M'Lou Elkins Concert Review + Photos
FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH + MARILYN MANSON
w/ Slaughter to Prevail + The Funeral Portrait
9/18/24 – Germania Insurance Amphitheater – Austin, TX
Review + The Funeral Portrait Photos ©Michael Mullenix
All Other Photos ©M’Lou Elkins/Skip2Photography.com
The fall Metal season kicked off with a bang on Wednesday, September 18th, when Five Finger Death Punch and Marilyn Manson rode into Austin’s Germania Insurance Amphitheater to deliver a sermon of Heavy. Bringing special guests The Funeral Portrait and Slaughter To Prevail with them, this was a chance for Austinites to witness bone-crushing metal in the hot sun, one last time in 2024.
Starting off the day, The Funeral Portrait rushed to greet Central Texas Metal fans clad in goth attire as they performed in blazing sunlight. This Punk-infused 5-piece was an inspired surprise (one not represented in the promotional material for this tour), and this was a golden opportunity to display the highlights from their new album, Greetings from Suffocate City.
The band dripped with Stage Presence. Singer Lee Jennings is a natural showman and ring-leader, making it a point to highlight and praise the other members of the band as they rocked out. Though short, their 5-song set was the perfect tone for things to follow.
WATCH: Music Fiends’ Interview with THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT’S LEE JENNINGS below:
Check out our gallery of The Funeral Portrait concert photos from the show below:
The marketed opener of the tour, Slaughter To Prevail came armed with their unique flavor of savage Deathcore. Despite headlining several Festivals this past summer, this tour was their moment to prove they hold their own with the titans of the genre. Four of the five members took to the stage with Demonic masks, sharp teeth, and playing belligerent metal to set a tone perfectly.
Singer Aleksandr “Alex Terrible” Shikolai looking like a muscled Kaiju monster rushed the stage, growled like a bear, and initiated the countdown of their massive hit, “Bonebreaker,” spelling out “666” in his native Russian. The crowd knew this was their cue and flung themselves into a raging mosh pit. Slaughter To Prevail is the embodiment of “Tough Guy Metal” and for 30 minutes they did not relent with songs like “Bratva” and “Baba Yaga.”
The highlight of their set came in the form of the song “Viking,” where Alex Terrible screams his part of the bridge without a microphone loud enough the whole house can hear him. This moment has been going viral for the past year and it cannot be believed unless you witness it firsthand, he really is that loud! It’s impressive seeing a man covered head to toe in tattoos flex every muscle in his body to belt out the lines of a song loud enough that he can even be heard in the back row.
Check out our gallery of Slaughter to Prevail concert photos from the show below:
Next on the bill was the triumphant return of Marilyn Manson, receiving a hero’s welcome as the curtain dropped to the intro riffs of “We Know Where You Fucking Live.” Manson’s set was spectacular, jumping from one major hit to another. He had the ability to command a frantic crowd reaction for bangers like “Mobscene” and “Angels With Scabbed Wings,” but also captivate the masses with slower affairs like “Tourniquet” and “Dope Show.”
Check out our gallery of Marilyn Manson concert photos from the show below:
The crowd ate every second of it up, but it was the reaction from fans in between songs that was surprisingly unanimous. People talking between each other saying how much more focused he was and how his voice sounded better since the last time he had been in town. In fact, adding emphasis to this was the new addition to his repertoire, “As Sick As The Secrets Within,” a modern classic and return to form of the Prince Of Weird. It’s horrible to think that his controversial hiatus perhaps gave him the time to reset and focus on his health and his sound, but the fans were excited to welcome him back to the fray.
At the end of the night, the curtain was raised one more time to build anticipation as Five Finger Death Punch launched into the fist-pumping excitement of “Welcome To The Circus.” In no time at all crowd surfers and moshers were brought to life by the band’s manic energy, entranced by the fiery fretwork of Zoltan Bathory and Andy James, as well as the booming vocals of Ivan Moody and Chris Kael.
Five Finger Death Punch is a heavy metal institution at this point, and having spent the last year on tour with Metallica they returned as champions to Austin’s go-to amphitheater. They kept Texas Metalheads amped-up with proven favorites such as “Trouble,” “Lift Me Up,” and “Wrong Side Of Heaven.” One aspect of this band that sometimes gets overlooked is frontman Ivan Moody’s overtures to relate to the fans in his audience. More than any frontman he takes special care to shower his fans with guitar picks or the wristbands he wears onstage. In between songs he invited young fans and their parents to come onstage and enjoy the show from the side, and even gave a young boy the baseball bat he was brandishing during the song “Under And Over It.”
For a guy who sings about his personal demons and defects, he does have a massive heart and shows sincere gratitude to the fans that have brought him to the top of the Metal Genre. Ultimately the band re-emerged after an encore with the two smash hits of “Never Enough” and “The Bleeding,” giving Texas fans one last chance to lose their minds in a pit. Even after the last note rang out, guitarists Zoltan Bathory and Andy James along with bassist Chris Kael stayed onstage for another 5 minutes passing out guitar picks and setlists. Heavy Metal Heroes.
Check out our gallery of Five Finger Death Punch concert photos from the show below:
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