AUGUST 27th, 2024
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH TOUR
Review & Photos by: Char Tupper
Photo Gallery: http://www.metaltitans.com/concertpics/5fdpmarilyn-manson/

Tonight was quite the assortment of metal, almost like a weird recipe (not from Grandma's cookbook that's for sure). Add a tablespoon of Emotional Rock, then mix in some Deathcore, add a dash of Goth Metal, then finish off with American Metal. What does this recipe leave you? Well, it makes the current lineup of Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP), Marilyn Manson, Slaughter to Prevail, and The Funeral Portrait on their summer run across North America. Let me say, this was not a traditional tour package of all "similar" bands or same genre bands, which was refreshing to see. I hope it has worked out in the tour packages favour and each band has gained some new followers by breaking routine and creating a dynamic tour package like this.

Sadly, the opening band, The Funeral Portrait, I missed due to working and traffic into Vancouver is now a living nightmare if you are heading into town from the Fraser Valley. The Funeral Portrait is an American emotional rock band with a goth influence, and they currently have a new record coming out soon, called "Greetings from Suffocate City". Check out their socials and if you can, definitely check it out, I heard good things about their set.

Happy to say, I got to see and photograph the next set, Slaughter to Prevail. Russian deathcore band who now resides in Florida since 2022, when they issued a statement against their government and their actions towards Ukraine, even releasing a track called "1984", in protest again Russia's government. This band musically, isn't too far from the deathcore sounds, and fits the bill quite nicely, now that being said, visually speaking, wow, the members came out with blood spattered guitars and chrome masks that have a look of twisted evil. All members but the vocalist had a mask, not 100% sure why, but it did make him pop from the rest of the band, which is also a good feature to have. Slaughter to Prevail put on a great show and sounded great. Nice to see the theatrical side as well, as a lot of bands are just "shirts/jeans" these days, and a refreshing change of entertainment, especially when it comes to the deathcore genre, definitely do not miss these guys, you will regret it !

Time for some classic goth metal, the king of the genre himself, Marilyn Manson. Last time I saw Manson was back in 2019, and the show was ok, but not his best, especially since back in 2009 when I first saw him on Mayhem Festival, was a much better performance. Now saying this, tonight was completely different then his efforts in 2019, Marilyn Manson looked and sounded refreshed from the previous show. The energy level of the band was out of this world, all very active and enthusiastic, which was so great to see! The performance and sound too was fantastic, Marilyn Manson himself looks much healthier, and vocally, sounded cleaner and precise, more like true Manson. Of course, the set included classic hits like "The Beautiful People" or "Sweet Dreams", but also included new material like "As Sick as The Secrets Within". The set was diverse from his wide spread catalogue of music, and the fans were thrilled to see Marilyn Manson again, with new faces to the band line-up, including Piggy D, formerly the bassist of Rob Zombie, and current Code Orange guitarist/vocalist, Reba Meyers, and the return of familiar faces, Gil Sharone and Tyler Bates. Marilyn Manson is back, and sounding better then ever, with some help from a phenomenal line-up of members backing him up, don't miss out a chance to see him.

"Welcome to the Circus", time for Five Finger Death Punch, a full blast of American "in your face" metal. I have seen these guys as well a few times, they have always landed on a tour package with other acts I wanted to see, and over the years, I have watched their stage performance grow and grow, however, tonight seemed a little more scaled back then I remember from the previous band lineup, before departure of Jason Hook and Jeremy Spencer from the band, and it was pre-pandemic, and I am sure costs have drastically increased to bring large stands and display pieces, so understandable. That being said, the band still put on a great show and was energetic and performed with lots of enthusiasm. Plus about a quarter into the set, they had large confetti cannons, very cool to see the room flooded with confetti flakes in a sea of metal heads (I feel for the staff, who had to clean that up at the end of the night, what a mess that would be!) An overall great performance of fast and upbeat American metal.