MacEwan Hall was packed on Oct. 2 with those who came out to see Children of Bodom on their first headlining tour through Calgary, Alta., but a large portion of the young crowd was excited to see the two openers as well. However, the key word here is “young.” The beer garden, which usually ends up crammed with the over-18 crowd between bands was practically empty the whole night. It seems the Club Night show of Noctis III at The Distillery was able to lure most everyone of legal age down a dark alley and through its doors.

Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio came out blazing into their first song, and the crowd was ready for them. Vocalist Chance Garnette had the energy high in the room, beating his chest, thrashing around the stage and throwing the horns. Fans got a taste of a couple new songs off the band’s new album Breathing the Fire [Prosthetic, 2009], which was released just over a week after their stop in Calgary. Scott Hendrick and Nate Garnette make flawless transitions from thrash sounding riffs into black metal sounding ones.

Black Dahlia Murder is a solid band, and they proved that in Calgary with an extremely tight set. The brutal music overlaid with dark lyrics leave no questions as to why the crowd loved them. Ryan Knight, the newest band member, added some suburb guitar solos to the overall sound. There was lots of crowd surfing, and the pit didn’t quit throughout the band’s entire set.

When Children of Bodom asks their fans to “Follow the Reaper,” there is no hesitation. With six studio albums behind them, COB played “Lake Bodom” off their new album, Something Wild [Spinefarm, 2009], and a couple songs off of their last album Blooddrunk [Spinefarm, 2008]. For the most part though, they stuck to the older material. While they’ve been to Calgary a few times now, on Gigantour and the Unholy Alliance tour for example, this was their first time as a headliner in Calgary and the crowd appreciated every minute of it. The band was actually backlit for most of the show making it difficult for fans to see exactly what the guitar virtuosos were doing. However, frontman Alexi Laiho went back to Janne Wirman a few times and the guitar and keyboard duo ripped through some wicked solos together. Overall it was a high energy evening.