Filth play deathcore with hip-hop groove in the low end — “hyper-dissonant heaviness laced with urban grooves,” as they put it — and they’re closing out the “A Very Filthy Christmas Tour” at Empire Underground on Sunday, December 20. Eight dates through the Midwest and Southeast, final stop Albany. A closing night from a band that has done the road work to earn it.
About the Show
Filth is a North Carolina deathcore outfit, formed around 2014 by vocalist Dustin Mitchell and guitarist David Gantt as a side project that grew into its own entity. They’ve been on the road since their debut EP Tales from the Gutter, putting in time as regional support for Brand of Sacrifice, Kingdom of Giants, and Chelsea Grin before stepping up to national bills with Hatebreed, Terror, Lorna Shore, The Acacia Strain, and Slaughter to Prevail. They describe their mission as “spreading soul-smothering brutality to the hearts and heads of heavy music enthusiasts around the country.” It reads like band-bio posturing. Then you look at the touring history. They built a reputation for head-turning live performances and by September 2026 were running a full Canadian tour. Now they’re headlining a December run that started in Portage, Indiana on December 11 and ends here.
Three albums track the progression: The Burden of Isolation (2018), The Ignorance (2021), and Southern Hostility (April 2024, Crowdkill Records), with the EP Welcome to Shell Town also out on Crowdkill. The sound is deathcore that pulls from hip-hop rhythm instead of going purely technical, dissonant up top, heavy in the low end, built to move a crowd.
Support comes from Narcotic Wasteland, a technical death metal band from Raleigh, NC that has toured with Filth before, and Killcrown, a slam/deathcore outfit from Michigan. It’s a coherent triple bill, with all three bands working adjacent corners of the heavy music space. Filth and Narcotic Wasteland have road chemistry coming into this run. Albany arrives the night after Akron, closing out the eight-date run.
Venue & Logistics
Empire Underground sits at 93 North Pearl St in Albany — a basement room in the capital region where the sound has nowhere to go but into the crowd. Show time is 6:30 p.m.
Tickets
Tickets went on sale October 9. No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets