Friday night’s show started with local group Roads of Glass. These guys are taking the scene by storm and last night proved why. Even though they were the first band on what was to be a super long night, they came out with power and brutality. They got the crowed warmed up with their unique brand of music and powerful stage show. Unfortunately, it felt like as soon as they took the stage, their set was done and it was time for Royal’z.
Royal’z kept the energy high throughout their set. Royal’z, like Road of Glass, is definitely a star of our local metal scene. they have a unique brand of metal that mixes rap and metal. It’s upbeat, fun, and gets the crowd moving. You could feel the hearts in the crowd grow heavy as Nick, the bassist, dedicated a song to his recently passed father but, even with those heavy hearts, there was no shortage of energy. The beauty in the way the crowd clapped and cheered for Nick after his short speech was nothing short of heart warming. You could tell that people truly cared and wanted to make last night’s set one of the best Royal’z has ever had and that’s exactly what it turned into.
The first of the five touring bands to take the stage was Fire From the Gods. FFTG has been tagged as a rap-metal revivalist group and that’s not too far off. It definitely is a unique brand of rap metal but the music behind the vocals is technical and that makes it more interesting than anything else I have heard from that genre. I may not be a huge fan of this whole style of music but after seeing them last night and listening to them a bit this morning, I’m intrigued and can’t wait to see what the future brings for these guys. The next band to take the stage completely blew me away and, if you ask me and a couple other people I talked to, stole the damn show. Within the Ruins. I had been wanting to see these guys for awhile now and last night was finally my chance. I feel like Within the Ruins has been a bit of a buzz band in the metalcore scene for over ten years now. I always hear good things about them but they seem to stay under the radar for the most part. After seeing them perform last night, they are definitely not under my radar anymore.Even with what seems to be a revolving door of band members, Within the Ruins had one of the cleanest sets I have ever seen from a deathcore band. You could hear every single intricate guitar sweep and every single brutal drum hit. With five full-length albums out, these guys had more than enough material to play for hours but, unfortunately, when you have seven bands on the line-up for a concert, set times are tight and short. As soon as I snapped out of my shock and started truly enjoying their set, they were packing up their gear and leaving the stage. You could feel the disappointment in the air as this was the first band that the crowd was truly getting rowdy for. They didn’t want it to end and I didn’t want it to end. That’s a sign of a damn good set. I don’t understand why these guys weren’t supporting the headliner directly or even headlining the tour themselves.
Oceans Ate Alaska was up next. I had been excited to see them perform their brand of metalcore that took me back to my angsty teenage years. The crowd seemed to be in the same mindframe and, as soon as the band started, the crowd erputed into a sweaty mess. Like all of the other sets of the night, it felt short and as soon as I started getting used to their style and really catching onto the little details of the band, it was time for them to pack up and leave. I was interested to see how the crowd would react to the next band, Volumes. These guys are a love them or hate them band. I’ve heard friends complain about members of the band being big headed and rude and I’ve heard that they’re the nicest guys ever. All I wanted to see was how they did on stage and they killed it. They had the crowd in the palm of their hands and had them moving around. Kids were surfing to the front just for the chance to scream a single word into the microphone. It was clear that whether you loved them, hated them, or loved to hate them, you couldn’t help but fall in love with their presence and there’s no denying that they know damn well what they’re doing and they’re doing it well. Last, but most certainly not least, was Born of Osiris. This tour is in celebration of the release of the re-done version of their 2008 EP The New Reign. This EP truly changed the life of so many people in this scene and BOO recognized that. Since it’s been so long since they initially recorded it and so much has changed as far as recording, the band decided it was time to re-record the album. During this tour, they played the EP in it’s entirety and, for a fan of BOO, this meant absolutely everything. Along with the old songs, BOO played through over ten years of music in their set.It didn’t matter what era the song came from, the crowd was loving every single second of the music. The energy never came down and I’m sure the amount of bruises people are waking up with today will be a friendly reminder of just how amazing last night was. As the band played their final song of the set, the crowd started chanting for one more song but in the most Minnesotan way ever. Instead of just saying “One more song!” the crowd divided and with every “One more song!” that was chanted, there was a “Please!” to come after it. The band gave in and came out to give the almost sold out crowd an encore.
