Written by:	Savage Messiah
Published:	December 17, 2006
Event:	Deicide Australia/New Zealand Tour 2006
Location:	The Studio, Auckland, New Zealand

On 15.12.06, hundreds of metal heads from around New Zealand gathered on K'road to witness Deicide's first ever gig in Auckland. It is a rare sight to see so many metal heads in one place in New Zealand, where the population is a mere 4 million and our sheep outnumber us. Rest assured, Deicide were well received.

The gig opened with Ulcerate and Dawn Of Azazel, the latter I thought was quite good, and kudos to them for getting the crowd riled up. After Dawn Of Azazel, the lights dimmed right down and Deicide entered on to the stage. Glen Benton, with his inverted cross scar plain for all to see, took center stage, with Jack Owen (originally from Cannibal Corpse) to his left, and Ralph Santolla to his right. Steve Asheim took his place on a platform at the back, behind his drum kit. (Paiste cymbals wo0t!)

The band played songs from various albums including: Never To Be Seen Again, Kill The Christian, Homage For Satan, and The Children Of The Underworld. This would all have been very well were it not for the sound crew, who Glen claimed were "new to the job." The amount of feedback screeching from the giant amps behind the guitarists was more than enough to back Glen up.

Deicide also had trouble with controlling the crowd, not that it was their fault that only ONE bouncer had been hired to manage hundreds of aggressive, drugged up men. Several people actually climbed on to the stage, ran across and leaped off into the mosh pit. The crowd soon became weary of this, and parted for other stage divers, who hit the mosh pit floor with a sickening thud. One man made the mistake of pulling at Glen's bass strings. He soon felt Glen's foot hit his face with a furious force. After much of this disrespectful behaviour, Glen smashed his mic stand against another guy who had climbed on stage, and stormed off stage with the rest of the band.

The band shortly returned after the crowd chanted "DEICIDE" repeatedly. They then continued to pound out more blast beats, growls and ear splitting riffs - accompanied by a few guitar solos, courtesy of Jack Owen.

Over all it was a good show, though it is doubtful that Deicide will be willing to return to New Zealand as the staff turned out to be, as Glen put it, "behind the times."