Another week and I’m back from another gig. This time, it was a bit of a scene fest (unfortunately), with four Metalcore (ish) bands on the bill, at Wulfrun Hall. As I Lay Dying were headlining, with support coming from Sylosis, Heaven Shall Burn, and Suicide Silence. I’m knackered, but you know I love you guys, so I’m going to give you a review of the gig.
Read more after the jump.
First band on the bill were Sylosis. It’s hard for me to say what they were like, because unfortunately I was late and only caught the last 2 or 3 songs of them. They sounded good, but unfortunately they weren’t too memorable. The only thing I remember was when the singer asked the crowd to seperate into to halfs at each side of the room. “Oh good” I thought “wall of death,” but that’s not what happened. What happened was the crowd spit in two and then nothing happened. The band played for 3 minutes as the crowd just stood there not knowing what to do (or just not willing). Eventually a couple of people just casually walked back into the center and slowly everyone else followed them. Wow what an anti-climax. At least it wasn’t as bad as the God-awful scenecore dance moves people were doing in the pit when I entered the venue.
After a half an hour break, Heaven Shall Burn took to the stage. Hailing from Germany, HSB are a sort of mix of Melodic Death Metal, Metalcore and Thrash. From the get go, the band were on fire and they had the crowd eating out of their hands. I had never really heard the band much before, but after this performance, I’ll definitely check out some of their albums and maybe see them live again. The band came across as men possessed, particularly the striking frontman. Towards the end of the set, the vocalist crowdsurfed which was great, and then after the final song, he was nice enough to throw some band tshirts into the crowd. Kudos for that.
The final support band playing were Suicide Silence, a band I’ve seen before, and a band I cannot stand. There were a lot of people at the gig here to see them (God knows why), with many people in the crowd wearing their Suicide Silence tshirts and going wild for the so called “music.” Not me though, I must have looked like a right tit, stood at the front, still like a statue as everyone else jumped and screamed. Congratulations Suicide Silence, you managed to fill half an hour with sound, but seem to have forgotten the songs. Every “song” is just chugga chugga *breakdown* [insert pig squeels] etc etc. Seriously, Deathcore at its absolute worse. And the frontman seriously needs to stop doing those lame crabcore dance moves on stage. You are not a crab, you’re a person!
Finally, after 3 bloody support bands, it was finally time for the band I had actually paid to see; As I lay Dying. To be honest, I feel a little ripped off. There were 3 support bands (way too many) and the headlining band I paid for will only be performing for just under an hour. What the fuck is with that? Oh well, at least 2 out of the 3 support bands were good. When As I Lay Dying took to the stage, everything was pumped up a notch. The band were at their absolute best and the crowd were moving more than they had all evening. People were singing and screaming every word and following every command lead by the frontman.
The band performed a large selection of songs from their newest album, The Powerless Rise, which has proven itself to be one of, if not, the best album they’ve produced yet. The songs sound absolutely fantastic live and it’s great to see most of the crowd know the new songs. Pits were everywhere, and a few large circle pits started a few times. The crowd especially went mad during the band’s old classics. It’s just a shame that unfortunately the band only played for less than an hour. It’s like fucking without cumming. Or in my case, fucking and cumming straight away. It just isn’t a nice feeling when you get into the songs and the band and it ends so suddingly. After 40 minutes, the band announced that they only had time left for a couple more songs and the crowd booed. It’s unfortunate, but hey, shit happens. The band played one more song, then said thank you and walked off stage. Of course, they hadn’t really finished though. We all know the drill, the band pretend to finish, we chant “encore” and then they come out for one last song (or two or three). This happened of course, and the band came out for one last song. The crowd were on fire and it was a great end to the gig.
Overall, the gig was good, but not brilliant. In terms of gigs I’ve been to, it was fairly average, but not bad. All the bands, with exception of Suicide Silence, were great, especially As I Lay Dying. In my opinion though, it would have been nice to have one less support band (*cough* Suicide Silence) so that As I Lay Dying could have a longer set time, but what can you do? Maybe AILD just aren’t big enough and need to rely on lots of support bands, I don’t know. This is the third time I’ve seen AILD though, and they never disappoint.
