Friday night at the , San Diego metalcore quintet proved why they are the leading name in the Christian metal game. At ten after 10 p.m., amid the smoke and lights, the so-called godfathers of their genre stepped out onto stage and immediately hit the crowd with thunderous double-kicks and maniacal blast beats.
They lived up to their roots and satisfied the sold-out Gothic crowd with mind-blowing breakdowns and thrashy guitar licks — a staple in the metalcore genre, especially during the last 30 seconds of the single “Through Struggle” (off 2005 album “Shadows Are Security”). It was during their most well-known breakdowns that the insanely hot and sweaty crowd hit its peak of pure metal-driven insanity.
The band only played a handful of songs from their new album, “The Powerless Rise,” and front man Tim Lambesis even addressed the fact that the crowd might not be familiar with their new material (therefore opting to play older, more familiar songs). New single “Parallels” was well received by the audience, but the biggest reactions of the night came from their last two, and most popular songs, “Nothing Left” and “Forever” — an encore that brought the now sweat-drenched and exhausted crowd to its knees.
The tour’s opening acts War of Ages and Bless the Fall held their own against their more reputable headliners. Surprisingly, the highly-anticipated set from co-headliner Demon Hunter, a band who rarely tours, kept the night from being a four-for-four success. Sandwiched between Bless the Fall’s synchronized guitar tricks and As I Lay Dying’s crushing presence, the set bordered on boring and was an overall disappointment for Demon Hunter loyalists.
For anyone still standing and not yet been carried out by busy bouncers from heat exhaustion, the end of the show came too soon. The hour-long set was barely enough for As I Lay Dying followers — but it was definitely one of their best.
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Paige Montgomery is a Denver-based freelance writer. Check out more of her work on .
