First
band up tonight in this rather early start is
Upon a Burning Body; they are one hell of a heavy
band, well an extreme metal band so I'm told.
The vocals as expected is all shouted growls with
very few clean vocals, but for an opening band,
they are very lively and playing like a headliner,
buckets of ferocious energy from the band getting
the crowd nicely riled up, the sound varies from
noisy and messy to heavy and violent and even
catchy, normally I wouldn't dig this but the pure
amount of effort from these guys is fantastic
to watch.
Next
up are Caliban, they are a 5 piece metal core
band from Germany. After a rather indifferent
start with Dein R3.ich and We Are the Many, while
high in energy and really heavy, but the set really
clicked for me on song 3 which was I Will Never
Let You Down, catchy and tons of energy coming
from the band while the song remains heavy which
was a bonus, the set just got better from there
with Davy Jones , 24 years and the storming Memorial,
just so very catchy with a well timed heavy break
down and they closed the set in fine style with
Forsaken Horizon. As I Lay Dying and Trivium have
got some tough acts to follow after great sets
from the opening two bands.
Main
support tonight are As I Lay Dying, considered
to be a pretty decent live band, tonight's performance
is absolutely fantastic better than the last time
I saw them, a band that is just in the zone start
to finish, a set full of blistering songs like
Condemned, 96 hours, through struggle, Nothing
Left, there is simply no let up from these guys,
fast past and heavy as hell but has the catchy
factor too with some rather tasty guitar riffs.
Can't understand what Tim is shouting half the
time but that doesn’t matter much as its
half drowned by the heavy music it goes with.
They finish off their set with A Greater Foundation
and a blistering rendition of The Sound of Truth
to round off a superb, on the money set.
Trivium
grace our shores yearly as it appears they cannot
get enough of our British charm! This time over
however their stage setup is a bit less eccentric
than all of the 8 previous times I’ve seen
their show as all they’ve brought along
with them this time is a platform for the kit
and 4 huge “T” symbols which are synonymous
with this band. They burst on stage with energy
and a visible excitement speeding up certain longer
duration songs as to fit more songs into their
set which allows them to squeeze a tremendous
16 songs out including an even split between “Ascendancy”,
“Shogun” and “In Waves”
throwing in 1 from both “The Crusade”
and “Ember To Inferno”. I think in
the course of things that Corey Beaulieu just
gets better with each performance both on
guitar and especially with his vocals where as
Matt Heafy hasn’t so much diminished but
he just isn’t matching the passion that
he used to have as a frontman all those years
ago. Highlights from the show for me personally
were the powerful opening of “In Waves”,
“Dying In Your Arms”, the unexpected
addition of “Entrance of the Conflagration”,
“The Deceived” and “A Gunshot
to the Head of Trepidation”, the others
that I normally enjoy like “Like Light to
the Flies”, “Rain” and “Pull
Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” were
all subjected to what seemed like shoddy vocal
work due to them speeding the songs up, I’d
rather the best songs have the quality not speed
even if it means sacrificing a couple tracks,
hopefully they take this into consideration next
time around and don’t try and squeeze another
full album into that set as it’ll be like
taping down the fast forward button for every
track.
Upon A Buring Body 3.5/5
Caliban 4/5
As I Lay Dying 4.5/5
Trivium 4/5
Review By Robert Lawrence And James Webb
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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