The all-star death metal tours just keep coming . . . after Nile and Six Feet Under hit SoCal for two dates last week, The Modern Primitive in North America Tour 2025 featuring the Greek Death Metal Gods Speticflesh with direct support from VLTIMAS and Stormruler with local openers SIGLOS hit Brick by Brick for a Valentines Day massacre on Friday February 14, 2025. Out for one last trek supporting their 2022 release Modern Primitive, Septicflesh has spent the better part of the last couple years touring North America and Europe.
Fans lined up early to get into the San Diego venue and the night kicked off at 7:00pm sharp with Los Angeles based SIGLOS who delivered a pounding 30-minute set of Doomy/Industrial fused Death Metal with a very dark and powerful delivery. Now pay attention if you are not familiar with SIGLOS, the band features former Ministry guitarist Sin Quirin alongside the haunting vocals of Pedro Sanchez and Adrian Villanueva on rhythm guitar, Juan Pina on bass and Iorden Mitev pounding the drums. The band has released a couple killer EPs and their music and stage presence has a mysterious, tribal element to it that really stands out from most other bands as the pummeling bass and drums coupled with the galloping guitar riffs with Sanchez’s growls and stage costumes totally captivate you.
The Brick by Brick crowd although a bit thin this early in the night was totally into SIGLOS and there was certainly some existing fans as seen by many SIGLOS t-shirts. SIGLOS is beginning to play more shows in CA and will be playing a few festivals in Europe this summer, be sure to check them out as you will be hooked immediately, and it won’t be long before they are on a national touring package playing your city.
Siglos
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Stormruler hit the stage next with the venue now fairly packed to capacity. These fine gentlemen from St Louis just played on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise in early February and led by guitarist/vocalist Jason Asberry, the band melted faces with their fast-paced melodic Black Metal. Supporting their 2022 release, Sacred Rites & Black Magick, the band decked out in Leather, Spikes and Studs put on well received performance that had many choregraphed band member interactions and lots of blistering guitar solos. Their 30 minutes onstage along with the SIGLOS performance successfully set off the Death Metal Richter scale and got the blood flowing and anticipation high for what was to come next.
Stormruler
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
VLTIMAS (pronounced ‘uhl-tuh-mas’) has been around for several years and is a “supergroup” of sorts led by former Morbid Angel/I Am Morbid vocalist David Vincent who teamed up with former Mayhem guitarist Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen and initially Cryptopsy drummer Flo Mounier (who played on both studio albums but is no longer in the band) – VLTIMAS has toured and played many festivals in Europe but this is their first US/North America tour and their performance is not to be missed.
Vincent has put down the bass and is only doing vocals with VLTIMAS which gives us fans an opportunity to see a different David Vincent persona. His vocals remain deep, dark and brutal and wearing a Gambler hat and a long black trench coat he commands the stage like a boss. The VLTIMAS catalog of songs are fast and furious and Eriksen’s right hand is a riffing machine on every song. Vincent called out Septiflesh as one of his favorites and thanked them sincerely for inviting them on this tour.
The band hammered out nine songs from their two albums and ended the night with “Everlasting” from the 2019 debut Something Wicked Marches In. Those in attendance witnessed something very special as who knows if VLTIMAS will ever tour the US again . . . we can only hope so but until then we all will hold this show near and dear to our Death Metal black hearts.
Vltimas
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
The modern-day Greeks Gods, Septicflesh have been busy touring in support of Modern Primitive and are another band that played on the 2025 70000 Tons of Metal cruise earlier in February. The band took the stage and vocalist/bass player Spiros Antoniou appeared to a loud roar from the Brick by Brick crowd and began the night with “The Vampire from Nazareth” then into “Neuromancer” that got the crowd super rowdy and moving about. Septichflesh is not only a very talented Death Metal band but they are about as fun as you can get as Antoniou has a very warm and infectious personality as he pumps up the crowd in-between songs.
Christos Antoniou nailed all the leads with ear-piercing precision as the band played four songs off Modern Primitive, “The Collector”, “A Desert Throne” and “Coming Storm” in addition to “Neuromancer”. Spiros returned the love back at David Vincent calling him a legend and thanking him. Septicflesh delivered a perfect fourteen song set and pummeled through “Anubis” then “Dark Art” to end the night. Spiros Antoniou is without a doubt one of the most talented and entertaining Death Metal vocalists and Septicflesh’s brutal Death Metal infused with slower orchestration parts is a match made in hell, a perfect combination for greatness.
The Modern Primitive Tour heads east, ending in New York City on March 2nd.
Septicflesh
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
