Undeath and 200 Stab Wounds pulverized Cambridge – 11/11

Fall’s wildest death metal double-header rolled into Sonia last month with support from Enforced and Phobophilic.

One thing about death metal: those guys can put together a package tour. A particularly fearsome one is currently rolling through North America, headed by Rochester’s Undeath and Cleveland’s 200 Stab Wounds. The former released one of 2022’s best-loved (and best) heavy records (the impeccably-titled It’s Time…to Rise from the Grave), while the latter just signed with Metal Blade and are poised to follow up last year’s Slave to the Scalpel with something big. Their co-headlining trek with Fargo’s Phobophilic and Richmond’s Enforced kicked off in Cambridge with a sold-out rager at Sonia a couple weeks back.

Phobophilic hit the stage first, blue-hued and spinning tales of Lovecraftian and other such unknowable horrors through an old school death metal lens. Enforced were up next, ratcheting up the intensity by way of a furious, speedometer-snapping crossover thrash assault.

The night’s two headliners have some definite distinctions – Undeath’s OSDM surveys the graveyard with a melodic ear and a black sense of humor, while 200 Stab Wounds go for the jugular in a gnarlier and more blood-splattered fashion – but the packed-in crowd regarded both with the same fervent degree of response. Both sets were a nonstop stream of stagedivers and circle pits, to the delight of those onstage and off. My singular personal qualm with the evening was a distinct lack of “Fiend for Corpses,” which kind of speaks for itself as my favorite Undeath song, but that’s a minor critique in the grand scheme.

See photos from the whole bloody affair below.