Morbid Angel, Watain and Incantation in Omaha: December 6, 2019

This is likely the last concert of the year for me, and I saved one of the best ones for last.  Morbid Angel is headlining the USA Sickness tour with support from Watain and Incantation for some absolutely family-friendly, Christmas-themed mayhem.  That description may have been a bit facetious.  The venue was The Waiting Room.

INCANTATION

Incantation are pioneers in their own brand of murky, doom-laden, occult death metal.  And that style was on full display here as the band pulled from their impressive 30-year legacy.  They played a fairly short set, but it featured a number of the band's most well-known tracks, including "The Ibex Moon" and "Rites of the Locust".  Incantation proved equally adept at grinding, slow-paced, colossal riffs as faster-paced steamroller riffs.  

WATAIN

The Swedish black metal throwbacks had a rough start to the tour as guitarist Pelle Forsberg was forbidden from entering the U.S.  But Watain has risen above that and stole the show at the concert.  It helps that they were the most theatrical, decorating the stage like a macabre abattoir, draping animal bones all over every single surface, including sticking some animal heads on tridents stationed near the microphone.  They also used torches and incense on stage to add to the atmosphere.  But more than that, they simply laid waste to everything with their massively intense setlist.  Watain was the band I was most interested in seeing at this concert and they delivered in every way.  My wife was not able to stay and watch, due to a sensitivity to the incense.  She missed out.

MORBID ANGEL

Over the last couple of years I have been developing an appreciation for Steve Tucker's work with Morbid Angel.  Previously I had avoided that era, choosing instead to focus on the David Vincent work.  But after checking out Gateways to Annihilation and being blown away, I have been picking up more and more of the Tucker albums.  It helps that the band revitalized their career after reuniting with Vincent and releasing Kingdoms Disdained.  Morbid Angel played mostly songs from the Tucker era, which makes sense, but also meant that classics like "Chapel of Ghouls" and "God of Emptiness" were not played.  They did play "Unholy Blasphemies" and a few other songs from Blessed are the Sick though.  They were impressive, but after the amazing show by Watain, Morbid Angel's more restrained performance was a bit of a letdown.

This was one of the more intense concerts I have been to in some time, and the circle pit extended out to my area of the crowd, which was not real great.  I was splashed with some alcohol and run into by a couple of out of control moshers.  Other than that, it was a HELL of a good time.