OH MY GOD that was a wicked concert. My ears are still ringing and my neck is still stiff!
There were four bands that played yesterday evening, two opening acts and two main bands. The first opening acts were Upon a Burning Body, and while I would probably not go out of my way to listen to them, they were a very enjoyable listen and they really got the crowd pumped up for what was to come. I wasn't in the pit yet, because I was saving my strength, so to speak, but the facts that the first opening act had pits going on from the first second of their first song spoke volumes both on how good they were and how pumped up the crowd was.
The second band was Caliban and they were even more impressive. Like Upon a Burning Body, they played what would probably be called metalcore, but they played a more melodic brand of it and I liked the singer better. They also played a cover of Rammstein's Sonne, which was pretty cool because it had everyone singing along at the tops of their voices. They left the stage and I was really pumped up for the main acts.
About half an hour later, As I Lay Dying came onto the stage and man, they were a disappointment. The sound was horrendous for them, with bass and lead guitar completely drowning in rhythm guitar and drums, so the guitar solos were only seen, not heard. Plus, they played far longer than the opening acts (kinda understandable) and they really overstayed their welcome, as I saw it, because it just sounded as though they were playing the same song for fifty minutes! If there weren't breaks between them, I would honestly have had trouble to distinguish them and after a while, that just got boring. Sure, they were a tight performance, but didn't have much to offer, other than that. I think I would have liked the opening acts less than I did if they played as long as As I Lay Dying did, actually, but because they had to limit themselves to five songs and something around thirty minutes, they never really got boring.
And then, around 11pm, Trivium took the stage, opening with Capsizing the Sea. I didn't really like that track on the album that much, but it must have been one of the most chill-inducing openers that I have ever heard. It segued directly into In Waves, and the crowd went fucking nuts. Everyone was jumping around, banging their heads and singing their voices out.
After that, Trivium followed with Like Light to Flies and Rain and the crowd went even more nuts. There were at least two or three moshpits going on during every song and it was probably the most intense concert experience I have had at this point. They followed up with one of my favourite, Down From the Sky and then Entrance of the Conflagration, which, while I didn't like The Crusade that much, certainly absolutely slayed live. They built in a break in the middle and had the crowd divide themselves, and when they came back in, everyone just went nuts. I've got a few bruises, but it was fucking worth it.
After that, two more tracks ideal for singing along followed: Black and Watch the World Burn, both some of my favourite off of In Waves. Especially Black was a highlight of the evening, with the deafening screams of "Black!" easily being the best crowd participation of the evening.
The next block featured two songs that I am not too keen on (A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation and Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr), separated by the last In Waves-track of the evening, Built to Fall. Sure, they were fun, but there are other tracks that I would have liked to see in their place, like Dusk Dismantled or Into the Mouth of Hell We March, which were both dropped from the setlist before the beginning of the German tour. Still, they got the crowd going, so I won't complain.
The final two songs, Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis and Throes of Perdition were probably the all-around highlight for me that evening. Especially Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis really won me over, despite me liking most tracks on Shogun more. The bass solo in the middle part was great, because it was the only time of the evening where Paolo really shone on his instrument. Throes of Perdition was a worthy closer of the evening, with the intro being a perfect tension build-up that everyone let loose when the distorted guitars came in.
All in all, it was an amazing experience, with As I Lay Dying being my only gripe - I would rather have Trivium played two hours instead, because really, everything sounded the same and Trivium could have easily played another hour of material that I would have rather heard than As I Lay Dying.
Setlist Trivium:
0. Capsizing the Sea (tape intro)
1. In Waves
2. Like Light to Flies
3. Rain
4. Down from the Sky
5. Entrance of the Conflagration
6. Black
7. Watch the World Burn
8. A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
9. Built to Fall
10. Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
11. Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis
12. Throes of Perdition
Topic: The Trivium Thread (Read 105721 times)
