At the beginning of 2025, I resolved to see two bands perform if and when they came near me on tour: Acid Bath and Blood Incantation. Granted, Acid Bath has not announced any tour dates near my area, at least not yet. Although my year was made when Blood Incantation announced in May, they were hitting the road with the Absolute ElseTour North America 2025. Reviewing the tour dates, I noticed just a few days after my birthday, Blood Incantation kicks off the tour at one of my favorite venues, The Caverns in Grundy County, Pelham, Tennessee. Located more than 300 feet below the Earth’s surface, the Caverns stage is one of the most unique venues in the United States.

Most notably, PBS brought notoriety to the venue located in the Cumberland Mountains by broadcasting the popular music program The Cavern Sessions (formerly known as Bluegrass Underground) in The Caverns featuring bluegrass, Americana, folk, rock ‘n’ roll, southern rock ‘n’ roll, international, and indie rock bands/artists. Make no mistake, the metal genre is no stranger to The Caverns theatre. Bands such as drone metal titans SUNN O))) (2022), the mighty Clutch (2024 & 2025), and the legendary and always entertaining GWAR (2025) have all performed in The Caverns. And let us not forget the most recently announced event: Acid Bath with special guests Obituary, Herakleion, and Saint Avangeline will perform at The Caverns on March 21, 2026.

If you know anything about the band Blood Incantation, then you know the location in The Caverns is a marvelous idea to perform, especially with the knowledge that they are performing their album, Absolute Elsewhere, in its entirety. The natural acoustic resonance in The Caverns theater is the perfect stage for an album like Absolute Elsewhere to be performed from start to finish. And to add a cherry on top, my dudes in Pallbearer were slated to perform with Blood Incantation at The Caverns. This would be my third trip to The Caverns, but it would be my first time doing photography at the venue. Truth be told, I was a mixed bag of anxiety and excitement. Oh joy. But who wouldn’t feel that way? This was a major opportunity not only for me, but for Concerthopper, so I did not want to fumble.

Pallbearer is a four-piece doom metal band from Little Rock, AR., that formed in 2008. Pallbearer consists of Brett Campbell (guitar/synthesizer/lead vocals), Joseph D. Rowland (bass/lead and backing vocals/electric and acoustic piano/synthesizer), Devin Holt (guitar/backing vocals), and Mark Lierly (drums). They have released five (5) LPs and two (2) EPs, with Mind Burns Alive (2024) being the latest release. I remember first hearing Pallbearer’s debut album, Sorrow and Extinction, after its release and thinking how mind-blowing it was to hear something so vibrant and raw. The music was doomy just how I liked it, but the lyrics and vocals from Brett Campbell were hypnotic at times. Brett’s melodic, yet haunting vocals draw the listener in more intimately, swaying the listener to surrender to their warm embrace.

Pallbearer

I’ve seen Pallbearer performing several times over the last decade-plus, and they continuously get tighter as a band with each performance. Some of my favorite memories of Pallbearer performing live are their 2015 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival performance, a few months later, during the High on Fire/Pallbearer/Lucifer/Venomous Maximus (08/22/2015) tour stop at the original Masquerade (Heaven), and more recently their 2023 tour with Yob and Order of the Owl at The Masquerade. Blood Incantation knew what they were doing by inviting Pallbearer to the Absolute ElseTour North America 2025 opening date at The Caverns.

Pallbearer took the Caverns theatre stage right around 8 pm and kicked off with one of my favorite songs off their fourth (4th) album, Forgotten Days (2020), “Silver Wings”. Moving through the crowd, I could see people just living in the moment while Pallbearer performed handpicked songs from their celebrated catalog over the years. I was overjoyed when Pallbearer performed “The Ghost I Used to Be”, off their sophomore album Foundations of Burden (2014).

Pallbearer

Pallbearer closed out this remarkable set by taking it to the beginning, performing the first track off their debut album, Sorrow and Extinction, and a crowd favorite, “Foreigner”. With this set, Pallbearer navigated through their complete discography and performed at least one song from their studio albums. This Caverns set by Pallbearer was a journey through over a decade’s worth of the band’s highs and lows, countless studio sessions, and multiple tours in numerous countries while traversing several continents.

You can revisit a few of my previous reviews featuring Pallbearer: Temporary Spaces North American Tour: Pallbearer w/ Rwake and The Keening Live at The Masquerade (2024) & The Triumphant Return of YOB w/ Pallbearer & Order of the Owl (The Masquerade)! (2023).

You can check out Pallbearer’s setlist from their opening performance in the Caverns on Blood Incantation’s Absolute ElseTour North America 2025 below:

· “Silver Wings”

· “Thorns”

· “With Disease”

· “The Ghost I Used to Be”

· “Foreigner”

Blood Incantation is a progressive death metal/death metal/technical death metal/ambient band from Denver, Colorado that has been active since 2011. Blood Incantation consists of Paul Riedl (guitars/vocals), Morris Kolontyrsky (guitars), Isaac Faulk (drums), and Jeff Barrett (fretless bass). Blood Incantation has released four (4) LPs, three (3) EPs, one (1) split with Spectral Voice, and three (3) Demos. Blood Incantation’s latest release is entitled Absolute Everywhere (2024), which is a beast of a record from start to finish. Pitchfork said Blood Incantation’s Absolute Elsewhere “is their most adventurous music yet”, while reaching “their heaviest heights yet by showing just how soft they can go”.

As a fan of the death metal genre, I grew up listening to bands like Morbid Angel, Carcass, Death (R.I.P. Chuck), Obituary, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, and Bolt Thrower. Some death metal bands started evolving the already established technical death metal genre in the mid to late 90s and early 00s. Bands like Aborted, Cryptopsy, Gojira, The Black Dahlia Murder (R.I.P. Trevor), Decapitated, and Dying Fetus, to name a few. Now etched in the dark pantheon of the death metal genre, Blood Incantation has cemented their legacy with the release of four (4) perfect studio albums showcasing their innate ability to weave sonic soundscapes with crushing riffs that are mixed with melodic breakdowns that would make even Pink Floyd smile.

Before the show, I had expressed my hope that Blood Incantation would play “The Giza Power Plant” off their sophomore album Hidden History of the Human Race (2019). Just the opening 30 seconds alone to “The Giza Power Plant” would make you want to see this performed live, plus this phenomenal performance by Blood Incantation would be highlighted by the natural rock formations directly behind them.

Blood Incantation

Blood Incantation came out to the Caverns theatre stage to the applause of the sold-out crowd in the Caverns. The crowd was aware that lift off was imminent, so they braced for takeoff, the moment when Blood Incantation played the first note of the opening song to Absolute Elsewhere, “The Stargate [Tablet I]”. I felt goosebumps immediately when I heard Paul Riedl utter the lyrics, “All life is suffering that basks in nothingness/All life is temporary, what lasts is consciousness” from “The Stargate [Tablet I]”.

All I could think about was the numerous times that I listened to this album, imagining the exact moment when I would hear firsthand Riedl’s guttural growls layered with some serious death metal riffage from both Riedl and Morris Kolontyrsky. That moment had finally come to fruition. And I am sure I am not the only person that night in The Caverns witnessing for the first time Blood Incantation laying waste on the stage.

Blood Incantation

Much to my surprise, once Blood Incantation completed performing the album Absolute Elsewhere, Riedl spoke to the crowd to inform us that they would play “The Giza Power Plant” off their album, Hidden History of the Human Race. If you think my goosebumps were prominent before, getting my wish made this Concerthopper very happy. This moment was everything that I imagined it would be. Blood Incantation is synced well together, and they make it seem so easy as they flawlessly rip through their most intricate songs.

And yes, I do recommend checking out Christopher Dunn’s The Giza Power Plant: Technologies of Ancient Egypt. It is worth a listen or reading, however, you choose to consume books these days. We were even treated with a live debut of “Meticulous Soul Devourment” from Blood Incantation’s debut album, Starspawn (2016). Closing out this unforgettable set in The Caverns, Blood Incantation performed “Obliquity of the Ecliptic” off the EP Luminescent Bridge (2023). Incidentally, “Obliquity of the Ecliptic” is another great song to see performed live as Blood Incantation makes the impossible seem simple, shredding through this complex 8:53-minute technical death metal masterpiece.

You can see Blood Incantation’s setlist from their historic performance in the Caverns below:

· “The Stargate” {Tablet I-III}

· “The Message” {Tablet I-III}

· “The Giza Power Plant”

· “The Vth Tablet (of Enuma Elis)

· “Meticulous Soul Devourment” (Live debut)

· “Obliquity of the Ecliptic”

You can still see Blood Incantation on the Absolute ElseTour until August 7th at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA. See the remaining dates below. Plus, Blood Incantation has multiple dates announced this year in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand:

Jul 21 Mon

The Stargate Opens Deep Inside the Caverns in Grundy County, Tennessee!