Barbaric Filth: Tainted Blade Makes Live Debut This Weekend

The Denver death-metal barbarians of Tainted Blade are ready for their close-up.

The new local band is preparing to play its first-ever live show on Saturday, January 10, at the hi-dive. Night Fishing, Nativity in Black and Halo of Lightning are also on the bill.

Comprising former Tricoma members Rory Rummings (vocals and guitar), Riley Rukavina (drums) and Matt Ross (bass), the Tainted Blade trio got together after that group decided to take a break recently.

“We were like, ‘Let’s just fucking play the music we want to hear,’” Rummings shares. “Riley and I really just wanted to start a mid-tempo crushing metal band. There’s not enough of those nowadays, and I had some riffs lying around that really wouldn’t fit for Tricoma.”

A debut EP, Psychic Illness, followed in late 2024, but there weren’t any plans to take it to the stage until now.

“We didn’t really want to play shows, and this just kind of landed in our lap, and, like, fuck it, let’s try it out,” explains Rummings, who also played in local group Cloud Catcher. He has a one-man black-thrash project called Armored Terror, too. “We were like, ‘Let’s get drunk, let’s record some shit and see what happens.’ That’s what Psychic Illness was. We literally played the songs like two or three times and recorded them.”

Now, Tainted Blade, the name is a reference to the ceremonial Tainted Blade of the Pale Knight weapon from the 2018 psychedelic horror film Mandy, is bringing its own brand of barbaric filth out the cauldron — aka the band’s home studio. And has a new single, “TIE YOUR NOOSE,” in tow, too.

The latest track is off of upcoming album, Wrath Made Flesh (out February 27), and it’s indicative of the knuckle-dragging death metal meets swamp sludge Tainted Blade dispels. Think Crowbar meets Celtic Frost.

“When you slow it the fuck down, it just hits so much harder and that’s what we wanted to go for,” Rummings says, adding that Rukavina’s style is perfect for that.

“He’s the type of drummer that can caveman-it up and really fit with the groove, rather than putting overly nuanced playing over these riffs,” he continues. “He just boils it down to the essence. That’s the type of drumming these riffs needed.”

The six songs on Wrath Made Flesh are more focused than the inaugural effort, which Rummings admits featured more repetitive harsh-shout vocals than fully realized lyrics.

“You know, you play heavy music for a reason. A lot of this shit is heavy stuff that’s happened in my life or my buddies’ lives,” he says of the current content. “Drug-related suicide, descending into madness and depression and accepting it. That was a big theme for the whole album.

“I have a lot of buddies who are veterans, and I grew up with veterans. Seeing how common alcoholism and substance-abuse is with those people, and high suicide rates, too,” Rummings continues.

“Depression runs in my family, and it’s pretty much acknowledging that everyone can feel a certain way. There are times that I feel super down and I acknowledge it and accept it but deny it at the same time and grow from it rather than let it define me,. I always thought it was good to talk about. Don’t push that shit down.”

After getting the initial gig out of the way, Tainted Blade is eager to further sharpen its edge.  

“We want to give Denver a different flavor of metal. We call it ‘barbaric filth.’ We want that. We don’t want to be another hardcore or death metal band,” Rummings says.

“If you fucking put you heart and soul on the line and play every fucking note like you’re going to die after you play it, people will respond,” he concludes. “You have to have the spirit for it.”

Tainted Blade, with Night Fishing, Nativity in Black and Halo of Lightning, 7 p.m. Saturday, January 10, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets are $15.