Obituary/Pallbearer/Skeletonwitch/Dust Bolt Live At The TLA!! - Philadelphia, PA 5/4/18

Friday May 4 at The Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia featured an incredible lineup of bands on OBITUARY’S North American Tour. Supporting the band was PALLBEARER, SKELETONWITCH, and German Thrash Metal group DUST BOLT. These Teutonic Terrors have been together for over a decade now, but sound straight out of the 80’s which is perfect when opening for OBITUARY. It was the band’s first time in Philadelphia, they were awesome, and we hope they’re back soon.

SKELETONWITCH, Blackened Thrash/Death from Athens, Ohio, was the second band to play. They performed a song called “Fen of Shadows” off their upcoming album Devouring Radiant Light. The new record will be released on July 20 through Prosthetic Records. They then ended their set with the by now classic “Beneath Dead Leaves”.

Next we enjoyed the slow, heavy, doomy sounds of PALLBEARER. The vocals of Brett Campbell backed by Joseph Rowand and Devin Holt makes for an erie haunting sound. Their songs are fairly long so the set time only allowed for them to play five: “Watcher in the Dark”, “Devoid of Redemption”, “Dropout” (their latest single), “Thorns”, and “Worlds Apart”.

Then it was finally time for the main event, OBITUARY, a Death Metal originator who started in Tampa, Florida in 1983. They have amassed quite a following over the years and they allowed these devoted fans some major input on the setlist for this tour. The crowd applauded loudly between each song and the band seemed to really enjoy playing. Lead singer John Tardy leaned out to high five everyone in the front throughout the set. It was altogether an excellent show, each of the bands was awesome on their own and collectively. The tour runs until June 3 in Miami, so go see it!

OBITUARY SETLIST: