Photo of Whitechapel by Stephanie Cabral
Whitechapel w/ Archspire, Signs of the Swarm, and Entheos | 05.12.23, 7:00 PM | Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, MO 63103 | All ages | $25
Circle pits, two-stepping, and crowd surfing will abound at Red Flag this Friday as deathcore band Whitechapel brings their 2023 tour to St. Louis, featuring Archspire, Signs of the Swarm and Entheos. Whitechapel was last in St. Louis in November 2022, when they opened for Trivium at the Pageant.
Named for the London district where the infamous Jack the Ripper murders occurred, Whitechapel formed in Knoxville, TN in 2006. They are often regarded as one of the defining bands from the deathcore explosion of the mid-2000s, a time when extreme metal was increasingly taking cues from metalcore in its song structures and overall aesthetic. Early albums like The Somatic Defilement (2007) and This Is Exile (2008) separated Whitechapel from other deathcore bands due to the heaviness of their sound, achieved through the use of three guitarists, as well as the guttural vocal style of Phil Bozeman.
Whitechapel is playing the entirety of their 2019 album The Valley on their current tour. This album saw the band going in a much more progressive direction compared to their early work, contrasting the heaviness of their established sound with clean vocals and melodic passages. Although this transition has been controversial with fans of their early, brutal, death metal-inspired work, The Valley became one of their most critically well-received albums overall, and greatly expanded their fanbase.
Joining Whitechapel on their current tour is Archspire, a technical death metal band that formed in Vancouver, BC in 2009. Archspire is notorious for the absurdly fast, neoclassical solos of guitarist Dean Lamb, as well as the equally absurd delivery of vocalist Oli Peters, who sounds like he’s almost rapping at times on their albums. Archspire recently wrapped up a European tour with Psycroptic, Benighted, and Entheos, the latter of which is also supporting the current Whitechapel tour. | David Von Nordheim
Check out our tour playlist, featuring recent setlists from all four bands.
