Concert Review – Manual Manic Procedures Tour

Featuring Upon Stone, Stabbing, Balmora, 200 Stab Wounds

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to see a spectacularly brutal show at White Oak Music Hall in Houston, The Manual Manic Procedures tour – featuring Upon Stone, Stabbing, Balmora, and 200 Stab Wounds. I met up with my friend Brandon from The Metal Block Podcast, as he’s one of my few Metal friends who really digs death metal in all its various forms.

UPON STONE

I fell in love with Upon Stone back in January when they dropped their incredible album “Dead Mother Moon”. It was actually the first album we reviewed after creating the Harsh Vocals website, and you can read that review here: http://harshvocals.com/reviews/upon-stone-dead-mother-moon-review/

My cohost Christian managed to see them perform up in Iowa during their last tour and picked up a signed copy of their first EP for me. I thought it would be a long while before I managed to see them live, so I was extremely excited when they were announced as part of the Manual Manic Procedures tour.

Unsurprisingly, they killed it on stage. So much energy and passion emanating from every song! Vocalist Xavier looked massive on the narrow stage and was looming over the crowd on every song, doing his absolute best to get everyone riled up.

He completely succeeded. I’ve been to several shows at White Oak this year and I’ve never seen such a large crowd for the opening acts as I did for this show. I’ve also never seen the crowd as immediately invested in the show. Everyone came ready to headbang and Upon Stone started the festivities in spectacular fashion. I also loved that they closed out their set with the title track of their new album – Dead Mother Moon.

I picked up one of their new shirts which you can see at the bottom of this article, and also spent a bit of time talking with Xavier. We’ll hopefully have him on the podcast later this year!

Check out their latest album – Dead Mother Moon here:

STABBING

Next up was local Houston/Austin-based favorites, Stabbing! Unfortunately, there was an emergency that kept vocalist Bridget Lynch from attending the show on Friday, but the band decided to go on without her and had guitarist Marvin Ruiz fill the vocal role.

Marvin killed it.
The whole band did. They were brutal as could be, and the entire crowd was thoroughly invested in their performance. Shortly after they finished their set, Brandon and I spoke with bassist Matt Day and he expressed how unsure they were to be performing without Bridget. From our perspective, the performance was absolutely killer. Would it have been cool to have her there? Absolutely. Did they live up to their name even without her? Completely. Everyone was happy with their performance.

Check out their latest album – Extirpated Mortal Process here:

BALMORA

I’ll be honest, I had never heard Balmora prior to this show. The crowd kept growing throughout the previous sets and by the time they took the stage, there was barely enough room to walk between people, so Brandon and I stepped into the hallway to talk and cool down. We could still easily hear the performance though, and it sounded pretty great. Their sound is a mix of melodic death metal and hardcore which I generally like.

I enjoyed what I heard and have since checked out their latest EP – Six Pacts Etched in Blood. It’s good, and I’d recommend it for fans of those subgenres.

We re-entered the show hall just as they were finishing their last song, so unfortunately I didn’t get a picture. I wish I had checked out their music prior to the show.

if you’d like to hear their latest EP, you can listen here;

200 STAB WOUNDS

I was vastly unprepared for how awesome 200 Stab Wounds was going to be live.

I didn’t discover them until earlier this year when Manual Manic Procedures came out, but I instantly fell in love with that album and have had it on repeat since it dropped in June. I’ve also gone back and spent a lot of time with their previous album – Slave to the Scalpel.

Despite finding them recently, it’s clear to me that they’ve become the gold standard for modern death metal. Even moreso after seeing them live.

They put on a blistering, brutal, and vastly entertaining show, without any gimmicks or props. Just four extremely talented musicians leaving everything on the stage.

The crowd was stuffed into the room like sardines, and only the people at the very front seemed to have room to maneuver, as they continuously stage dived and moshed throughout the performance. I was closer to the back and could see every single head in the room banging in unison.

I was in awe of their entire performance, and I would strongly recommend this as a MUST-SEE tour if you enjoy death metal. It simply doesn’t get better than 200 Stab Wounds.

Check out Manual Manic Procedures here:

Get your tickets at http://200stabwounds.net

Lastly, if you’d like to see some recordings from the show, head over to our Instagram or Twitter! We’re @harshvocalssite on both sites!

My pickups: