Spite’s June 9 set at The Phoenix Concert Theatre came in the middle of the band’s NEW WORLD KILLER campaign, the North American run they launched in early 2026 after unveiling the album in late August last year and later releasing it on Halloween via Rise Records. That context feels important to mention and with the Toronto date being almost halfway though this leg of their world tour, it really did feel like a band arriving in the middle of a very deliberate new chapter and not just recycling old deathcore chaos for the road.
The evening’s sets began with Rev3rent, the six-piece deathcore outfit from Apple Valley, California, who wasted little time setting an uncompromising tone for the night. As one of the newest names on the bill, Rev3rent brought an aggressive mix of punishing breakdowns and relentless energy that immediately put the crowd into motion. They were always moving, sometimes even as a unit, despite the little space they had to deal with on stage. Their crabcore style gives those good ol 2010’s Attack Attack days a bit of a refresh as well. Safe to say that their supercharged set served as a fitting introduction to an evening built around some of modern deathcore’s heaviest acts.
Next up was PSYCHO-FRAME, the Atlanta-based band that has quickly developed a reputation as one of the genre’s fastest-rising young groups since forming in 2023. The band were already on stage before their set even began – no grand entrance, just straight into business as soon as they were ready. Their performance showcased a tightly executed blend of old-school deathcore brutality and modern production, with an intensity that can leave a good impression to new listeners (even those 2008 deathcore heads) in such a short period of time. A sound that’s a great balance between raw quality and polished aggression complimented by great two-steps and blast beats with technical guitar riffs sprinkled throughout. Dual vocalists in deathcore also just feels like an underrated thing and should be taken advantage more for unique vocal combinations. Despite being another one of the newer bands on the lineup, they performed with the confidence and precision of seasoned veterans.
Veteran metalcore outfit Emmure followed, bringing over two decades of experience and a catalogue that has helped shape the heavier side of modern metalcore. Epic buildup music welcomed the band onto the stage that also launched the set into a band classic Solar Flare Homicide. Overall though, it was performance that expectedly struck a balance between their skull-crushing grooves and massive, crowd-moving breakdowns, which was a definite reminder as to why they’re one of the genre’s notable acts. By the time they wrapped up, the room had been thoroughly primed for Spite, with the evening building naturally from emerging talent to established heavyweights before culminating in the headlining performance.
15 minutes early and seemingly without notice, the headliners sprung into action with a set opening exactly how a current-era Spite show should: with a hard shove into the new record with almost half of the show being made up with NEW WORLD KILLER material. NEW WORLD KILLER (the song), GAVEL, LIGHTS OUT, SHALLOW, SHEDDING SKIN, PLEDGE, and HAND OF THE REAPER wove themselves through the first half of the set highlighting how their newest work was the clear spine of the night as well as what direction the band wants to take their sound. Vocalist Darius Tehrani remains super dominant complimented nicely by bassist Ben Bamford and Alex Tehrani’s technical guitars. Travis Regnier then brings a level of focus on the drums that you can really see live. Song-wise, LIGHTS OUT in particular was one of the biggest early moments being an album lead single, while the title track had the added weight of being both a fresh anthem and the name of the entire tour cycle. Dropped back in late September a month before the album was released, NEW WORLD KILLER felt like a perfect way to start the set echoing how it also introduced Spite’s latest juncture as a band as well as their set on Audiotree back in February with now at over 1M views.
What kept the set from feeling one-note was the way Spite kept bouncing backward just enough to remind everyone how deep their catalogue already runs. Snap pulled the room all the way back to the 2016 self-titled release, while IED, Kingdom of Guts, and Kill or Be Killed as a closer took the crowd to 2017’s Nothing Is Beautiful; Psychopath reached even farther back to the 2014 Misery EP. In a live setting, those older cuts would have been the biggest throwback jolts of the night, especially Psychopath, that sat at the earliest end of the band’s recording history here and gave the set a nasty, old-school edge before the newer material slammed back in. It must be an interesting feeling performing songs that were written 11 years apart.
The back half tightened the screws even further blasting through Made to Please earlier in the set, then Hangman, Dedication to Flesh, and Caved In topped off the 2022 Dedication to Flesh block towards the end, keeping the show’s centre of gravity anchored in the band’s most recent two records even as the older songs kept surfacing. As a 4 piece band, they easily filled the Phoenix to the brim with their powerful sound into this last stretch too. By the time they closed with Kill or Be Killed, the set had played like a pressure curve rather than a chronology. They front-loaded it with the newest era stuff, scattered older fan-favourite hits throughout, and ending on the kind of ruthless, no-escape note they’ve been known for that makes Spite’s current phase also feel bigger and more focused than ever in comparison. A roller coater of a performance and definitely a band to see if you’re feeling like some solid deathcore.
Keep up with the latest on their Instagram and Website especially with their recently announced Europe/UK 2027 Tour.
