Written by:	D.T. Metal
Published:	October 29, 2013
Event:	Deicide: North American Tour 2013
Location:	Gothic Theater, Denver, CO, USA
Galleries:	Deicide, Broken Hope - Gothic Theatre, Englewood, USA - 13 Oct 2013 by D.T. Metal (48)

Sunday night in Colorado, and instead of watching pro football I made my way up to Denver (well the suburb Englewood) for some easy listening music. Yap, Deicide was in town. Since the last time they were in Denver, their gig was actually really good (you can read about it here) I figured: what the hell, why not.

Due to traffic I missed the local opener and one of the support bands Necronomicon (CAN) didn't make the Colorado gig due to vehicle issues. I believe they were stuck somewhere in Kansas which actually totally sucked since I was looking forward to finally check them out. The band did play on the Barge To Hell cruise late last year and for one reason or another I did miss both of their performances. So, I met up with some friends and they were crushed as well that the band didn't make the Colorado gig. "Shit, I was really looking forward thrashing out to old-school Necronomicon". Hmmm, I was like - old-school ? thrashing And then it hit me, he was thinking about the German thrashers from the 80's, Necronomicon. Funny as shit since both bands actually played the Barge To Hell cruise and the German version of the band always made sure to announce themselves as the REAL Necronomicon when they played.

Anyways, Disgorge out of San Diego, CA were the first band on the menu for me that night and despite the fact that they have a few new members, the band didn't skip a beat and played their brutal shit just as anyone would have expected it. I honestly didn't know if they would hang it up after the death of their bassist a couple years back, but apparently Disgorge pulled themselves out of the gutter and are once again writing new tunes and touring the world.



Up next was Broken Hope, another band who is no stranger to tragedy within their line-up, reunited a while back and it was a treat to old time fans of the band in attendance. I have no clue who put this tour package together, but god damn it worked and kicked so much ass on so many levels. Bonus for me that night was to see and hang with Shaun Glass again, since the last time he was in town with Dirge (now The Bloodline) was a long minute ago. And I am glad I got to see Broken Hope before Glen Benton threw them off the tour a couple days later (read here). In all fairness though, the original Facebook post by Broken Hope has been deleted and there is probably more to the story then we will ever find out.

(not advertising another webzine here, but Glen Benton gave his accounts to what happened in an interview with metalsucks.net. It's a rather lengthy one and starts somewhere around the 4min mark. Click here to listen to the interview, and make your own judgement. I have seen both Benton and Glass on their best as well as on their worse behavior so I will stay out of this)

Instead of starting their set with a song off their latest (as in this year) album Omen Of Disease, they opted to get the crowd loose by playing "Into The Necrosphere" off 1995's Repulsive Conception - good choice. As a matter of fact, Broken Hope only played 3 news songs and the rest were "oldies, but goodies". Well, with a span of roughly 14 years in-between albums I think they wanted to expose the new listeners to their old stuff while also pleasing longtime fans who haven't seen them in a while. Overall, the set-list was really good and the mosh pits were going strong throughout most of their set as well.






Quick change around on stage and Deicide started their set with 2006's "Homage For Satan" followed immediately by "Dead By Dawn" off their 1992 self-titled debut album. NICE! Glen Benton, (still) sober and enjoying the opportunity life gave him; playing in one of the early and influential to the genre death metal outfits coming out of Florida and STILL kicking ass on stage - respect! I believe I said it before, not a real big Deicide fan, but I admire the musicianship and energy they bring to their fans. Say what you will about Glen Benton, google the internet about how much of a douche he is (or isn't), but one thing is for sure - the old man still got it!

Gone are the times (at least for the last couple gigs I saw) where Glen is getting into a pissing match with a fan who thinks he can heckle him and instead he concentrates on what people came to see - Floridian death metal at its finest. And exactly this was what the Colorado audience got that night. Deicide is about to drop their 11th full length album, In The Minds Of Evil, later this month and while they did not play anything off their new release, I already heard it and it crushes.

Longtime drummer Steve Asheim did a phenomenal job behind his kit and with Jack Owen as well as Kevin Quirion on guitars, this line-up has been together for a while and I hope for many more years to come. It's death metal, so the movements on stage were stagnant to say the least, but Benton did have time to move away from his microphone and rocked out more often than before. I for one had a great time and was really surprised when Glen announced that this tour would probably be the last one Deicide would ever play "Deicide" live - sucks, since I DO dig that song. But oh well, I am pretty sure next time around they will concentrate more on the new material anyways.






Overall, it was a great night for death metal. The venue was not filled to capacity and I wondered why they moved the gig from the Bluebird Theater (original venue) to the much bigger Gothic Theatre, but in the end, it worked out. The stage is much bigger there and Deicide was able to have their drum kit already on stage (with the openers setting up in front) which really cut down on the time in between bands.

One funny thing also was that there was ONE night liner (big tour bus) and after the show a lot of people congregated to it thinking it was Deicide's. Nope grasshoppers, Benton and Co have been taking their own SUVs on tour for a couple of years now and the bus belonged to Broken Hope. So, if you ever go to one of their gigs here in North America and see a big tour bus - it's definitely NOT Deicide.

Setlist: