A swarm of eager Deathcore & Metalcore fans descended onto Wooly’s on Thursday to participate in celebrating Signs of the Swarm’s 10 years of Deathcore legacy. As the infestation of fans gathered, the pop tunes of Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey & Chappell Roan filled the concert hall; a complete antithesis of what was to come for the next 5 hours. The journey into the hive of Deathcore is about to begin, and in its wake will be the toughest warriors that could withstand its might.

As the 3-piece A Wake in Providence took the stage, the crowd began to cheer & chant for their chance to hear the tracks off their new album, I Write to You, My Darling Decay. And soon, the sounds of the evil operatic album began to swell. Adam Mercer, with his imposing stature, rushed out onto stage & began his vocal mastery of the art of Deathcore. The band itself, has some big shoes to fill having been originally fronted by Will Ramos of Lorna Shore fame. Adam demonstrated that he can easily fill those shoes live, with a rivaling vocal ability. D’Andre Tyre was there to offset the screams & growls of Adam with his haunting clean vocals & guitar shredding skills. As the first song ended, the crowd screamed for The Maddening, which was up for grabs very shortly within the set. The Blackened Deathcore trio, backed by their Opera backing vocal track, pummeled the crowd with speed & ferocity, demanding the pit take it up a notch to keep the energy high. But all things must come to an end, and for A Wake in Providence, it was sadly a 20 min set, with only a handful of songs played due to their length. But that did not stop the crowd from drawing in every second. As the ultimate song came to a close, the band urged any fan, new or old, to visit their merch booth as Adam stated “you take care of us, we take care of you!”.

Up next was something a little different; less death metal mixed with classical melodies and more in your face Metalcore from the Pittsburgh natives, 156/Silence. The band crowded the cramped stage to take their places to do the final checks on their sound check. To give the venue some much needed entertainment before the festivities could take place, their guitarist decided to scream “help me!” in a pained tone which brought a chuckle to the anxious crowd. The band wasted no time in beginning their set, going straight into a face pummeling assault. The cramped space did no favors for the vocalist who was craving to move around more. Despite the limited space, he made due, making sure to bring an emotive performance that made their hardcore fans delight with joy. The group is currently on the precipice of their new album, People Watching’s release & to give a morsel of what will come, the band played one of their new singles, Better Written Villain. Sadly for its group of dedicated fans, 156/Silence’s set could only last so long & and their performance on stage had to come to an end.

The break from Blackened Deathcore could only last so long & next in line was the band who’s backdrop has been dominating the background of the 1st 2 performances was newcomers, Ov Sulfur. Despite only 1 album; The Burden Ov Faith and a smattering of singles, the band had amassed a large number of fans who arrived in Des Moines to show their support. Ricky Hoover, the lead vocalist put on a dynamic & animated performance by dominating the stage with his presence and jumping onto the barrier for his onlookers to get a closer look of his performance. The entire group on stage fed off this energy, excited to amass a cult of new followers and spread their music even wider. Ov Sulfur exclaimed that he loved this city and its fans for being eager participants in his calls for circle pits, singing along, & holding up the horns high for all to see. There were no special appearances by their many featured guest vocals off their new album sadly, but both Ricky & one of the guitarists shared double-duty, trading off vocals, clean & harsh to provide an album-like quality of sound, right up until their final song of the night.

Need a break from all this talk of pummeling, deathcore? Well have I the band for you! Cane Hill, the long-time Nu Metal/Metalcore favorites from New Orleans were up to bring a more ‘vibey’ show to Wooly’s and easily delivered. Instead of a red dominated color scheme & windmill headbanging, Elijah Witt & co. brought a subdued, purple & blue main color theme & donned a pink-laden cameo patterned button up to the show. Speaking of Elijah Witt, the vocalist’s hypnotic, staccato-like movements brought an interesting visual appeal to the show; matching the industrial-like sound of many of the songs that were played. But it wasn’t all vibey, slower music, after asking if the crowd was “feeling hateful?” the band began their song Hateful to give the “deathcore daddies” ample opportunity to mosh to their heart’s content. After a “very nice, very sexy, very horny” song, Cane Hill felt we could get even more horny, playing their fresh new single, Permanence in Sleep, to the delight of the fans that were eager for more. Many fans were climbing over each other to show their support to Cane Hill, but one overzealous fan was urging them to play Mggda. As Elijah Witt stated “ it’s no longer 2016, it’s 2024, maybe when we’re headlining” and explained that everything is on a timer. So sadly for that fan, Mggda was not on the table for the night and humorously announced the next song as “We’re Cane Hill and this is not Mggda”. Cane Hill was easily a highlight of the night for many, including myself. I was hoping for a chance of more, but like those that played before, it was all too short. Elijah Witt, Elijah James Barnett, Ryan Henriquez & Devin Clark all put on a fantastic, tight performance for the night and easily earned that chance to wind down with some of the ‘aphrodisiac’ Elijah was set to buy after the show.

Now the time has come, the Swarm is taking the stage by storm and it’s not stopping until its hunger has been satiated. In their 10 years of touring, Signs of the Swarm has never played at Wooly’s and I think we made an impression on them, or maybe it was Zombie Burger they had. David Simonich, who pushed through his illness, wanted to make sure the mood was right and demanded “IOWA” to “fucking party”. There was no rest of the wicked at this show. The group made sure the mosh pits, circle pits & walls of death continued nonstop for the nearly 2 hour set to celebrate their decade of existence & legacy as a band. While only drummer Bobby Crow may be the only original member left, each member played off each other well, showing a strong commitment to the band as a whole. But the band isn’t the only thing that makes a great show, the crowd and its participation is a factor as well. David did not want its fans to be left out and declared that “we need to make the workers earn their pay” and urged them to get up front, by any means possible. As the crowd surfers assembled, the mosh pit, picked up in intensity and any tiredness that may have set in, was now gone.

While the group may not have any “slow” songs, Signs of the Swarm still wanted the patrons to raise their phones up & wave them side by side. All the heavy hitters from their catalog were on display Thursday night. Death Whistle, Malady, Mouth Sewn Prophets, Faces Without Names & their brand new single I Won’t Let You Die before night’s end. All in all, the Decade of the Swarm tour was a solid set with a well chosen line up to help support & celebrate Signs of the Swarm’s 10 years in the scene. I don’t think any fan will be left wanting, except maybe that fan that wanted Cane Hill to play Mggda. I imagine many concert goers at Wooly’s are hoping these bands will return and I think they will happily oblige. The Decade of the Swarm tour still marches on for the rest of this month before pushing onto Europe with a new line-up for the journey across the Atlantic.

Now it’s time to check out the photos I grabbed of each set:

A Wake in Providence

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156/Silence

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Ov Sulfur

Cane Hill

Signs of the Swarm