Rock In Review

All That Remains and Chimaira put on explosive show in Charlotte!

On March 5, 2008, Ferret Music band Chimaira supported Prosthetic Records band All That Remains in a KILLER show at Amos’ Southend in Charlotte, NC. Joining Chimaira in supporting ATR were Metal band Light This City and Black Tide. Honestly, this show was one of the most aggressive events I have ever witnessed!

The first band to warm up the stage was West Coast Metal machine, Light This City. This was my first experience seeing this band and I was impressed. They were HEAVY! Guitarists Ryan Hansen and Brian Forbes were on top of their games killin’ the six strings and throwin’ in some hair spins and much needed headbanging. Bringin’ up the incredible back bone for LTC were drummer Ben Murray and bassist Jon Frost! The last piece to this puzzle was the brutal screaming of vocalist Laura Nichol. With all the forces of this band are combined, LTC put on a great show and kicked this show off the right way!

The second band to play was definitely the odd band of the tour, but still definitely deserved to be there! This band…is Black Tide. To compare this band to anyone else, they’re like a young Dragonforce without all the sweep picking! As mentioned before, BT was the odd band of the tour because of their style, but they definitely had talent. Guitarists Alex Nunez and Gabriel Garcia helped lead the second wave of attack on Amos’ Southend with bassist Zachary Sandler and drummer/keyboardist Steven Spence. Vocals were shared pretty equally between Zach and Gabriel, but Alex had an input in it every now and again. Overall BT played a great set mostly constructed of original songs, but they also played Metallica’s first written song “Hit The Lights” that appeared on Kill ‘Em All and will be appearing on BT’s new album, Light From Above. These first two band were only setting up for what was to come next!

And what came next was none other than Cleveland’s own Metal task force, Chimaira! Honestly, Chimaira is one of the most aggressive and powerful bands I have EVER heard! If you listen to any of Chimaira’s albums, you’ll get a slight glimpse of their power, but none of the albums compare to their live show! With the combined efforts of guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt Devries with bassist Jon LaMarca, keyboardist/sampler Chris Spicuzza, and returning drummer Andols Herrick, Chimaira proceeded to nearly blow my eardrums with an incredible set consisting of new and old songs. To complete the formula, insanely aggressive vocalist Mark Hunter was leading this set through songs including but not limited to (probably my favorite Chimaira song) “The Flame”, “Resurrection”, and “Salvation”. Pre-show, I was able to get an interview with Matt Devries who had some pretty interesting things to say. When asked about his favorite song off of their latest record Resurrection, he replied with my same favorite song, “The Flame”. He mentioned it was his favorite because of its aggressiveness and that it was so fun to play, although “Six” was another top from the album because it shows the diversity of the band. Matt had also appeared on the Roadrunner United: The All Stars album and said he was honored to be able to have that opportunity to play/record with guys he’s looked up to before and to have time working with Joey Jordison on that album as well. Overall, with the interview and witnessing of their live set, Chimaira helped give me one of the most memorable concert experiences I have had with Rock In Review!

At last it was time for the final wave of attack, All That Remains! Hailing from Springfield, Massachusetts, this five-piece Metalcore band definitely put the perfect finishing touches on an incredible night! This being the third time I’ve seen ATR I kind of knew what to expect, but I was still surprised with the performance of a few of their older songs including the first song vocalist Philip Labonte ever wrote for ATR; I believe it was “Clarity”. At the time that song was released on their first album Behind Silence and Solitude, the only other original member in the band that remains in the band today was guitarist Oli Herbert! Now, joining Oli and Philip in the journey towards making the world a more Metal place are rhythm guitarist Mike Martin, bassist Jeanne Sagan, and their most recent drummer Jason Costa. Together, these five make up an incredible band who have impressed me 3 out of 3 times! As mentioned, on March 5th, ATR played new and old songs including “Not Alone”, This Calling”, “This Darkened Heart”, and for Guitar Hero fans…”Six”! As their encore song, Laura Nichol from Light This City joined Philip in performing the vocals for the closest song ATR has to a Death Metal song, “The Weak Willed”. This was the perfect end to a great show!

All in all, this concert was one for the books and I had a blast getting to experience it! Make sure to catch these bands on tour near you if possible!

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