Not many venues are more than halfway full when the first band hits the stage, especially when the opener is local, and there are three bands before the headliners. That wasn’t the case at The Republik when the mighty Behemoth invaded Calgary for the first of two Alberta shows.

For Calgary’s own death grind quintet Kataplexis, the place was buzzing, in spite of a lineup outside still going through the ticket motions. Their short half hour set only served to intensify the energy; it would seem the excitement of opening such a high profile concert was clearly to their advantage, although they always put on one hell of a performance, whether playing for 200 or 20. Playing one of their strongest sets to date, it was no surprise the crowd treated them with right in front of the stage, full on headbanging and fist pumping respect. Definitely a group to keep an eye on.

Lightning Swords of Death, one of the newest additions to the Metal Blade roster, conquered the stage after a short gear changeover. Playing under gloomy red lights – quite the contrast from the bright and variable lighting for Kataplexis – the black metallers brought the audience down a notch, intriguing with a number of songs off their Metal Blade debut, The Extra Dimensional Wound, set for a March 2010 release. While I’m not much of a personal fan of Autarch’s vocal style, he has a killer on stage presence, an ability to draw people in and direct them, and bassist Menno has some seriously mad skills, and a solid technique you don’t see very often. And, of course, they’ve easily got the most awesomest band name we’ve heard in a while.

Greece’s Septic Flesh followed things up with a set that won’t easily be forgotten, although, as a keyboardist myself, it would have been cool to see one on stage, rather than just hear it from the drummer’s laptop. The gothic-influence death band from Athens has been writing, recording and touring for about as long as Behemoth – nearly 20 years – so it came as no surprise how charismatic frontman and bassist Spiros “Seth” Antoniou is, and how skillfully he engages the crowd. And this is when the crowd really got moving, just barely into Septic Flesh’s opening tune.

If I were to say the audience was really fired up when blackened death metallers Behemoth entered the room, that would be a bit of an understatement that anyone who was there could attest to. When it seemed things couldn’t get more energized, the crowd started chanting and, with all that rising and unexpelled energy, getting restless. When the four members of Behemoth finally took to the stage and picked up their instruments in support of their ninth studio album Evangelion [Metal Blade, 2009], they hadn’t hit a single note or drum beat it was clear: in spite of many people in attendance there to see all the bands, Behemoth was who they bought their ticket for. In one word, to quote a friend, “brilliant.”

From the sounds of it, the performance in Edmonton the following evening at The Starlite Room was just as unreal.

Overall, the show was awesome and sounded great. However, the venue itself is awkward to navigate, and it’s difficult to see the stage from anywhere but a few select places. It could also use a barrier between the audience and the stage, to protect the fans, but especially band’s gear – and maybe even pant legs, as witnessed during Septic Flesh’s set. But that’s another story.