The Origin of Madness tour: a night of chaos at Glazart
- Mitch
- May 1
- 4 min read
On Sunday 23 February, four deathcore bands took to the stage at the Glazart for their ‘The Origin Of Madness’ tour, including Harbinger from the UK, The Last Ten Seconds of Life from the USA, Distant from the Netherlands and Enterprise Earth, also from the USA.
7pm. Glazart. From the outside, the place looks deserted, a simple setting for a Parisian winter evening in the Villette district. Inside, however, a war is brewing. Tonight's event is a special one. For fans of deathcore and downtempo, circle pits and wall of death, in short for extreme metal fans living in the Paris region. Tonight, 4 bands will take to the stage for this apocalyptic evening, the French date of the “The Origin Of Madness” tour.
Harbinger
The evening began with the British band Hardbinger, opening the dance as if it had been going on for ages. The crowd, for their part, started to go wild, rather welcoming this band who probably had the least seniority and notoriety of the evening. But the crowd were still saving their strength for what was to come later. The singer's husky voice resonates, and you can hear the wear and tear of the tour that brought the four bands together, but the rage is more than there, there's almost a Punk energy deployed by this Technical Death Metal band. The tracks are punctuated by a few interventions from the singer, Tom Gardner, sometimes talking about his ex-wife, sometimes about Donald Trump. As the band only have a 2019 project and a few new songs from this year, the show runs smoothly. 1 hour set, very little time to catch your breath. Even the longest-suffering spectators at the start of the show were all in the mood and ready for what was to come.
The Last Ten Seconds of Life
After a short break to recharge on alcohol and nicotine, it's The Last Ten Seconds of Life's turn to perform. From the very first notes, a heavy, heavy atmosphere sets in. This downtempo band, with a career spanning 24 years, live up to the promises made by the sounds contained in their many projects. Low guitars, a slow tempo, as if the sound had been slowed down, and a singer, Tyler Beam, who excels in gluttural and low scream. A large part of the audience was there for them, chanting their choruses, as on the track Liberation. The violence in the crowd intensified, with pogos and circles becoming more frequent and more intense. Even if it's not the most eagerly awaited, the band is right on target, adding to the credibility of the evening for fans of the genre. By the end of the show, most of the audience had already left the pit almost wrung out, but ready for more.
Distant
And it was after a second interval that the evening reached its peak of violence, almost suddenly. Distant, one of the most promising bands on the deathcore scene, from the Netherlands, kicked off the show with the first sounds from their recently released album, Tsukuyomi: The Origin. The pit was transformed into a battlefield as the band's compositions seemed to have been fine-tuned to unleash the full force of the crowd. Vocalist Alec Grnja screams with rare precision, while the musicians set the pace, alternating between frenzied blastbeats and big, muffled breakdowns. Wall of death after wall of death, short pauses between songs and very little respite for the audience. After a show mainly made up of tracks from their new album (The Undying, Acolyte of Damnation) but also old favourites (Born of Blood, Exolift), the band brought hostilities to an end, greeting an audience that would take a while to recover from all the violence.
Enterprise Earth
Finally, Enterprise Earth, probably the most emblematic band of the evening, took to the stage. One of the pioneers of deathcore, the band have a strong following in the room, and deliver a more melodic but just as intense set. New singer Travis Worland, who's been with the band for three years, alternates between crisp high screams and heady sung choruses, and guitarist Gabe Mangold comes in from time to time with almost lyrical guitar solos. The audience was less agitated, but still in attendance, already exhausted by the three previous bands. The band got more cheers and arms raised to the sky than big circle pits. After a show mainly made up of recent sounds (Plasm Of Agony, Reanimate) to match the new singer's repertoire, the band bowed out and finally left the Glazart audience to breathe a little easier, having survived the Paris date of the The Origin Of Madness tour, which was nearing its end and will surely have introduced a good proportion of the audience to new artists putting all their energy into their songs and performances.
A big thank you to Suden Promotion for the invitation and the Glazart for the warm welcome!
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