Decapitated/Septicflesh: The Observatory - Santa Ana, CA - 4/16/24

Jun 16

Polish death metal veterans Decapitated made their triumphant return to the USA this year. In 2022, they released their eighth album titled Cancer Culture. This tour is not one to miss as they brought with them Septicflesh, Kataklysm and Allegaeon. The first stop of the tour was in Santa Ana, California. This stop was bittersweet for Decapitated as, last time they were in Santa Ana in 2017, they were arrested after a fan accused the band of rape. The charges were later dropped by the accuser and the allegations were proven false. Even after that, that didn’t keep Decapitated from coming to the States and, for many fans in the audience, it was their first time seeing them. Allegaeon and Kataklysm did a great job of warming up the audience and there was still plenty of metal left in the night.
Septicflesh is a symphonic death metal band that hail from Athens, Greece. In 2022, they released their eleventh album titled Modern Primitive. At this point, the venue was nicely packed with metalheads, even on a Tuesday night. Septicflesh came out and started their show with their usual opening song, “Portrait of a Headless Man.” A strong start for these Greek metal titans and the fans showed their appreciation as they naturally started moshing right away. Singer Spiros “Seth Siro Anton” Antoniou has a very deep guttural voice that perfectly matches the music and is something that has to be heard to be believed. Their lyrics mainly deal with mythology and Egypt, so if those topics interest you, then Septicflesh is a band you should listen to. Septicflesh kept the brutality going as they played classics from their catalog including “The Vampire from Nazareth,” “Pyramid God,” “Anubis,” and “Communion.” The fans kept moshing the whole time and made Septicflesh feel welcome since it’s been several years since they last came to the states. The last song of their performance was their usual ending song “Dark Art” and it perfectly set the mood as an ending song. Septicflesh finished up their set, then left the stage. Lots of fans were happy to finally see them for the first time and hopefully it’s not a long time before Septicflesh return to the USA.
Much like Septicflesh, it was also the first time a lot of fans were seeing Decapitated. The lights went out once again and the now fully packed venue roared with excitement as the members made their way to the stage. The first song performed was “Cancer Culture,” the title track from the newest album. The explosive voice of singer Rafał “Rasta” Piotrowski once again sent the audience into a frenzy as they started moshing again and, soon after, even crowd surfers started to appear. Their stage was very dark throughout the show, and the only thing lighting the stage was their impressive light setup so you could occasionally see the members. The metal onslaught continued as Decapitated breezed through classics like “Nine Steps,” “Spheres of Madness” and “Earth Scar.” Rasta was enjoying himself as he would regularly swing his long-braided hair like whips which made for an impressive display. He also made note on how it’s been seven years too long since they were last here and it felt good to continue where they left off in 2017. The final song of the night was “Last Supper,” the last song from the latest album. Rasta thanked the audience for coming out and couldn’t wait to come back to California. The rest of the band joined together onstage to get a picture taken with their dedicated fans. Fans were tired, sweaty, drunk and everything else in between, but they were happy to see have seen all these amazing bands in one night.

Decapitated