The crowd was pouring with energy on 5/23 at the Capitol Theatre in Davenport, ready to mosh & party with the bands on The Angels & Villains Tour. And what a line-up we had that night! Kicking things off were Seattle-based Extortionist, fresh off the release of their new album, Devoid of Love & Light. Despite most of the crowd being newcomers to the band, they were still moshing & headbanging along as the band played hits like Low Like You, Drained of Life & Devoid of Love & Light. If you’ve not heard of Extortionist before, I highly recommend checking out their new album as it is shaping up to be my favorite album released this year. After Extortionist left the stage to hang out with fans & sell merch, Deathcore heavyweights Traitors took the stage for a moody, dark & energetic set. Tyler Shelton & the rest of the band were making sure the crowd was moving throughout the set, while paying attention those taking a break from the action in the seats. The crowd itself was singing along & headbanging to every song, including their latest single Break. Traitors made sure to use every inch of the space, including in the media pit to get up close & personal with their fans.
Despite the high-octane sets that had just occurred, the crowd still had plenty left over for the first co-headliner & long-time veterans of Metalcore, Born of Osiris. It was a delight to finally get a chance to see BOO live, as a long time fan since their first album, A Higher Place back in 2009. I’m sure plenty of us fans at the show and those not able to attend were wondering how Ronnie Canizaro was handling the recent departure of long-time keyboardist & backing vocalist Joe Buras. Ronnie was pulling double duty on vocals for songs like Poster Child with ease, while lead guitarist Lee McKinney was handling backing vocals on other tracks & Rhythm Guitarist Nick Rossi was taking care of the keyboards. The crowd paid no mind to any differences to their current change in vocals and were screaming their hearts out to fan favorites like Open Arms To Damnation, White Nile & Angel Or Alien. BOO also made sure to throw in their latest singles, A Mind Short Circuiting & Elevate while also taking us old fans back to the past with the always brutal Bow Down. I think I can speak for all the fans that we’re all curious how their sound might change with Joe’s departure, but no matter what that sound is, Born of Osiris has proven that they can adapt to any situation & still sound amazing.
Closing out the show was the party-inducing Nu Metal/Metalcore Attila. Before the band took the stage, the crowd was shouting ‘Suck My Fuck’ to summon the rowdy boys in Attila and Attila happily replied to get the party started. Crowd surfers were abound during the band’s set & security was nearly struggling to keep up with the surge, but I assure you, no-one got hurt that night & and it was full of fun, even to the guy that got “smoked” by frontman Chris “Fronz” Fronzak’s missile of a seltzer can thrown to the crowd. With songs like Party With The Devil, Metalcore Manson & Middle Fingers Up, there was no stopping in the energy for the crowd that “passed the [meth] test” according to Fronz. If you are someone like me that hasn’t listened to Attila in a long time and wondered how they are live. It was probably one of the tightest sets I’ve ever experienced for a band that isn’t playing to a click. And if it has been sometime since you have listened to Attila or you somehow missed the news, make sure to check out their brand new single, New Devil feat. Dickie Allen that just dropped on 5/23.
While the Angels & Villains tour is nearly finished, my fellow Iowans, if you missed out on seeing Attila, Traitors or Not Enough Space from this tour, you can still have a chance to see them on 5/29 at Lefty’s while on their Road to SoWhat Festival tour. But enough yapping from me, check out all the pics I got from the show!
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