Metal comes in all shapes and forms now a days. Raging from progressive ambient style to relentless death metal growls. Some of today’s most unique metal bands such as Sylosis, After The Burial, Devildriver, and Trivium have teamed up for fall tour of 29 North American cities. The diverse heavy hitting metal bands stopped at Best Buy Theater in NYC Friday September 27th. A packed theater of metal fans ranging from teenagers to adults gathered early for the evening’s thrashing.
Sadly on September 25th, the British metal band Sylosis was involved in an RV accident. As a result of the accident the band was forced to cancel their remaining dates on this tour. Cryptic Rock wish the members of Sylosis well wishes and hope to see you thrashing audiences here in the states again soon.
Starting out the evening were Minnesota based metalcore band After The Burial. Busting onto the metalcore scene in 2004, After The Burial became one of the scene’s fastest rising stars. Clearly taking strides forward in their musicianship since their debut album Forging a Future Self (2006), After The Burial wowed fans with their sophomore effort Rareform (2008). Now 3 full length records deep, After The Burial finds themselves revisiting the Forging A Future Self album releasing the This Life Is All We Have EP in April 2013 consisting of 3 tracks from the debut album re-recorded. As the band took the stage they performed a strong 8 song set balancing all their material. There is no doubt After The Burial is a talented group of musicians with a flare for melody and technologic guitar playing.
Revved up and ready to go, the crowd were ready for the mighty Devildriver. Now a decade on the metal scene Devildriver has managed to build one of the strongest following around. With 6 full length records to their credit, Dez Fafara and company forged one of their most unique records to date with their newest release Winter Kills. Adding to anticipation as the band walked upon the stage Ozzy Osbourne’s “Mr. Crowley” played over the PA. Ready to rock n roll, they opened things up with the killer new single “Ruthless”. Energized by the crowd the band went directly into their classic track “I Could Care Less”. Keeping the energy going the band jumped to the 2007 track “Not All Who Wander Are Lost”. Fafara charged through each track at ease and provided a stellar performance. With 10 years together, the band recently welcomed in their newest member, bassist Chris Towning of Bury Your Dead. Towning fit right in with the band and proves to be a seamless transition with new and old material.
As Devildriver played through their 13 song set you could feel the band’s excitement as they mixed in tracks off Winter Kills. It’s evident why the band is so enthusiastic about this record because the tracks are some of their most dynamic and well written to date. Devildriver has never been a band to put out the same sounding album twice, and with the performance of these new tracks they have not broken that trend.
Closing out the evening were Orlando, Florida based metal titans Trivium. Starting at an extremely young age, Matt Heafy (vocalist/guitarist), has always been an extremely talented musicians which has only gotten better over the years. Now 13 years deep into their career with 5 albums to their credit, Trivium are set to release their 6th album Vengeances Falls this October.
Adding to the drama, Trivium walked out to Final Fantasy VII Advent Children soundtrack song “Divinity I”. As the music dissipated the speedy riff of “Throes of Perdition” blasted through the room. Moving along, the band continued to highlight the Shogun (2008) album with “Down from the Sky”. Opening with two tracks off Shogun (2008) was an excellent choice as many would argue this is one of the band’s strongest efforts. Keeping things diverse they went directly into the thrash track “Becoming The Dragon”. After bringing the room to peak energy levels, the band broke into new tracks “Brave This Storm” and “Strife”. Hearing the new tracks live showed off how diverse Heafy’s vocals style is.
As Trivium’s set went on, one thing was clear and that was there was no let up in the adrenaline rush. For the duration of their performance fans were in constant movement down in the pit and completely engaged in the bands metal assault. With a balanced set mixing in a few new tracks, a few old tracks, and strong emphasis on Shogun (2008), Trivium proved why they were one of metals brightest starts. Still at a young age the sky is the limit for this band. It’s very often in the scene a band possesses the talent on the recordings but not the energy on stage. Trivium is not a victim of this flaw as all members proved an interesting and powerful performance.
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