Hatebreed + Dying Fetus + Drown My Day + Tarpan – 14.04.2017 @Warszawa, Progresja, PL

I received a very nice present from Knock Out Productions for my twenty-eighth birthday. Remembering the missed Dying Fetus concert at last year’s Brutal Assault, which, according to eyewitness accounts, received an amazing response from the audience, I wanted to catch up as soon as possible and check out the current form of the technical death/grind masters. The headliner, Hatebreed, was also enticing, and the local supports were very well chosen.

The concert was on a Friday, so I had to organize everything well to make it to Warsaw on time. Luckily, it was a long weekend, so I could leave work early, although the journey to the capital took me so long that I missed the first band. The event was opened by the Poznań-based band Tarpan, which operates in the stoner/sludge genres, and which was of particular interest to me because it was formed by members of the Faust Again band, which I love. Unfortunately, logistical problems prevented me from getting to their performance.

The first band I managed to see that evening was Krakow’s Drown My Day. The band is well known to me and I have seen them perform many times, I even organized a concert for them a few years ago. The face of this band has changed over the years, although they still operate within the less popular deathcore genre. The guys are consistent, although in their current incarnation, you can hear more death metal influences. Their performance was quite good, technically sound, and the new drummer also did a great job. The sound wasn’t quite to my liking yet, but that’s often the case with support acts. The guys were promoting their latest EP, „Nightmare Becomes Reality”, with this concert.

Next up were the guys from Dying Fetus. I had seen them in Poland almost 10 years ago, and I was looking forward to seeing them on Polish soil again. I wasn’t disappointed, although this performance didn’t impress me as much as the previous ones. The sound quality was a letdown, it wasn’t polished enough to blow me away. However, I’m not going to complain about the guys, because that’s just a force of nature, and it wasn’t bad enough for me to have any major complaints. The guys from Dying Fetus make an incredible impression considering there are only three of them. Everything was played perfectly, with power and confidence. Add to that John Gallagher’s unique vacuum cleaner effect, amazing arrangements, and unique groove, and there’s no need to ask any more questions. They are just great at what they do. The setlist was quite diverse, with songs like „Justifiable Homicide”, „From Womb to Waste”, „Fixated on Devastation”, „Epidemic of Hate”, „Your Treachery Will Die With You”, „Grotesque Impalement”, and „Killing on Adrenaline”. I missed hearing „Schematics”, but this is straight-up death metal, not a concert for requests 🙂

Lastly, the well-known and beloved Hatebreed took the stage, who I had seen countless times before and I wasn’t expecting anything particularly surprising. However, there was an element of surprise because, in terms of sound, Hatebreed won the evening. Perhaps the simplicity of their music, compared to Dying Fetus, played a role, but I think the band’s sound engineers also had a significant impact. The sound was selective, juicy, and perfectly matched the energy flowing from the band. Jamey Jasta is also an excellent frontman, so the audience was eating out of his hand, and there was a significant and intense mosh pit near the stage. It’s also worth mentioning that the setlist was very broad, and the concert was really long. Among the songs played by the Americans were „Looking Down the Barrel of Today”, „Puritan”, „Live for This”, „Everyone Bleeds Now”, „In Ashes They Shall Reap”, „Perseverance”, „To the Threshold”, „Tear It Down”, „Honor Never Dies”, „This Is Now”, „Proven”, and more. As you can see, the band didn’t focus solely on their latest album, „The Concrete Confessional”, but also performed many old hits, making for an awesome experience. After the concert, I felt the urge to revisit those classics that I hadn’t listened to in a while.

In conclusion, the concert met my expectations, attendance was pretty good, I ran into some old friends I hadn’t seen in a while, and overall it was a very, very enjoyable experience 🙂