On a very hot June evening, I went to check out the Terrestrial Takeover Tour featuring Allegaeon, Arkaik, Aenimus and Summoning the Lich at Amplified Live in Dallas. I have been a fan of Allegaeon for a long time since discovering the music video for 1.618 and being a massive nerd, I was instantly hooked to their science and math theme. When this tour was announced, I knew I had to see it because this bill is absolutely stacked!
Opening the show was St. Louis’ Summoning the Lich. These dudes dropped their debut album last year via Prosthetic Records and took the metal world by storm. They play a hybrid of deathcore/melodic death that reminds me of earlier The Black Dahlia Murder which is never a bad thing. For being the first band on in the sweltering Texas heat, these gents never wavered. They churned through their set with precision and power, getting the early crowd head banging and cheering. Some of the songs they played from the debut album were “The Gatekeeper”, “Cult of Ophidian” and crowd favorite “Demon of the Snow”. Really hoping to see these guys continue to grow because I can see a very bright future for them.
Next up was San Francisco’s Aenimus. These boys put out some killer progressive metal and I have really enjoyed their most recent EP called Sacrificial. Immediately upon taking the stage, the vocalist got the crowd engaged and into the show. The first pit broke open with plenty of others cheering and head banging while the band blasted the crowd with their brand of metal. Their musicianship really showed through with how tight they were, even with the bass player of Summoning the Lich filling in on bass duties for them. They sounded really tight and on point, especially on the song the “Dark Triad”. I left that night really impressed by them.
The Texas sun had finally set when technical death metal outfit Arkaik hit the stage. These dudes just released a killer album in March called Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts and was super stoked to get hear some of the new stuff live. These dudes sounded super massive live and had the crowd moving early and often. Vocalist Jared commanded the crowd throughout the entire set while Miguel and Alex shredded everyone’s faces off with their riffing. Besides playing some of the newer stuff, the boys shredded through some of the older stuff including “Temple Aflame” and “The Laughing Prophet of Doom”. They definitely deserve all the love in the world and cannot wait to catch these guys live again!
Allegaeon was up next and the crowd was super amped to get going. Coming out to begin the set with a track of their February release DAMNUM, Riley and crew got the crowd into it from the first note. They showed no signs of rust from the lay off from shows and were extremely on point the whole set. The set was heavy on the new stuff, as they played “To Carry My Grief Through Torpor and Silence”, “Into Embers” and the very emotional “Called Home”. I was also very happy when they played one of my favorites from Apoptosis, which was in my top 5 of 2019, in “Extremophiles (B)” (definite nerd moment for this chemist haha). They also played snippets of their Rush covers as well. To close out the set they played “1.618” and that got a big smile (and more head banging) from this guy. A killer way to end the show for sure! If this tour swings through your area, go check it out! It runs all the way to July 1 so you have plenty of time to see them!
- The Metal Architect
