The “Summer Slaughter” Tour is a yearly event that brings something of a festival environment to the indoor stages of venues around the country and it clocks in at a usual ten bands per gig for a relatively affordable price.  That means its a great way to absorb a wide variety of Metal and gives the listeners a lot to investigate when they get home.  This year’s event would be headlined by Decapitated who had direct support from both The Faceless and All Shall Perish.  The massive event also featured The Red Chord, Veil Of Maya, Decrepit Birth, Animals As Leaders, Carnifex, Cephalic Carnage and Vital Remains.  Whew.  This was surely going to be a lot to absorb so click the logo below to be taken to the main PiercingMetal.com site and the full report along with all of its photos.  Then come back and scroll down to see some other moments that are only shared in the blog leader for it.

Given the massive nature of this performance, I tried my best to secure some visuals of the other things that caught my eye in addition to all of the smoldering Metal talent that was hitting the stage.  I will start with the posted for the event which was sponsored by Decibel Magazine, Metal Sucks and Metal Injection.  Last year, Decibel had this cool tour program that lined out some information on all of the bands but I did not see one around today.  That’s was a shame since it was a nice little take away souvenir.

Can You Brave The Slaughter?

Here we find the hungry for some Metal crowd as they make their way into the confines of Irving Plaza.  This show started super early but that will happen when you have ten bands on the bill.  Talk about a full menu.

Arriving At The Slaughter

I admit that I was a little surprised to find as many people already assembled and filtering in when I wandered over to the venue.  I say this because in the past I had witnessed the earlier running bands playing for less than admirable numbers but this one was a little different from the get go.  I am also convinced that the wooden barrier that you see was assembled by the corner restaurant to keep the Metal legions away from its windows.  You legions need to stop scaring the customers LOL.  The next shot up is the running roster which was hanging at the entrance.  This was great to see and prevents the endless questions from the arriving audience to the box office.

Tonight's Metal Treats & Their Set Times

Yep you are reading this correctly.  The show started at about 5:30pm and that meant if you had interest in the very first band which was Vital Remains in this case, you needed to be on the line early in order to do so.  Sadly, I would not be so lucky but that was okay since I had seen Vital a number of times before and actually very recently.  And now for something completely different.  I like to call this next batch of images “the stuff I see at shows” as its often rather interesting.

Donations Please

One of the merch tables had this head of the Caped Crusader and he instructed about how tipping was very Metal.

A Scary New Possible Trend At Shows

I had never seen something like this before and loved it.  Remember those “We’re Number 1″ foam fingers?  Well, this is its Metal brother and a cooler brother I think one could never have.  Of course I don’t see these things surviving a raucous Metal show but I could be wrong about that.

These shows get hot and one can always use a drink of “water” at them, so this canteen is a smart purchase and look it even says “The Summer Slaughter” on it.  Okay I know I am not kidding anyone here and I know that it is hardly a canteen but instead a flask.  I would watch trying to bring these into shows though as the audience is checked for such items.  This might be a great gifts for someone in a band that you know just the same and they can fill it with whatever they prefer as their elixir of choice.

Something like this might suffice.  Please drink responsibly, and by all means legally.  Plenty of time for it.  The next shot is a quick view of the stage effects for the Veil Of Maya guys.  I didn’t think to take too many photos of this kind of stuff this time around.

Veil Of Maya Effects

Here is just a little bit of strangeness.  I liked it.

A Metal Wristband

I know the words are deceiving but this is the kind of wristband the legals get when they come into the venue should they feel like indulging in an icy cold beverage of the alcoholic type.  I’m adding it to this narrative even though I don’t think I got this one at the Slaughter.  It just worked well for the weirdness and I did get it at this same venue.

The Fans Are At The Slaughter

Just a quick shot of the fans awaiting some more of the Slaughter.  No, I don’t remember who was playing when I shot it.  Sorry about that, there was enough to do that night without question.

Decapitated: From Pain To Strength

Here’s a shot of the Decapitated banner that hung from the stage.  It’s motto is very direct and has some significant meaning based on the current events of the band.  I just wanted to share it with you in the blog posting for the main concert report since its not shared with the bands photo gallery in the article.