Origin -- Lawrence, KS -- May 18th, 2012

Tonight was the final date of Origin's headlining Occupation Domination 2012 tour, and it was one of the craziest shows I've ever been to. If you missed this tour, you missed one of the most impressive packages to hit the road in the metal scene in a very long time.

First band of the night was good ol' Troglodyte. It's been a minute since I've seen them, but they still never fail to impress. The sound in the Granada was very very good all night long, and Trog was no exception. They only had about 20 minutes, but they ripped right through the set. They played a few new songs, and they are hard at work on the new Trog album. If the other songs are as half as good as the new ones they played tonight, it'll be a ripper for sure. Great stuff, as always.

Loculus was added to this show after Decrepit Birth dropped off ( :( ) and they were really awesome! They had a great, crunchy old-school guitar tone that reminded me a lot of bands like Bolt Thrower or even Asphyx. Straight-up death metal that induced a lot of banging heads. They also gave away their CD they had for free, which is always good! Check them out.

The first of the regular touring bands was Battlecross. I had just seen them a few months ago when they filled in last-minute on the Goatwhore/Hate Eternal show. They were a lot better this time around, and a lot more thrash. They definitely won me over with their great stage presence and awesome songs. Sure, some of their songs are a bit bland, but it's fun and entertaining. They're on the precipice of exploding into popularity.

Rings of Saturn were next. The fact that they were playing after Battlecross was a shame. There were a few pits for them, but it was obvious that a lot of people in the crowd didn't like them. They are just way too technical for their own good. It just devolves into wankery with -core breakdowns. They were better than I thought they'd be, but they were still pretty bad.

I wasn't too sure how Aborted would do. Yes, they would obviously put on a good show, but I'm not the biggest fan of their past few albums. That said - they absolutely destroyed. They actually didn't play with a bass player, but it really didn't matter. The sounds was incredibly full and really heavy. Almost every song they played sounded like it was tailor-made specifically for headbanging. Color me surprised: Aborted put on the second best set of the night.

Decrepit Birth didn't play ( :( ), so Cattle Decapitation was up next. They took a bit longer than usual to set up because the monitor's were messing up, but it seemed to get fixed right as they kicked into their first song. Travis was a bit more talkative in between songs than I've seen him the past few times, which just made their set more memorable. The sound wasn't amazing, but I could hear all the instruments. The bassist is originally from Topeka, so a bunch of people were going nuts for him the entire time. They played the same set they've been doing all tour long; it's a good set, but I really haven't gotten a quality set of Harvest Floor material, which makes me sad. :( Travis Ryan is still absolutely insane and one of my favorite vocalists. Hocking a loogey, catching it, then snorting the loogey? That's what I'm talking about. Grind goodness.

As good as all the other bands were, they couldn't even touch Origin. I've never seen a crowd go more insane than tonight when Origin was onstage. When I say there were non-stop stage dives, I mean literally person after person after person going everywhere as soon as each song started. It was old-school in the purest sense of the word. Jason is one of the best frontmen in metal. The crowd was putty in his hands, and he could get every moshing, diving and moving whenever he said so. The rest of the band was spot on with their mind-blowing technical prowess, but Jason held the spotlight on himself by bounding all over the stage and even diving out into the crowd. There were walls of death with people riding on eachother's shoulders, there were people cannonballing into groups of about 2 - 3 people, and during the last song was the most hell I've seen unleashed in a pit area at a concert. Literally no one stayed still and everyone moved. Some girl got knocked out so it kinda brought the pit to an early end, but is there a better way to end a tour of such epic proportions? I think not. Origin is amazing and if you haven't seen them yet - I pity you.

Origin set (out of order/missing maybe 1 or 2 more):

Expulsion of Fury
Purgatory
Swarm
Saligia
Banishing Illusion
Evolution of Extinction
The Aftermath
Wrath of Vishnu
Consuming Misery (I think)
Staring From The Abyss
Portal
Implosion Of Eternity

Cattle Decapitation:

The Carbon Stampede
Dead Set On Suicide
A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat
Testicular Manslaughter
Forced Gender Reassignment
Your Disposal
Success Is... (Hanging By the Neck)
Lifestalker
Kingdom of Tyrants

Aborted included:

Global Flatline
Coronary Reconstruction
Meticulous Invagination
The Holocaust Incarnate
The Origin of Disease
Sanguine Verses (...of Extirpation)
The Saw and the Carnage Done

Battlecross included:

Push Pull Destroy
Kaleb
Misery
Deception

Loculus included:

Chainsaw Disfigurement
Hacked Apart
Ocular Extirpation
The Mutilator

Troglodyte included:

Piece Of You
Mummified Yeti Hand
Caught On Super 8
Bring Me The Head Of Bigfoot
The Only Good Hippie...Is A Dead Hippie
and 2 new ones

Origin: 10/10
Cattle Decapitation: 8/10
Aborted: 8.5/10
Rings of Saturn: 3/10
Battlecross: 7.5/10
Loculus: 8/10
Troglodyte: 8/10