w/ Ill Niño, Black Satellite, and Savage Existence | 10.25.23, 6:00PM | Pop’s, 401 Monsanto Ave, Sauget, IL | All ages | $32-59.50
“Hear me now!/ All crimes should be treasured/ If they bring thee pleasure somehow!”
England’s most blasphemous export (i.e., Cradle of Filth) and California groove metal veterans DevilDriver will bring the second leg of their co-headlining US tour to Pop’s next Wednesday, October 25th. The first leg of the tour began in March, with the bands playing a run of shows together along the West Coast and Southwestern US. The second leg will run through the end of October, with several dates throughout the East Coast and Midwest, before ending in Riverside, CA. The current leg of the tour features support from New York City industrial/Gothic metal duo Black Satellite, Costa Rican groove metal band Savage Existence, and the long-running New Jersey nu metal group Ill Niño.
Formed in Ipswich in 1991, Cradle of Filth is arguably the world’s most successful and enduringly popular black metal act (with the possible exception of Dimmu Borgir), forever immortalized as the band whose t-shirts were so controversial that people got arrested for wearing them. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the Gothic and highly theatrical “symphonic black metal” subgenre, the face of the band has always been Dani Filth, its sole remaining original member, who is notorious for his larynx-piercing shrieks and poetically vulgar lyrics. Cradle of Filth is currently touring in support of their most recent release, 2021’s Existence Is Futile, considered by many critics to be a high point in a massive discography spanning sixteen albums.
Next week’s show will mark Cradle of Filth’s first performance in St. Louis in 16 years, and their fourth time in the city overall. They have played Pop’s twice previously (in 2003 and 2007), and were also one of the featured acts at OzzFest’s 2003 stop at what is now Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.
Former in Santa Barbara, CA in 2002, DevilDriver emerged as one of the most successful bands of the groove metal revival of the early ‘00s, when bands like Lamb of God and Chimaira began combining the ubiquitous grooving beatdowns and melodic leads of the genre with the rhythmic and vocal intensity of death metal. They are currently touring in support of their tenth studio album, Dealing with Demons Vol. II, released in May through Napalm Records.
It is fair to say that DevilDriver is a Pop’s mainstay—including next week’s show, they have played the Sauget nightclub over a dozen times over the past 20 years. Like Cradle of Filth, DevilDriver have also made a few OzzFest appearances at the Amphitheatre (in 2004 and 2007), and they also opened for Slipknot during their May 2009 performance at the Enterprise Center (then known as the Scottrade Center).
According to DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara, the co-headlining tour with Cradle of Filth has been a collaboration many years in the making. Fafara and Dani Filth are close personal friends, and Fafara’s wife has also worked as a tour manager for Cradle of Filth.
“I have been a fan of Cradle of Filth since the early ’90s,” Fafara told Consequence of Sound, “and over the years I’ve not only had the opportunity to become great friends with Dani and the band, whom are all wonderful people, but also to manage their career alongside my wife Anahstasia, who is CEO at Oracle Management. When presented the opportunity to go out on what is DevilDriver’s first shows in almost three years and co-headline with the mighty Cradle of Filth on this first run of what is now a world tour, it could not be passed on!”
With five bands on the bill, the night will start relatively early (at 6:00PM). DevilDriver and Cradle of Filth have been rotating for the final set of the night, which is often the case for co-headlining tours. Don your corpse paint and rip the sleeves off your Jack Daniel’s shirt for what promises to be the metal event of the Halloween season! | David Von Nordheim
Cradle of Filth & DevilDriver’s “Double Trouble Live II” Tour
10.25.23 – Sauget, IL @ Pop’s
10.26.23 – Wichita, KS @ TempleLive
10.27.23 – Lubbock, TX @ The Garden
10.29.23 – Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium
