REVIEW: Cannibal Corpse, Municipal Waste, Full of Hell, Fulci at The Paramount | 10.17.2025

Show Reviews

Oct 21

Written By

After a marathon North American tour over the past two months, Cannibal Corpse is nearing the finish line. With just a few more stops to go, the band remains full steam ahead, trekking out to The Paramount on Long Island—about a two-hour drive from the city with traffic.

The band is joined by Municipal Waste, Full of Hell, and Fulci, rounding out the evening and ensuring there’s never a moment without metal of the heaviest, most thrashing variety.

I know my review write-ups are inconsistent at best when it comes to weaving in photography commentary, so bear with me—but I definitely want to speak to it here, because for whatever reason, I was just not getting the job done.

Fulci, hailing all the way from Caserta, Italy, kicked off the evening with a set filled with brutality. Vocalist Fiore's growls were as dark and low as the lighting that dimly lit the stage.

I realized as soon as the second song started that a few dark red lights were all I was going to have to work with. I usually welcome the challenge, but my brain was far from firing on all cylinders, and my struggle to think strategically quickly gave way to stress.

Don’t get me wrong—I got a couple of shots that are fine enough—but I’m usually whittling down my selects, while this time I knew I’d be lucky to even have some selects to work with.

I slowed my shutter to get more light and to play with shutter drag, trying to make the photos more interesting. I even experimented with a few double exposures, but nothing was clicking.

So I just enjoyed watching the set. “I want to see you rise from the dead!” shouted Fiore before the band launched into their final song, as a massive circle pit spun with unrelenting ferocity.

Full of Hell were up next. The band was already on stage in the minutes before their set started—tuning, prepping, waiting calmly. Then, as the house lights dimmed, they launched into their first song as if a switch had been flipped, shifting from calm to calamity in an instant.

For a moment, it seemed the lights had improved—blasts of bright white here and there—and I took what I could get. While the trio of players behind him stayed relatively stationary, vocalist Dylan Walker was anything but, convulsing with passionate energy and darting back and forth across the stage.

Reviewing the images later, I wondered why, in the moment, I’d been so determined to capture clear, sharp, still shots of Full of Hell. But then I think about the music they play, the energy on the stage—and I realize: those photos should be blurry. They should be raw, messy, grainy.

Call it rationalizing a poor shoot, or call it having the right mindset without deliberate execution—but once I shifted my perspective, a few photos stood out more than they ever would have before.

The entirety of my drive out to The Paramount consisted of a steady flow of Municipal Waste tracks blasting through the speakers as I got more and more hyped for their set. I’ve slept on the band for way too long and was excited to finally catch them live. Their relentless dedication to thrash was exactly the vibe I needed.

Municipal Waste is an absolute blast to watch perform. Every member is seriously talented while also never taking themselves too seriously. Vocalist Tony Foresta is hilarious. His banter between songs manages to hype up the crowd while cracking them up at the same time.

Foresta demanded more and more crowd surfers to the point where I swear half the floor was either holding someone up or being held themselves. It was an awesome sight to see. Equally nuts, in the best way possible, was Foresta’s call for a circle pit that spanned the entire floor right before “Born to Party” closed out their set—and the crowd was more than happy to oblige.

Given the lighting issues during the first two sets, my excitement gave way to a bit of anxiety before Municipal Waste took the stage, as I recognized it could happen yet again. And while there was definitely an improvement in the lighting, the shoot was far from a walk in the park. I don’t think I was ready for the band’s energy—at times, I basically froze because everyone on stage was moving so fast, and I just couldn’t think quickly enough to make the right decisions in the moment. I walked out of the pit, scrolled through my camera, and thought to myself, “That’s it?”

After a minute or two of kicking myself for missing the mark, I finagled my way through the crowd to try to redeem myself. I ended up getting most of my usable shots from out there. I still feel like I can do better—which just means I’ll have to go see Municipal Waste again. That’s far from a bad problem to have.

The Paramount was packed to the gills with people and excitement as the members of Cannibal Corpse walked on stage. Corpsegrinder was the last to make his appearance, walking out slowly to a roar of cheers. The band then launched into “Blood Blind,” and Corpsegrinder—his face buried under hair—delivered his signature brutality along with his GOATed headbangs and thrashing spins. The chugging guitars of Rob Barrett and Erik Rutan drew forth a sea of headbangers in the crowd—the only proper response to riffs this heavy.

I was headbanging too—not just because of the music, but because of the excitement of finally having some clean light to work with. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to make me feel exponentially more confident in my ability to get solid shots. I even broke out my motion filter and used it on and off while in the pit. At last, I’d caught somewhat of a stride.

Having a subject like Corpsegrinder is helpful, too—his headbanging is fun to shoot, and he does it for so long while staying mostly stationary that it feels like a clear shot should be easy. Still, it took a 1/400 shutter speed and shooting in high-speed continuous mode to really get a clean and sharp shot, which is a testament to the speed at which Corpsegrinder can spin his head around.

While I may have felt off, Cannibal Corpse couldn’t have been more “on.” They delivered a set that showcased exactly why they’re such a legendary and influential force in metal. You know a show’s a good one when even the people waiting for the bathroom or grabbing a drink at the bar outside the live room are still bobbing their heads. The thrash never stops.

Cannibal Corpse’s tour wraps up tomorrow evening in Charlotte before the band takes a well-deserved break. Something tells me the next tour won’t be far behind.