KATAKLYSM, SIX FEET UNDER, WORMROT, GLAND In Ottawa, Canada

If I Were God, I’d Try The House Tacos: Death Metallers Bring The Meaty Riffs To The Overflow Brewery On July 11, 2026

Zombies!
Tales of apocalyptic terror!
And the finest house tacos in town for one night only!

The Decades In The Grave tour was a welcome break from Bluesfest’s cavalcade of current country and 90’s/Y2K pop nostalgia headlining the stages that night. Featuring only the finest in veteran, upcoming and local brutal corpse-crooning heaviness, this was a tour that delivered wholescale on 90’s/Y2K extreme death metal nostalgia. Missing any aspect of this tour during its brief resting place at the Overflow Brewery was indeed tough to swallow as I’d figured out when thanks to rush hour traffic on my way to the gig (during my vacation no less!), I’d missed the entirety of GLAND’s comeback performance, which had been one of the main factors for me attending this gig. I was told by frontman/occasional concert promoter and organizer Zac Murray that their show had debuted four new songs by the rising local death grinders for an eventual untitled new studio album-well, their first actual untitled new studio album to be secreted with the promise of more upcoming shows to come.

https://www.facebook.com/glandofficial/
https://www.instagram.com/glandofficial/
https://glandofficial.bandcamp.com/

The good news for tech slam brutal death metal early birds WORMHOLE was that I eventually was able to arrive to catch about the last 2-3 songs of their debut Ottawa performance and I dug what I saw. Originally formed in Scotland by US-born brothers/guitarists Sanjay and Sanil Kumar in 2015 and developing a name for themselves in the UK death metal touring circuit before relocating back to Baltimore, the quintet, rounded out by rhythm section Basil Chiasson (bass) and Matt Tillett (drums) along with vocalist Julian Kersey, brought forth enough tech and slam on the strength of their 3-album catalogue including 2023’s Almost Human to appease the black shirts in the audience. And they enjoy their Metroid and Doom games as much as LYCANTHRO love their Skyrim. They’ve even coined their own genre term called tech slam based on copious amounts of lyrical inspiration from thousands of hours of gaming and perfecting their chunky death metal riffs and maniacal blast beats and breakdowns. Indeed, songs like “Artificial Brain” and “The Gas System” deliver on both the complexity and the full-frontal execution on all counts, though it’s the closing stomper and title track from their sophomore album The Weakest Among Us that sees WORMHOLE let loose on their virtuoso riffs and savage rhythm section while Julian’s vocals sound straight outta 1989 Metal Blade. All in all, while tech slam can be an acquired taste for some given its early work in progress in hooking in a larger audience, WORMHOLE have nevertheless come a fair distance in their game in reeling in the growing masses throughout their ongoing mission.

https://wormholemetal.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wormholemetal/
https://www.instagram.com/wormholetechslam/

Dreads!
Fugitive minds!
Zombie stomping!
And, yes, that distinctive screeching “eeeeee!” sound is real!

Fronted by a man who could probably tell you exactly where he was at 5:30 PM on the day of July 3, 1984 at the Uneeda Medical Supply Warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky as he’s based a lot of his lyrics on the rise of the undead and then some, SIX FEET UNDER claim the stage with Chris Barnes and promptly get their death on with their opening battle cry “War Is Coming” from 1997’s Warpath. With his backing band comprised of Ray Suhy and Jack Owen (guitars), Ruston Grosse (drums) and touring bassist Jeff Golden, both the established frontman and his ankle-length dreadlocks cut a dark, looming shape as him and the band belt out the grim and fearful classics such as “Revenge Of The Zombies”, “Lycanthropy” and “Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane” among others. And for a frontman known for his past controversial views and unpredictable behavior which somehow managed to make him even too overbearing for CANNIBAL CORPSE to keep him as their original vocalist, Chris Barnes was amazingly polite and soft-spoken towards the audience, mostly thanking them for their reception towards SFU’s performance on their first-ever Ottawa visit. In all honesty, I was hoping to at least avoid commenting on how Barnes’ infamous squeals are more comedic than intimidating, but their appearance on songs such as “Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane”, “Victim Of The Paranoid” and “Seed Of Filth” and even a few others where they were mostly added for context just kinda lent themselves for hilarity – though it’s still a remarkable talent watching him deliver that shrill-sounding “EEEEEE!” tone like a cartoon bell witch. He just performs it so well without so much as a flinch that it’s almost art-like.
 
That said, my own introduction to SIX FEET UNDER was probably as background noise at either a house party or a heavy metal bar sometime during the late-90’s. Then came Moshin’ John’s specialty death metal show on KNAC where I could actually hear the music a bit more properly, though they weren’t all that entirely indistinguishable from the several other death metal bands he played regularly on his show. Eventually, I’d come across the band’s cover of the SCORPIONS’ “Blackout” on a Metal Blade compilation disc and I found Barnes’ vocals were too gravelly deep and cartoonish to really make out the actual song lyrics until John Bush’s guest appearance otherwise saved the song. Summarizing here is that while Chris Barnes does put on his own unique spin on a song cover, it’s also safe to say that his same unique take on song covers usually works better on some songs than on others. So, when he warned the crowd that they would be in for a special surprise of sorts, he was referring thankfully to covering some classic death and heavy metal rarities – “Death Or Glory” by Scottish NWOBHM vets HOLOCAUST(which SFU had covered on Warpath) and two closing numbers by his former band. The former was as raw-sounding as the original while the latter covers indeed showcased how his distinctive vocal style had set both him and CANNIBAL CORPSE above their then-fledgling death metal peers. Say what you will about whether SIX FEET UNDER have aged well as a band over the past 30+ years, but their Ottawa debut was one to leave the shovels at home.

Setlist:

“War Is Coming”
“Silent Violence”
“Revenge Of The Zombies”
“Lycanthropy”
“Torn To The Bone”
“Feasting On The Blood Of The Insane”
“Victim Of The Paranoid”
“Seed Of Filth”
“Death Or Glory” (HOLOCAUST cover)
“Ghosts Of The Undead”
“Human Target”
“Beneath A Black Sky”
“Stripped, Raped And Strangled” (CANNIBAL CORPSE cover)
“Hammer Smashed Face” (CANNIBAL CORPSE cover)

https://www.metalblade.com/sixfeetunder/
https://x.com/sixfeetofficial

With their last Ottawa visit to the same venue having taken place just barely eight months earlier when they shared a stage with Polish death metal sith lords VADER, it’s a challenge to see how headliners KATAKLYSM would top that performance. Luckily, they answered that call hundredfold, primarily through their amended setlist, with the majority of the choice selections stemming from both the band’s 2015 album Of Ghosts And Gods and their latest album Goliath. The former has always been something of a latter-day fave amongst the band’s diehard base thanks in part to “The Black Sheep”, which frontman Maurizio Iacono dedicates to the fans for always keeping it real in closing out their set. The latter, meanwhile, being KATAKLYSM’s most recent studio album, is also one of the band’s more blunt-sounding efforts in years. Lyrically, its message is about perseverance, as Maurizio unleashes his bile during “Bringer Of Vengeance”. “Fight ‘til the end of the line/Where death meets mankind/The power of will to avenge the innocence lost” he seethes, and with good reason. The world is indeed in a rather angry place at the moment, which is a mantra that we’ve heard several times before through instances of war, civil injustice and pestilence over the course of humankind, though this is perhaps the first time in our history that we’ve had to experience all three of these instances almost concurrently in such a short span. All that KATAKLYSM can appear to do both on Goliath and on the mighty Overflow Brewery stage is provide a raging soundtrack for these same trying times, and, most importantly, observe and note the state of the world through a more enlightened and empowered view – a position of power, if you will, to take charge and be the change. 

That said, KATAKLYSM also aren’t known for proselytizing even as they churn out dark-sounding tracks such as “Die As A King”, “Soul Destroyer” and “Crippled & Broken” in one moment and then Maurizio randomly asking the crowd in between songs if they had the chance to try their specialty tacos being served on the menu – and, yes, I stepped forward and admitted to having four. “Cool,” he replied back to me, “I wasn’t too sure if they were any good or if they’d give us the runs”. Or something to that effect. But for those wondering, the tacos were a success. As was the remainder of KATAKLYSM’s set as the closing numbers “At The Edge Of The World”, “Narcissist” and “The Black Sheep” prompted much circle pit activity and thrown devil horns aimed towards the band’s way with a promise once more for the legendary Montreal-based death metallers to make another return back to Ottawa. Presumably, by then, KATAKLYSM will be offering up another spicy platter of their muy picante yet meaty death metal servings that are always good for the insides. 

Special thanks once more to all of the bands, to Overflow and to Christina from CHORD Productions for making this show happen.

Setlist:

“Push The Venom”
“Thy Serpents’ Tongue”
“Goliath”
“Die AsA King”
“Prevail”
“Soul Destroyer”
“The Resurrected”
“In Shadows And Dust”
“As I Slither”
“Bringer Of Vengeance”
“Crippled & Broken”
“At The Edge Of The World”
“Narcissist”
“The Black Sheep”

https://www.kataklysm.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/kataklysm/
https://www.instagram.com/kataklysmband/