Dawn of Ouroboros is a band I love, and they kicked off 2026 with a short West Coast tour with the bands Sadness and Life. I have no idea whether it was intentional or not, but at least in my head I have fabricated that this tour was put together very deliberately with these bands to capture an overall theme. The order they played in (Dawn of Ouroboros, Life, Sadness) models the cycle of life. Dawn of Ouroboros is the birth, Life is, well, life, and death causes Sadness. Whether intended or not, this is how I choose to think about it! And though I normally don’t pair metal bands with non-metal bands in this way, the setup worked very well.

I was unable to attend the Seattle show, so I went to the Vancouver, BC, show, on January 9, at The Cobalt, which was the last show of the tour. The show also featured two local openers, Anchoress and the very long-named Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead.

Vancouver local band Anchoress kicked things off. I was not familiar with them, though they are self-described on their Bandcamp page as punk. There is no question they have punk elements, and it seems like their older material has more of a hardcore punk vibe, but that descriptor robs them of what they currently have going on musically based on their recently released EP. It would be a stretch to call them progressive, but from a post hardcore standpoint, they definitely were. I went through a post hardcore phase years ago and still enjoy it from time to time, but I don’t listen to it all that regularly now. This felt fresh and energetic and unlike any post hardcore I had heard before. I spoke with the guitarist after the show, and he said that the band tended to play with metal bands despite not necessarily being a metal band. I could definitely see them opening for metal bands, especially prog bands that include post rock and the occasional metalcore elements.

Anchoress played a 7-song set, including all 4 songs off their very recently released EP, “Cold Opens,” and a brand new song. The songs were:

1. This Is Fine
2. Foul Bay
3. The Hunt
4. Superposition
5. Occupied Territories
6. Great (new song)
7. Closing up Zhop

The second band of the night was local Vancouver trio Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I knew nothing about this band going in, though I wonder if their name is inspired by the 2009 Polish mystery novel of the same name. Musically it came across to me as a mix of screamo, noisecore, and mathcore. I actually am not sure how many songs they played, as the set was continuous but only lasted 7 minutes, which was easily the shortest set I have ever seen live. Definitely not my thing, but it was an interesting set, and the band played very well together. One callout is I could never hear the guitarist’s vocals, and in general the mix was very muddy. Unfortunately this was a sign of more sound problems to come.

Bay Area progressive blackgaze band Dawn of Ouroboros played third and was the opener for the tour bands. This would be my third time seeing them, and I always enjoy their live sets. Chelsea Murphy is one of my favorite vocalists to see live. She has an insane amount of energy on the stage, and her ability to switch between her extreme and clean vocals is always a sight to experience. The rest of the band is also super talented and has a ton of fun on stage together. For this show, they had a local drummer named Paul who filled in just for this show, as their regular drummer Chris was unable to play. DoO’s music is quite complex, and the drumming in particular is intense, and I was quite impressed with his ability to step in. What is even more amazing is that he had apparently never practiced once with the band, but you never would have guessed based on the performance! They also had Karl Whinnery of Vintersea filling in on bass, which he did for about half the tour, and he was also amazing.

I alluded to it in the previous set, but the set was unfortunately rife with vocal problems. The audience couldn’t hear half of Chelsea’s vocals during the first song, and microphone issues persisted throughout the set. Chelsea uses a 2-mic set up on stage, one for cleans and one for extremes, allowing her to optimize for each, but she eventually had to switch to a single mic. Once that happened it was better, but the vocal volume was inconsistent throughout, particularly for her cleans. Unfortunately, I have seen this happen multiple times now at The Cobalt, and I personally think it is inexcusable for a venue with so many regular shows to consistently have issues like this. On a positive, DoO didn’t let this impact their show, and they still delivered an amazing performance despite the technical issues. They had tons of fun on stage, and Chelsea even entered the crowd during “Testudines,” something I have never seen her do before.

Setlist

Dawn of Ouroboros played a 6-song set, with 5 songs from their latest album, “Bioluminescence,” and 1 from their previous album, “Velvet Incandescence.” “Slipping Burgundy” is always a favorite to hear them play live, and I personally thought this was Chelsea’s best performance for that song that I have seen yet. They played all my favorites from their latest, including ending with my favorite song “Dueling Sunsets.”

1. Bioluminescence
2. Poseidon’s Hymn
3. Nebulae
4. Slipping Burgundy
5. Testudines
6. Dueling Sunsets

The band Life played fourth. I knew nothing about them going in other than their Instagram handle used the term “emocore,” so I assumed this would fall in the screamo / post hardcore realm. The band did exactly that, playing a set that was a blend of post rock / hardcore and screamo. I found out after their set that Life is the brainchild of Damián Antón Ojeda, who also handles main vocals and assumes the lead guitar role most of the time. A woman named Alex came on stage for quite a few of the songs as an additional vocalist, many times in a dueling fashion with Damián, both singing and screaming. Sadly, the mic issues continued, and it was nearly impossible to hear any of Damián’s vocals. Alex’s vocals were at least audible but still very buried. The vocals are a big part of screamo, so not hearing them sucked, but overall I enjoyed the set and would love to see them again with proper sound.

Life played a 6-song setlist. It was:

1. 17 Memory
2. Fire You Set
3. In Helpless Gesture
4. Paroxis
5. Traveling Waters
6. First Kiss in Autumn

The band Sadness headlined the night. It turns out that Sadness is also the brainchild of Damián, and the band consisted of the exact same set of individuals. Unlike Life, Sadness focused much more on melancholic, emotional post rock. The songs were amazing, and it is easy to see why so many metal bands, particularly prog bands, incorporate post rock elements. Dawn of Ouroboros was my favorite set of the night, but Sadness was a very close second.

Sadness played a 5-song setlist. It was:

1. Touch Hour on Early Autumn Flying
2. In the Distant Travels
3. Untitled III
4. Blue Adorned Like a Deep April Dream
5. Holding

Sound issues aside, this was a great concert. It was definitely a bit different for me given the lack of metal bands besides Dawn of Ouroboros, though it did scratch some nostalgic itches from previous phases I have gone through. In addition to continuing to binge Dawn of Ouroboros, I will likely add both Anchoress and Sadness to my “change of pace” playlist, and I would definitely see them again!