May 1

May 1 Show Review, Photos: Chaos & Carnage Tour Brings 2023 Edition with Dying Fetus, Suicide Silence to Berkeley

The Chaos & Carnage Tour 2023
Dying Fetus
Suicide Silence
w/ Born Of Osiris, Aborted, Sanguisugabogg, Crown Magnetar, Slay Squad
The UC Theatre
Berkeley, CA
April 29th, 2023

Review and Photos by Jared Stossel

With a tour named Chaos & Carnage, with a lineup adorned with band names like Aborted, Suicide Silence, and Dying Fetus, you know what you’re going to get – brutal death metal across a wide variety of bands that each put their own spin on the genre. Last year’s edition of the tour featured the likes of the aforementioned Suicide Silence, along with genre acts like Carnifex, Lorna Shore, Upon A Burning Body and Signs of the Swarm (and stopped in Sacramento on a particularly hot day). The tour has returned this time around, featuring a lineup of bands both old and new that have taken the death metal and deathcore world by storm. This year’s Northern California venue was Berkeley’s UC Theatre, a far larger space than last year’s outing, yet still just as packed. It’s obvious that there’s still a huge hunger for this genre, and the fans are always ready to let the bands and promoters know.

One of the shortest opening sets of the evening came from Slay Squad – an excellent act that has managed to successfully blend the brutality of metalcore with the production, lyricism, and swagger of modern arena-ready hip-hop. While they had one of the shortest sets of the night, I was thoroughly entertained the entire time. A powerful set followed from Crown Magnetar, whose entries of technical deathcore combined intricate musicianship with brutal vocal stylings. Their sound is a match made in heaven (or hell, in this case) for a tour like this. My most anticipated act of the evening – Sanguisugabogg – was solely because of the name. Whether you can accurately pronounce it or not, the band put on one of the best sets of the night, a ferocious half-hour performance that plunged to the deepest depths of death metal, filled with songs like “Black Market Vasectomy”, “Testicular Rot” and “Necrosexual Deviant” (no, really).

One of the veteran acts on the tour was Aborted, a Belgian death metal act whose been putting out records and extensively touring since 1995. Their set was one of the best received of the night as they traversed through their catalog of songs that wove death metal and grindcore together in one vicious package. Born of Osiris was the only act that didn’t fall into the “traditional realm” of death metal, instead bringing forth a very well-received set comprised of their brand of progressive metalcore.

A ten-song set from the evening’s first co-headliner, Suicide Silence, blew their performance from last year’s edition of the tour completely out of the water. Opening with “Unanswered” from their debut album The Cleansing, the band reminded me (and everyone else in attendance) why they’re still one of the reigning acts in this genre. Comprised almost entirely of fan-favorite songs, the five-piece deathcore act crushed their set before Dying Fetus took the stage. With one of the most “extreme” names of any of the bands on the tour, they closed out the night with a spectacularly heavy performance. The three-piece act from Maryland concluded this year’s edition of the Chaos & Carnage tour with a rowdy twelve-song set. I’ve seen Dying Fetus twice now, and two things have always stuck out to me about their band: how much power they wield on stage for just three people, and how technically proficient they are. It can be easy to write off bands like the ones here as just noise, but there is a serious dedication to the craft taking place in their songwriting and performances. Look, the song titles aren’t politically correct; the setlist was comprised of numbers like “Grotesque Impalement”, “Justifiable Homicide”, and the family-friendly closing hit “Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog”. But this genre plays into the extreme image that it’s cultivated all the way back to the eighties. While the image is made to shock and offend, the music should be taken seriously.

By the end of the night, I was sore and tired, ready to head back to the confines of my home. These shows always leave me a bit more tired than others because even when you’re standing in the back of the room and watching it all unfold, avoiding every single mosh pit in sight, this music can leave you feeling broken, battered, and whole again, all at the same time. The Chaos and Carnage Tour has once again swept through town, showing off what the genre once was, what it is, and what it is set to become in the next few years. It’s a tour that provides fans old and new with a glimpse into the genre both past, present, and future.

Dying Fetus Set List
Justifiable Homicide
Subjected To A Beating
Your Treachery Will Die With You
Grotesque Impalement
Compulsion for Cruelty
One Shot, One Kill
From Womb To Waste
In The Trenches
Unbridled Fury
Wrong One To Fuck With
Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog

Suicide Silence Set List
Unanswered
You Must Die
Wake Up
Disengage
Thinking In Tongues
Fuck Everything
Love Me To Death
Fucked For Life
You Only Live once
No Pity For A Coward