Narcoterrorism, Botulism Warning, Primitive Execution, and Victim of Fire put on an absolutely crazy show with copious amounts of moshing at The Lost Horizon on October 7th.

Words By Vivian Baltzer / Photos by Hollis Melling / Graphic by Griffin Turner

Despite being a show with minimal advertisement, The Lost Horizon had a big turnout for the hardcore night featuring Narcoterrorism, Botulism Warning, Primitive Execution, and Victim of Fire on October 7th. The sheer quantity of heavy riffs, insane drum beats, and flailing limbs made this night one for the record books. 

The first band of the night was Narcoterrorism, a quartet with an immense amount of energy. The band’s frontwoman, Charlotte Lomino III, owned the stage with her guitar-playing and heavy vocals. At one point in the performance, she came down into the pit and ran around banging a cymbal with a drumstick. The energy for her set was palpable, and even more, she did it all in heels. Unfortunately, this performance was Narcoterrorism’s first and last performance of their “Farewell Tour” as the band was formed and ended solely for the purpose of this show. 

Botulism Warning’s frontman started by calling the whole crowd down to the pit before gnarly riffs boomed from the speakers and the music took control of everyone. Preceding a half-time breakdown, the frontman shouted at the crowd, “Syracuse, I want you to fucking stomp!” Everyone in the pit and the members of the band immediately started stomping their feet and headbanging. Throughout their whole set, Botulism Warning maintained high energy that inspired the crowd to keep moshing. 

Primitive Execution’s stage presence and overall look as a band immediately had the crowd begging to hear their songs. The members wore cloaks that reached their ankles and crucifixes on chains attached to their belts. Their set started off with noise and ominous words of death and violence, giving the crowd a comforting welcome to their performance. 

As soon as they started playing their songs, the crowd quickly began to two-step and thrash around. During Primitive Execution’s set, the frontman spun his finger around in a circle beckoning the audience to start a circular pit. The crowd obliged and began to run in circles, pushing each other around. 

The aforementioned bands all led to the last act, Victim of Fire. By this point in the night, the pit was jam-packed with people ready to mosh until they dropped. Even for audience members who had been there since the first act, those utterly drenched in sweat, the energy never even showed a sign of slowing down. Everyone moshed with growing intensity to each song in Victim of Fire’s set. 

For the final song, guitarist and vocalist, Austin Minney, hyped the crowd up by saying, “This is the last riff of the last song.” As a result, the pit opened up and everyone went wild. Victim of Fire’s set was a well-rounded death-inducing performance that served as a perfect conclusion to the night.

Interview with Narcoterrorism’s Charlotte Lomino III

How did you guys form your band?

So, our drummer, it’s funny cause our drummer and bassist have lived here their whole lives. And our drummer got together with our guitarist and they started just like jamming and doing things, and then our drummer’s fiance got a job in Washington D.C. and they were like ‘Aw man, you know, we’d really love to play our music somewhere, just once, just like live somewhere.’ So, he recruited me and Kenny, for singing and bass, to kind of round it all out, and we were gonna practice a few songs and play one show and that’s all we’re gonna do. So that was part of the gig, of me saying like “This is our last show, this is our ‘Farewell Tour’, and we gave all of our friends a shirt that said “Farewell Tour” and there’s just one date on the back of it.

Do you think you’ll join another band in the future?

Oh for sure, this is far from my first band… I’m actually recording a solo right now.

Oh really, could you give us some info?

Sure, so it’s not as heavy, there’s definitely heavier stuff on there too though, it’s very diverse. I describe it as a ‘punk-jazz fusion kinda thing,’ lots of horns, I wouldn’t call it ‘Ska,’ but maybe ‘Ska’ influenced, I don’t know, and there’s some acoustic guitar, it’s a whole… I call it “genre-queer.” My Instagram is “@hot.sara.music” and that’s where I’ll be starting to release music- my solo stuff. I honestly don’t know if they’re doing anything after this musically, I’m sure everyone’s gonna join a band and be seen. And Kenny does DJ stuff, his SoundCloud is “Plenghi”. So yeah, we’re definitely doing music stuff after this, but this is our only thing together.

What was your favorite part about tonight? Performing or moshing with me and other people?

Honestly, I get high off of being on stage. I wrote the music for the middle, and Evan’s fiance wrote the lyrics which was really inspiring for me. It’s just very fun to be able to play things I wrote…So like playing that song and playing the solo, I was really happy with that, it made me feel really good…But also just like, I saw a lot of friends I haven’t seen in a while, I met a lot of really awesome people, like that was beautiful too, just like moshing with people. I love fucking around in the crowd with people like that was so fun.

It’s such a community in the hardcore scene, I feel like you don’t really see that type of bonding in other genres of music.

Yeah, I feel like the way, in this kind of music, that you have to kinda like get to know the personalities of the people in the crowd so you don’t hit each other or hurt each other.

Yeah, it’s like ‘Am I losing a tooth tonight or am I getting out safe?

Yeah, you gotta get an understanding of people…There’s other people in the crowd that I feel like I’m now friends with, even though we didn’t say a word to each other. It’s just like the eye contact and ‘Yeah, we’re moving our bodies, FUCK YEAH!”

Interview with Victim of Fire’s Dustin Yourishin and Marc Canfield

Could you tell me a little bit about how you formed your band?

DY: Technically, the other guitar player, Austin, started this band in like 2017 as his side project, and it sort of floated around, and then in 2021, we got this lineup together with us four. Mark’s been in Victim since the beginning, Emily joined first, and then I joined last in 2021, so we’ve had this lineup for like 2 years. We did this album, we did the full-length “Disembrace” and now we’ve done like five tours on it. So, when we get back, we have a new record mostly written, so we’re working on that.

Do you have a set date for your next release?

DY: Absolutely not, we have a bunch of demos that we have to sort through, and work on, and fix, then we’re gonna have to record. Austin runs a recording studio full time, so we’re just gonna hunker down in his studio and record the album, and then he might mix and master it. I mean, hopefully next year, like we’re gonna tour again in the spring, we’re gonna go out to California in the spring because there’s a couple of fests we’re gonna play and then we’re gonna try to tour Europe next fall. We’ll see if that succeeds, if not, we’re gonna be back in Syracuse!

What’s your favorite part about touring?

DY: Eating weird snacks

MC: Finding weird things at rest stops that nobody ever sees.

DY: Weird gas stations and truck stops, and just highway shit.

MC: Not going to work

DY: Yeah, three weeks off!

Thoughts on the metal community as a whole. In the mosh pits, do you think that it builds a sense of community, just fucking throwing hands with people?

DY: Moshing is one of those things that, when done correctly, is super healthy for everyone because you can get those aggressive emotions out in a healthy and safe space. Like, it can get a little sus sometimes when people are getting super aggro on specific people, but outside of that yeah

MC: That’s pretty rare too.

DY: Yeah, it’s really rare, so like fucking, mosh! If you're there with your homies, just grab them and throw them, because it’s gonna be tight.

MC: Everyone that I know that’s ever been in a pit has had a good experience in the pit.