Recent developments have brought a disturbing bit of information to light, and I think it is important that I share this with you, as it pertains directly to the concert review that you're about to read.
From this point on, up and coming metal bands are going to most often consist of musicians that are my age or younger.
The bands I found new and cutting edge are now a generation's influences.
I'm becoming part of the past.
Okay, maybe that last part is a little dramatic. The idea stands though.
When I got into heavy music nu metal was in ashes, and metalcore's seminal records were appearing. In 2004, the year I started listening to metal, we saw God Forbid's Gone Forever, Shadows Fall's The War Within, and my gateway record Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache. These releases, alongside others such as As I Lay Dying's Shadows are Security and Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen, brought about a new movement, and by doing so changed the face of music. Now, almost ten years later, these bands are the headliners, the elder statesmen, and Killswitch have chosen to celebrate a much needed return to form and the return of Jesse Leach by taking a tour package on the road that, with one exception, highlights what their work hath wrought. For better, and for worse.
Unfortunately, the worst was first. I am so sorry for that rhyme, allow me to continue. Affiance were the youngest of the bands on the bill, and the inexperience unfortunately showed through loud and clear. They've clearly got important issues on their mind based on their lyrics, but they've got a ways to go. Their use of the "I'm mad as hell" speech from Network could've been a real call to arms, a crowd pleaser...except they used the entire speech. Not just an excerpt, but all three minutes of it. For an opening band, leaving the crowd standing still for that long is a potential show killer. Even before that though, the singer's voice wasn't up to snuff and the band's stage presence as a whole was lackluster. I'm up for second chances, Battlecross didn't impress me on the first try and now I'm fairly convinced they're going to become an important American presence, but Affiance is going to have to work hard to earn my respect.
The second band of the night, The Word Alive, were the first and only to address an important issue: the lack of As I Lay Dying. Tim Lambesis's legal woes have been so extensively covered that if you're reading this I'm sure you're familiar, so I won't go into them again here. I will say that, speaking only for myself, As I Lay Dying was the primary reason I was excited for this show, so to have it addressed in some way was nice. The fact that they chose to address it by playing 94 Hours, an ALID song, made it even more special. It was a fitting reminder that ALID is more than just Tim Lambesis and regardless of feelings concerning him they are a band that we can only hope will return. Beyond that, The Word Alive's set was extremely impressive. Where Affiance was lacking in presence, The Word Alive had it in spades with guitarists twirling and dancing, drumsticks flying in the air, and the vocalist milking the crowd for every ounce of pent up energy they had. The band's use of sampling and at times more staccatto guitars gave a hint of variation that also helped keep the music fresh and memorable amongst an evening of similar sounding bands.
I am apparently not as familiar with my recent metal history as I should be, because I assumed Darkest Hour was another younger band, and their debut in fact predates Killswitch Engage by four years even! An early blend of metal and hardcore from Washington DC, and from the home of such legendary hardcore bands as Bad Brains and Minor Threat? I would've been excited! As it was, the hardcore elements weren't as prevalent as my description might suggest, but the metal elements were well played, if perhaps a bit lacking in showmanship. After the incredible energy of The Word Alive standing still and headbanging with no lights or any kind of stage decoration came off a little boring. Also, nothing against the band, but I found it a bit distracting that members of the band resembled Jerry Cantrell, Max Cavalera, and to a certain extent the vocalist resembled Glenn Danzig. I mean, good for them, I'm sure they get compliments, but it caused distractions on my end.
We went from the prototypes of the first wave of metalcore to one of the bright rising stars of the second wave as Miss May I took the stage. While I haven't heard any of their songs, I was definitely in the minority as the crowd finally began to get energized and pumped up and stay that way. The band seemed to stick to standard metalcore tropes, except for the bassist who was rocking an excellent old school White Zombie denim jacket, and played right to what the crowd was wanting, but I was left a bit cold. For one thing, the vocalist's growling was kind of crackly and he seemed to be struggling a bit. Also, he seemed to be trying too hard with his instage banter, cursing to compensate for...something, I don't know. The rest of the band were fine, but like I said by this point in the evening we'd already seen three metalcore bands of varying skills and vintages and I really wish they'd brought something more to the table like The Word Alive had. Perhaps if they'd switched spots in the lineup the evening would've flowed better and I wouldn't have had as many problems, but considering Miss May I are a step or two away from headlining their own tours there was no way that was going to happen. All in all, I don't want to be too negative, because I did ultimately think the set was perfectly fine. I just didn't find myself wanting to stock up on merch afterwards.
At long last, after a long evening showcasing both their predecessors and ancestors, Killswitch Engage, arguably the first major and still biggest success of the movement, took the stage to a powerful overture of 80's dance music. Just in case anybody thought Adam D wasn't involved in the evening's festivities, he confirmed his involvement without even appearing on stage. I saw Killswitch for the first time in 2012 on the Trespass America festival tour, shortly after Jesse Leach's return to the band. Now, having released, in my opinion, the best album of the year in Disarm the Descent and having had a few tours to rebuild relationships, the band was as tight and focused as I've ever seen them. Songs from all six albums were represented, even going back as far as Vide Infra from the original self titled album. Any concerns that Jesse would seem odd performing Howard Jones's songs are unfounded, The Arms of Sorrow and Rose of Sharyn sound just as good as ever. I've been a fan for long enough that I was always going to come away with setlist qualms (I wanted to mosh to When Darkness Falls!), but I won't hold those against the band. You can only play so many, and they gave us plenty of variety. Overall, I can't really complain about any of the performance. You come to a Killswitch show to sing and scream and watch Adam D pull some outrageous crap, and after seeing him hit water bottles into the crowd with his guitar two or three songs in I'd gotten my money's worth. Killswitch, thankfully, is still Killswitch. Some things just don't change.
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