Featuring: Skeletal Remains/Bewitcher/Phobophilic/Torture Rack/Wülfskol
This past Thursday, I had the opportunity to see this outstanding show at Scout Bar in Houston, Texas. The bands on the tour are a pretty varied mix of styles so I’m going to talk about each one individually.
Wülfskol
This was my first exposure to Wülfskol, but it’s very clear that they have a strong following already in Texas. As the concert started, there were about 50 people in the venue and nearly half were wearing Wülfskol t-shirts. I overheard several conversations about traveling from San Antonio or Dallas to watch them perform, and after seeing them play, I can understand why.
They’re a fun mixture of black/death and thrash, with a little bit of punk flavor in the mix. Despite most of their songs being about Satan, they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously on stage, as there were several moments of playful grunting and banter between the lead vocalist and the bass player/vocalist throughout the set. Their lead guitarist is a wizard and performed a few very impressive solos. So far they’ve only released one full-length album called Hellshock back in 2017, but the abundance of recent singles makes me think another one is on the horizon.
I thoroughly enjoyed their performance and am looking forward to checking out their new album when it drops. Link below is to their previous full-length.
Torture Rack
This was also my first exposure to Torture Rack, but it was a great one. These guys do Death Metal with a lot of groove mixed in. Every song was a lot of fun to headbang to, and watching Jason (Bass/Vocals) Seth (Drums) and Tony (Guitars) shred together was very entertaining. Torture Rack is the kind of band where the music speaks for itself. If you like death metal in any capacity, you’ll find a lot to love here. In fact, after their set ended, I purchased their latest album on vinyl as well as a Tour shirt. I even got a few minutes to chat with Jason and had him sign my vinyl. They put on a killer show.
Phobophilic
“We’re Phobophilic from Fargo, North Dakota, and we’re here to play Death Metal!”
That’s how the band opened their set, and then played six extremely complex songs with an incredible level of technical precision. I enjoyed Phobophilic’s first album Enveloping Absurdity when it released in 2022, but I hadn’t revisited it in a while prior to this concert. I had forgotten how complicated the music is. It’s all excellent, but the constant tempo changes and unexpected song configurations make headbanging to it a challenging endeavor that requires extreme attention while listening.
They’re a lot of fun to watch, even if you may have trouble keeping up with what’s coming next.
Bewitcher
Bewitcher is the band I was most looking forward to seeing on this tour. I’ve been a fan for a while, but have missed them every other time they’ve come through Houston. I was very excited to finally see them live, and they did not disappoint. From the very first moment they appeared on stage, they demanded everyone’s attention. Blisteringly fast and full of melody, they pummeled the audience with a great mixture of their classics, as well as a couple of tracks from their new album that released this past Friday.
I saw on their social media that their drummer Aris, had some extreme shoulder pain that had interfered with their previous show before Houston. Honestly, If I hadn’t seen that online, I never would’ve believed it. The drumming was fantastic on this show, as were the guitars, vocals and everything else. Bewitcher is a band full of passion and energy, and their performance showed that.
If you’ve never seen Bewitcher before, and even if you aren’t a huge fan of their style of blackened speed metal, I highly encourage you to check them out when they come to your city. I truly believe they’ll make a fan out of you with their frenzied, energetic and fun performance.
Skeletal Remains
If you came to this show to hear Skeletal Remains, you’re going to have a great time… If you came to see them though, you’re out of luck.
Skeletal remains performed nine amazing tracks, but they were only visible onstage for the final song, which was the encore. They had a (presumably arena-strength) fog machine with five spouts that was going off every sixty seconds or so, for about 5 seconds each time. Two minutes into the set and it looked like a scene out of a silent hill game.
I was approximately ten feet from the stage when I took this photo. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was an excessive amount of fog for a small to midsize venue like Scout Bar. Still, the audience was having fun with it, shouting out “MORE FOG” and “I CAN STILL SEE YOU” in between songs. It was apparent that everyone was enjoying the music despite not seeing the band. Below is the setlist they played for this show:
- Void of Despair
- Relentless Appetite
- Beyond Cremation
- Catastrophic Retribution
- To Conquer the Devout
- Devouring Mortality
- …Evocation (The Rebirth)
- Unmerciful
- Tombs of Chaos
Overall, I had a great time listening to them perform. There were some technical issues with Chris’s guitar off and on throughout the show, but aside from that, it was a killer performance. If you get the chance to see hear them live, don’t miss it!
Conclusion
I had an awesome time at the show. All the bands were a lot of fun and Scout Bar continues to be one of the best venues in Houston. The bands all had great merch, and Skeletal Remains had so much variety of stuff it was overflowing from their table! I did pick up a few things, including a Bewitcher Tour shirt, Bewitcher Pin, Skeletal Remains patch, Torture Rack tour shirt, and Torture Rack’s latest album on vinyl!
If this tour comes to your town, don’t miss it!
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