Cult vampire-themed hardcore band Ink & Dagger walked the road to hell again last night (October 30th) for the first time since 2011, having launched a series of sold-out reunion shows in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Lats night’s show took place at the city’s First Unitarian Church, and featured an opening set from fellow locals Paint it Black. Ink & Dagger mounted the stage as a quintet including founding guitarist Don Devore (Frail, the Icarus Line), bassist Joshua Brown (Crud is a Cult), guitarist Jorge Gonzalez and drummer Dave Wagenshutz (Good Riddance, Lifetime). As he had during Dagger’s reunion shows between 2010-11, Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly handled vocal duties last night (founding vocalist Sean McCabe had passed away in 2000).
Donning corpse paint and performing to a sold out crowd, the act lunged into their demonically prophetic “The Road to Hell” ahead of a night of bloodlusting early cuts including “The Changeling,” “Newspaper Tragedy,” “Crawler,” “Cut Throat Tactics” and “Caretaker.” Paint It Black’s Dan Yemin also hopped on the mic to sing The Fine Art of Original Sin‘s hometown anthem, “Philapsychosis.”
You can catch the flashback by peeping the fan-shot footage of the Philly Vampires’ much-anticipated return up above and down below.
As previously reported, Ink & Dagger are due to play the Church tonight (October 31st) with New Jersey noisecore vets Deadguy, and then on Saturday (November 1st) with Soul Glo. A fourth show was added at Philadelphia’s Warehouse On Watts this Sunday (November 2nd), with support duties coming from Honey. Tickets remain available for the latter over here
Ink & Dagger’s full discography was reissued digitally today via Trust Records. They’ve also pressed up vinyl copies of singles compendium Drive This Seven Inch Wooden Stake Through My Philadelphia Heart, 1998 full-length debut The Fine Art of Original Sin and a 2000 self-titled album, which are available now in Revolver’s Shop.
Ink & Dagger setlist 10/30/25:
The Road to Hell
Caretaker
The Six Feet Under Swindle
Full Circle
Newspaper Tragedy
Bloodlust
Shadowtalker
The History in Ecstasy
My Lady Love
Cut Throat Tactics
Vampire Fastcode v. 1.5
The Fine Art of Original Sin
Crawler
Philapsychosis
Frigid Shortcomings
The Changeling