May 14, 2017 1:51:52 GMT -6

Dawn of Ashes
Support: Projekt F, Nanochrist
Date: Saturday May 13th, 2017
Venue: Coalition in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Behemoth "New Aeon Musick"

The first band tonight was a local act called Nanochrist. They sounded like an angrier Orgy. Wait...what did I just type? Anyway, they sucked. Their pre-recorded keyboards were okay and their second song was actually pretty good. And they did a cover of Terrible Lie. But whatever. They played five or six songs of industrial metal that would have sucked in 1999.

The next band was the first touring act Projekt F and they weren’t entirely horrible. When the singer was just singing it was pretty boring but when they kicked it into high gear and he yelled it wasn’t too bad. Their guitar player was doing some interesting things but they were lost in the mix. I can’t say I’d ever want to hear them again in my life but they were light-years better than the first band. They really reminded me of the early-2000’s WWE video game music.

I like Dawn of Ashes but their last album ‘Theophany’ was so bad. Like SO BAD. I figured I'd give them one more shot tonight in a live setting. And you know what; I didn’t hate their newer music in a live setting. I half expected that. I half expected it to be terrible too. But no, I enjoyed it. I really would have liked to hear some of the earlier aggrotech stuff but they’re not that band anymore so I understand. It did bleed into their sound from time to time though, especially near the end of their set. And they played Stillborn Defect, albeit the black metal version from last year. I really would have liked to have heard ANYTHING from Genocide Chapters since that sound is at least closer to what they’re doing now but nope; nothing. That was a disappointment. I would have loved to have heard some of those songs. Still it was fun and since I was right up to the front of the stage having Kristof Bathory scream the best song of the night (the aforementioned Stillborn Defect) in my face for its entirety was pretty cool. I’m glad he didn’t put the mic in my face because I scream like a girl and have strepped throat. He smells nice.

Dawn of Ashes
1. Gods of the Antinomian Path
2. Tribe of Chemosh
3. Equilibrium
4. Fire of the Phoenix
5. Guardians
6. Insidious (of the Judas Breed)
7. Enter the Vortex
8. Rulership of the Inner World
9. Stillborn Defect (the New Breed)
- [the Ritual]
10. Malleus Maleficarum (the Hammer of Witches)
11. Smash thy Enemies w/Lindsay Schoolcraft of Cradle of Filth
12. Poisoning the Steps of Babel

It was a night of dated musical sounds that were relevant fifteen years ago but I still had fun watching Dawn of Ashes. I still can’t say I’m happy with their direction these days because I really love their aggrotech stuff the most but at least I didn’t come out of this show hating them as much as I thought I did after their album last year. I can’t say I’m interested in any new music from them but they have a new album coming out in a few weeks.





for reference here's the same song from when they were an aggrotech band (so much better):