
The Bands
Boundaries
Boundaries opened the show with a great set. You already know that they are one of Ya Girl’s favorite bands, and they (of course) did not disappoint! They came to the stage and wasted no time inciting a musical riot – a good sized circle-pit and head-banging covered the, already, full venue. Boundaries did their job of working-up the crowd – a kind-of Segway between the stress of life outside the venue and the relief of live music with thousands of Metal fans of all types and ages.
Bodysnatcher
Bodysnatcher followed, and had no problem carrying the baton in an effort to issue the beatings! Another of Ya Girl’s favorites, they delivered, and handed-out a bruising ass-whoopin’. These two (Boundaries and Bodysnatcher) are two of THE premiere bands in their brand of Metal – a focus on the hardcore influence on Metal. And where Boundaries exercises the barking vocal attack, almost a rap fusion, with gang vocals, slam riffs, and drop beats; Bodysnatcher focuses more on the DEATH of the CORE influence – with more gutterals and buzzing guitar riffs. Additionally, before The Pain Remains Tour, Bodysnatcher was on their own headlining tour, and they sold out every. single. show. AND Demi Lovato posted them on her story recently. Bodysnatcher is going to take the world by storm.
Brand of Sacrifice
Next up was Brand of Sacrifice. This is a more deathcore style band with a great balance between the Death Metal and hardcore components (fused with various other styles, such as Black Metal). If you’re unfamiliar with them, they are very compatible to Lorna Shore; especially with the powerful vocal delivery of Kyle, “The Demon King.” Brand of Sacrifice destroyed us with a crushing set, spanning their entire catalog. The crowd responded well all night, but specifically, here, with the hard-hitting slams and drops that BOS are known to deliver. I also got Kyle to record a call ID for The Saw’s Butcher Shop! Tune in every Sunday night starting at 6pm eastern on Overkill Radio to hear it!
Shadow of Intent
As the crowd reached capacity (and pushed toward stage-front), Shadow of Intent entered the scene. Almost a straight-forward Death Metal band, with excellently placed CORE elements, Shadow of Intent pummeled us to the point of frenzy. Another powerful vocal delivery – a pure, deep gutteral with accents of screams, and (almost) Blackened voices – went well together with wicked riffs and beautiful drumming skill. These four bands were a great show, in and of themselves!
Lorna Shore
When the headliners, Lorna Shore, hit the stage, the whole place was ecstatic! Talk about a band that has, simply, blown-up over the last year, Lorna Shore is incredible on record and, as it turns out, live! Ya Girl has listened to them for years, and has seen them before. But since the addition of the insane vocalist, Will Ramos, and the drop of Pain Remains, Lorna Shore has taken this thing to a whole other level. The band’s live performance was nothing less than incredible! And Ramos’ multi-voiced vocals were on target, and very poignant. It’s hard to believe, until you see it for yourself, that all of these voices are coming from one guy. Ultra-deep, gravely gutterals, pig squeals (piercing, higher than “normal”), and every imaginal range in-between. The Pain Remains album plays very well live. The entire band was on-point; most notably, the drum-work on the huge kit! It really was an incredible experience. If you know Lorna Shore’s music, their live show takes away nothing, and adds even more. And speaking of “The Pain Remains,” they ended the show (with exception of the encore) with all three parts of the land-mark trilogy.
Setlist:
- Welcome Back, O’ Sleeping Dreamer
- Of the Abyss
- …And I return to Nothingness
- Sun//Eater
- Cursed to Die
- Soulless Existence
- Into the Earth
- Pain Remains I: Dancing Like Flames
- Pain Remains II: After All I’ve Done, I’ll Disappear
- Pain Remains III: In a Sea of Fire
- [Encore] To the Hellfire
The main thing that stood out to me during this show was how far these bands have come. I’ve seen Boundaries and Bodysnatcher in very small, whole in the wall venues — the ones where tables, trash cans, and bodies are flowing around the room! And now, being able to see them in a sold-out tour was absolutely incredible. These bands work their asses off and it’s so amazing to see these bands get to where they are today. I couldn’t be prouder for them and I can’t wait to see what they do in the future!
Stay Metal,
THE SAW
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