Review by Chad Thomas Carsten

The enormously successful headlining Cannibal Corpse Fall 2023 tour (featuring Black Anvil, Immolation, and Dark Funeral) came to an grandiose conclusion last night in a beyond packed ferocious show held at the renowned outdoor venue Jannus Live. Nearly a thousand die hard old school/new school death metal fans were awaiting near the streets of St. Petersburg.

As the concert line had to be near a mile long containing a wide variety of metal fans (young and old) sporting all their favorite heavy metal band apparel. With Cannibal Corpse t-shirts obviously outnumbering the merchandise. The fans were drooling in death and black metal galore, patiently awaiting to wreak havoc in the pit as a way to escape the urban decayed hell of their near poverty hard work from their constant 9 to 5 bullshit.

All in the name of true death and black metal! And as soon as the passionate metal heads were finally inside Jannus Live, fans were fist pumping their metal horns in the air all in perfect sync and harmony while cheering loud and proud for their favorite bands to kick-start some heavy metal destruction!

New York’s modern black metal torch bearers Black Anvil started things off with a mind-bending cutthroat thirty minute set that had the Gothic corpse painted beauties jumping in the pit through out their entire set! Truly a glorious sight to see! Black metal fans worldwide definitely shouldn’t sleep on their spine-crushing desolate black metal burdensomeness!

Old school New York death metal pioneers Immolation brought forth pure death metal disarray from start to finish! The hungry old school death metal fans kept the mosh pit brutality going even stronger due to Immolation’s signature flesh ripping barbarity guitar solos that left many concert attendees roaring at the top of their lungs for more heavy metal madness from Immolation, long after their set was over.Further proving that Immolation has many years left to keep on kicking ass on stage old school death metal style!

Swedish black metal elites Dark Funeral summoned the dark forces of heavy metal on stage to simply cave in the concert attendees chests with intense European black metal savagery. Their awe-inspiring cold-hearted approach towards their own unique black metal could quite possibly serve as as official soundtrack behind the gates of hell completely opening up, to drench the Earth in blood, right before Hell’s army begins to battle the angels of Heaven during the times of Revelations to overthrow God;s own throne. Black Metal fans displaying their own corpse paint upon their faces howled like a werewolves at a full moon in Europe in full support of Dark Funeral’s epic stage presence as the band waved their signature band flag in appreciation of their fellow black metal and death metal fans aligning together, displaying their heavy metal love towards the Sweden black metal bands exquisite 30 year legacy!

Finally! The best selling old school death metal band in heavy metal history, known throughout the world as Cannibal Corpse, jumped on stage with the entire crowd cheering so loud, their vocal cords were probably bleeding shortly after. Opening up the set with the bone pummeling “Scourge of Iron” from 2012’s acclaimed “Torture” LP, the mosh pit swiftly became its biggest of the night as majority of the crowd soon became sucked up in Cannibal Corpse’s death metal hysteria, as if a mini-tornado of carnage swept up a vast amount of the concertgoers ,whether they wanted to be in the pit or not. George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher legendary guttural vocal range shook the Jannus Live venue to its very core as Alex Webster’s, Paul Mazurkiewicz’s, Rob Barrett’s, and Erik Rutan’s fatality rhythm structures created pure utter death metal eminence that left the audience metaphorically clamoring for their lives from Cannibal Corpse’s gore induced musical stab wounds. Cannibal closed the evening with their “Ace Ventura: Pet Dective” underground hit “Hammer Smashed Face” leading to a massive mosh pit that again swallowed everything in it’s heavy metal path!

Above all, Cannibal Corpse just wrapped up another mostly “sold out” explosive headlining tour that successfully meshed black metal and death metal on the same stage. Cannibal Corpse, Sweden’s Dark Funeral, New Jersey’s Immolation, and New York’s Black Anvil, all on the same tour, created more iconic heavy metal history as all four bands showcased through their own raw originality that extreme heavy metal will never die thanks to all their superb musicianship. As Cannibal Corpse will soon be celebrating 35 years of influential metal gore. While they’re preparing to drop another atomic bomb of an death metal album for the heavy metal masses, to mosh about in their own homes for years to come! Thank you Metal Blade Records, Earsplit PR, Cannibal Corpse’s tour manger Jonathan Jarrell, and all the bands on the tour package for the opportunity to give fans another wig-splitting triumphant showcase! We here at Noise from the Pit wish everyone who attended and all the bands who rocked it live, safe travels!

*Live photos by Liam Himel in association with Noise from the Pit & fan photo submitted by madurosnstouts*