Lineup: Between the Buried and Me/Born of Osiris/Veil of Maya/Erra/The Agony Scene/Allegaeon/Terror Universal/Soreption/Entheos/?????
Venue: The Palladium, Worcester, MA
?????: I have no clue who the band that opened the main stage was, but I can say without even a moment of hesitation that they were responsible for one of the worst mixed sets I've ever seen. The sound was so consistently muddy that I couldn't even tell you anything about them other than they had screaming vocals and some symphonic elements. Whoever you are, please find a different sound person because whoever was responsible for this auditory hate crime doesn't belong anywhere near an audioboard at a live music event.
Entheos: After being exposed to a 20-minute orgy of indistinguishable noise, just about anything would go down as a notable improvement. Going from a sloppy, likely unsigned band to a polished juggernaut in Entheos is like swamping out a '84 Pinto for a brand new Maybach. Even with the absence of bassist Evan Brewer from this tour, the progressive death metal supergroup's far-too-brief 25-minute set was a beautiful display of technical wizardry, haunting atmospherics and colossal stage presence. Plus their sound mix was crisp and well-balanced, which in hindsight proved to be a blessing on a day where multiple bands ran into audio issues of varying severity.
Soreption: Left the venue after Entheos finished, but I later found out that their set was canceled due to van problems.
Terror Universal: Was still away from the venue when they played.
Allegaeon: The shifting of set times stemming from Soreption's cancellation and a brief scare involving me misplacing my ID after re-entering The Palladium forced me to the miss the first two or three songs of Allegaeon's set. Thankfully, their immense brand of progressive/technical death metal quickly calmed me down. Riley McShane is a pretty lively frontman and as someone who loves flashy guitarwork more than pretty much anything else in music, watching Greg Burgess rip through his over-the-top solos was a joyous experience. While I didn't see enough of their set to declare them one of the day's standouts, I was definitely very impressed with the roughly two and a half songs that I did see.
The Agony Scene: Mid-2000's metalcore played a pretty pivotal role in growing my love for abrasive music as a teenager. Amidst the logjam of bands vying for genre stardom at that point in time, The Agony Scene only ended up registering as a faint blip on the radar for me. Outside of hearing "Scapegoat" on multiple YouTube breakdown compilation videos and listening to their breakout record The Darkest Red a few times shortly after it was released, my exposure to their music during their heyday was very limited. Fast forward to 2018: they've returned to music full-time following a roughly decade-long hiatus with a level of vigor and passion that you seldom see from a band that was disbanded for such a substantial period of time. To put it simply, their performance here left me feeling like I unfairly overlooked them back in my late middle/early high school years. Every one of their songs was driven by punchy riffs, well-deployed breakdowns and potent screams that are a bit more extreme than what you typically find in the metalcore genre. The Agony Scene was definitely the most pleasant surprise of the day and I owe it to my inner -core fanboy to check out their back catalog (and just-released fourth LP Tormenter) in the very near future.
Erra: Erra is a band that I've never really understood the hype towards. Their melodies, hooks and overall instrumentation just don't have the same level of catchiness or memorability as the other grizzled vets (Periphery, TesseracT, Monuments) in the djent scene. While I'm not going to walk back most of these past criticisms, their live show was definitely better than expected. The guitars hit much harder and Jesse Cash's high-pitched cleans, which drove me insane on record, were a lot more palatable in a live setting. Not anything overly impressive, but definitely a solid set that kept the positive wave of momentum from the previous batch of performances in tact.
Veil of Maya: As the wonderful world of movies has taught me, if you're having fun, you're likely willing to overlook whatever flaws exist within something. Despite featuring vocals and guitars that were all over the map in terms of volume, I ended up thoroughly enjoying Veil of Maya's set. Lukas Magyar's high-pitched screams/clean singing sounded great and the big, soaring hooks of the material from their two newest records (2015's Matriarch and 2017's False Idol) were a blast to sing along with. I guess I'm becoming a more forgiving soul as I get older...
Born of Osiris: My interest in Born of Osiris has taken a considerable hit in recent years thanks to the diminishing (albeit still far from awful) quality of their post-Discovery albums. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge their continued prowess as a live band. Regardless of how I feel about the material being played, they never fail to put on tight, entertaining and energetic performances. As long as they continue to deliver in this area, I'll have a deep respect for them as a band.
Between the Buried and Me: Outside of The Dillinger Escape Plan (RIP), Between the Buried and Me is my favorite band to see live. There's just something about watching their twisty, bizarre and wildly technical musical opuses come to life in front of your eyes that's really captivating and special. This performance was a particularly good time because it featured some of the more grandiose material in their catalog including sprawling prog epic "Disease, Injury Madness", stunningly beautiful fan favorite "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" and spastic, jazz-inspired number "Voice of Trespass" from their new record Automata II-which should become a regular fixture for years to come. A time will likely come when these guys won't be able to play these songs anymore and be forced to retire from touring like Rush did a few years back, but until that tragic day comes, I'll enjoy the hell of routinely having my mind blown by their staggering musicianship and creativity.
Scores:
????: D+
Entheos: A
Allegaeon: B+
The Agony Scene: B+
Erra: B
Veil of Maya: B+
Born of Osiris: B+
Between the Buried and Me: A+
Setlists:
Entheos:
Black Static (I)
White Noise (II)
Melancholia
The World Without Us
Inverted Earth (I)
Sunshift (II)
Allegaeon (last 3 songs):
Biomech-Vals No. 666
Of Mind and Matrix
1.618
The Agony Scene:
Hand of the Divine
The Submissive
Suffer
Scars of Your Disease
Tormentor
Scapegoat
Erra:
Breach
The Hypnotist
Hybrid Earth
Skyline
Disarray
Irreversible
Veil of Maya:
Pillars
We Bow in Its Aura
Whistleblower
Doublespeak
Punisher
Overthrow
Nyu
Leeloo
Lisbeth
Pool Spray
Mikasa
Born of Osiris:
Machine
Divergency
Bow Down
The Other Half of Me
Throw Me in the Jungle
Brace Legs
Empires Erased
Silence the Echo
The Sleeping and The Dead
Abstract Art
Between the Buried and Me:
Informal Gluttony
Extremeophile Elite
Famine Wolf
Blot
Disease, Injury, Madness
Voice of Trespass
Condemned to the Gallows
Encore:
Selkies: The Endless Obsession
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