Death, doom, black metal and mayhem were the major themes of a nice Sunday evening in the March of 2023. That was the night when legends of Death Metal Cannibal Corpse came to town – to Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, to be precise. To complete the line-up, Stormruler (USA), Ingested (UK) and Dark Funeral (Sweden) were part of the massive Cannibal Corpse (USA) headlining spring tour all over Europe.  Astonishingly the venue wasn’t sold out but a crowd of approx 1200 black and death metal enthusiasts filled the venue quite well.

The start was made by Stormruler – usually a duo, that adds up additional guest musicians for their live gigs – and presented their Melodic Death Metal show to get the crowd going. They did this very successfully just to say so.

With a significant change in the style of music, Ingested entered the stage and were the big surprise of the night to me – wow! What a great show. Already in the early stage of their set, the wall of death was requested by singer and frontman Jason Evans. The audience wasn’t a bad sport and happily did as requested.

Next to come was Sweden’s Dark Funeral and the return to classic Black Metal. The theatrical posing and movements of their frontman, the costumes and a KISS-like make-up give the band their very own and unique character.

The temperature was rising, and as much was the audience tension for the headliners of the night: Cannibal Corpse. They delivered what they promise. They rocked the house down, mosh- and circle-pits everywhere – it was a wild night. The Corpsegrinder and his crew set the level to maximum voltage and kept the level up with a mixture of their classics and newer songs from their newest album ‘Violence Unimagined’ throughout the show.

Every Black or Death Metal fan in the Stuttgart area that missed that night will be nagging for a long time. But there are still some gigs to go, and not all shows are already sold-out. If you’re close – go and see yourself!