The unofficial last week of summer kicked off with a treat for metal fans at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland. Swedish death metal legends At The Gates performed their 1995 album, Slaughter of the Soul, in its entirety and brought along Municipal Waste and Enforced for the ride.
Virginia-based Enforced took the stage at 8PM, assaulting the still assembling crowd with its thrash metal. Formed in Richmond in 2017, Enforced (Knox Colby, Will Wagstaff, Zack Monahan, Ethan Gensurowsky, and Alex Bishop) came together from the ashes of other hardcore and punk bands. Their latest album is Kill Grid, released last year, said to be a “nine-song cluster-bomb of thrashing death on apathetic times.” Vocalist Knox Colby marched back and forth across the stage like a beast, an animal roaring at the crowd. I can honestly say this was one of the most intense sets I’ve seen in recent years.
Virginia was represented yet again with Municipal Waste, who treated the Fillmore to a whopping nineteen song setlist, crammed into 45 minutes. The thrash outfit (Tony Foresta, Ryan Waste, Philip Hall, Dave Witte, and Nick Poulos), which formed in Richmond back in 2000, traffics in aggressive yet fun material. Labeled “party thrash” by the media, the band includes songs like “Beer Pressure” and “The Art of Partying” in their setlist, along with new tunes from their latest album, Electrified Brain, such as “Demoralizer” and “Electric Brain.”
The Monday night, first-day-of-school crowd had to be nudged a bit by vocalist Foresta to get the circle pit and crowd surfing going, but they got up to speed in short order. If you’re unfamiliar with Municipal Waste, it might be easy to write off their music based solely on the party hardy subject matter of their songs. That would be a mistake. Underneath that partying is heavy, hard driving, ass kicking musicianship. While Municipal Waste counts bands like Anthrax and Slayer as influences, I also picked up a heavy dose of Judas Priest in their sound; if you know me at all you know this is high praise on my part. Municipal Waste picked up a new fan in me Monday night; I’m sorry I forgot to buy a shirt!
At The Gates’ album Slaughter of the Soul, released in 1995, is known as a classic of the genre and one of metal’s most influential albums since its release, impacting melodic death metal and metal core. The 25th anniversary was in 2020; as with most things, the pandemic delayed the celebration. In 2022, fans finally had the opportunity to hear the entire album performed live.
The last time At The Gates performed at the Fillmore Silver Spring was in October 2019 when they, along with Arch Enemy, supported Amon Amarth on their Beserker tour. Then it was a relatively short set. On Monday night, metal fans were annihilated by a massive setlist that not only included the Slaughter of the Soul in its entirety but kicked off with several additional songs including “Spectre Of Extinction,” “At War With Reality,” “To Drink From The Night Itself,” “The Swarm,” and “Death And The Labyrinth” getting the crowd fired up before launching into the main event, Slaughter of the Soul.
At The Gates recently let go guitarist Jonas Stålhammar and has not announced an official replacement. However, Daniel Martinez was recruited for assistance on this tour. The core of the band, Tomas Lindberg, Adrian Erlandsson, Jonas Björler, and Martin Larsson, remains constant.
At The Gates ended their summer tour on August 30 in New York. After playing a few festivals in the US (Full Terror Assault and Blue Ridge Rock Fest) at the beginning of September, Municipal Waste heads to Europe with Anthrax. At The Gates launches a European tour in November.
ENFORCED
MUNICIPAL WASTE
AT THE GATES
AT THE GATES SETLIST
Spectre of Extinction
At War With Reality
Der Widerstand
To Drink From the Night Itself
The Swarm
Death and the Labyrinth
Touched by the White Hands of Death
The Book of Sand (The Abomination)
Blinded by Fear
Slaughter of the Soul
Cold
Under a Serpent Sun
Into the Dead Sky
Suicide Nation
World of Lies
Unto Others
Nausea
Need
The Flames of the End
The Night Eternal
