Photos and Review by David De La Huerta
The air inside The Rebel on Saturday, October 11, 2025, crackled with three decades of pent-up anticipation. This wasn’t just a concert; it was a sludge-metal showcase, a bold statement of legacy. The legends of Acid Bath had finally crossed the border to deliver their unique brand of Southern doom, supported by the cerebral, boundary-pushing titans of Canadian thrash, Voivod. The result was a night that left the crowd both exhilarated and spiritually renewed.
Voivod: Pure Technical Thrash
Taking the stage early, Voivod faced the initial challenge of playing to a rapidly filling room, with a significant portion of the audience still stuck in the notoriously long merch lines. The Québécois quartet quickly asserted their dominance. The air filled with clicking drones before the band launched into their signature sound: a dizzying array of technical, dissonant, and impossibly tight compositions.
Vocalist Denis “Snake” Bélanger, the charismatic frontman, guided the crowd through the band’s serpentine history. While the early reaction was perhaps cooler than deserved for such a foundational act, momentum built quickly. Twenty minutes in, the sheer, relentless energy of their full-tilt thrash finally shattered the collective stiffness, and a circle pit erupted. The biggest cheer of the set was reserved for the old-school thrash anthem “Nuclear War,” a clear signal that the faithful were hungry for the classics. Right after some of their iconic songs, guitarist Daniel Mongrain led into their legendary cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine”—one of my favorite songs in Voivod’s repertoire. What a setlist from these Canadian legends.
The band closed their set with the self-titled track “Voivod,” building to a perfect crescendo that sparked a participatory scream-along and provided a fitting exit for these explosive veterans.
Voivod’s Setlist:
- Experiment
- Holographic Thinking
- Tribal Convictions
- The Unknown Knows
- Nuclear War
- Iconspiracy
- Condemned to the Gallows
- Astronomy Domine (Pink Floyd cover)
- Voivod
Acid Bath: An Avalanche of Doom and Punk
As the stage was reset, a monolithic Acid Bath logo loomed over a digital background in the venue, growing and receding with a doomy visual cadence—the only stark visual element for the entire set. The atmosphere shifted from Voivod’s technical chaos to Acid Bath’s murky swirl of emotions, and to my surprise, the attendees were mostly young and incredibly engaged with the band.
The moment the group—fronted by Dax Riggs—kicked off their reunion set, the crushing, multi-layered sound of their classic sludge metal hit the audience like a physical wave. Guitarists Sammy Duet and Mike Sanchez delivered towering riffs that shifted between crushing grooves and unexpected melodic fragility, forcing the crowd into a hypnotic, swaying rhythm. Riggs’s vocal performance was particularly captivating, channeling the raw, visceral poetry that defined the band’s short but legendary run.
Mid-set highlights showcased the emotional depth of their material. Lighters were held aloft and bodies swayed in unison during the haunting “Bleed Me an Ocean.” Later, the opening notes of the acoustic-driven ballad-turned-crusher “Scream of the Butterfly” elicited the loudest roar of the night, with a noticeable number of phones lifted to capture the moment—cementing its status as a communal anthem. The band paused briefly, with bassist Jimmy Kyle and guitarist Mike Sanchez tossing picks into the eager mass, acknowledging the Canadian fans and their long journey.
The energy never dipped, even as the hour grew late. Despite fans wishing for more, the set ended abruptly without an encore, leaving the crowd buzzing with satisfaction and a palpable hunger for another round. As noise and drones filled the air and the house lights came up, the audience stubbornly refused to move—a testament to the night’s unforgettable power. Acid Bath and Voivod proved that sometimes, the most enduring legends are the ones whose long-awaited returns are worth every second of the wait.
Acid Bath Setlist
- Black Sabbath (Black Sabbath song) [Played from tape]
- Tranquilized
- Bleed Me an Ocean
- Venus Blue
- The Bones of Baby Dolls
- Dead Girl
- Old Skin [Played from tape]
- New Death Sensation
- Graveflower
- Scream of the Butterfly
- Paegan Love Song
- Dr. Seuss Is Dead
