Seeing In Flames and Trivium live is nothing new for me. This was my 5th time seeing In Flames and my 8th time seeing Trivium. I’ve seen Veil of Maya before but not Kyng, and they were opening the bill. They’re style didn’t quite fit the rest of the bands, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are a lot of influences within their music, a lot of classic rock and stoner influence, as well as the grit of old Black Sabbath and other classic rock bands. They put on a decent show, a good way to warm people up. On a side note, we were near them during In Flames set, and those dudes were ROCKING OUT! It was cool seeing a band out with the crowd and loving every second of it, they seemed like really down to earth dudes.

After Kyng, the PA was buzzing with hip-hop. This continued until Veil of Maya hit the stage, and they hit it hard. The deathcore/djent dudes really have their live show down and the the crowd really erupted over the course of their set. The band played a few new tunes on their upcoming album and they sounded great. Their new album Eclipse is out February 28th on Sumerian Records.

Up next were Trivium. People can say what they want about these guys, but they put on a great live show. Opening with “In Waves” the guys really got the crowd into it. With how many people you see talking shit about them online, there wasn’t a hater to be seen at the show. They played five tracks off of In Waves which all sounded killer, as well as “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr”, “Departure”, “Down from the Sky”, and “Like Light to Flies”. Matt came out into the crowd for his solo on “Like Light to Flies” which ended up directly in front of me which was way cool! Bassist Paolo soon told the crowd in honor of Cliff Burton’s 50th birthday the band had a special song they wanted to play. They then broke into a cover of Metallica’s “Four Horsemen” which had the crowd in a frenzy. It was apparently a last minute thing, and Matt didn’t know it on guitar so they had their guitar tech come out and play the second guitar part. Matt was way cool and took that time to talk with some fans and take a couple pictures. The band closed with “Throes of Perdition” and really set the bar high for In Flames. This was the second time seeing the band with (not so new) drummer Nick Augusto, and I gotta say again how much tighter the band sounds with him. They are an absolute machine right now, and soooo much fun to watch.

I’ve seen some awesome In Flames shows, but the last headlining show I saw from them was very disappointing, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. They opened up with the first three tracks off last year’s album Sounds of a Playground Fading, which translated very well live. The band played seven tracks off their latest album, and was heavier towards their last three albums. Anders told the crowd “If you don’t know this next song, then you don’t know your metal” and the band went in to “Trigger”. They played a few other older tracks including  ”Swim”, “The Hive”, “Cloud Connected”, and “The Quiet Place”. The band was the polar opposite of the last time I saw them. They seem rejuvenated, excited, and genuinely happy to be performing, and they sounded dead on. While some of the newer material doesn’t have the same “ooomph” there older material does, they really breathe new life into it in their live show. Another must-see show if you get the chance!

-Chris