Concert Review - All Shall Perish, Born of Osiris, and After the Burial

The under 21 entrance was curtained in a thick air of cigarette smoke as younger fans and twenty-somethings alike packed into Allentown’s Crocodile Rock for the eastern leg of the Night of the Living Shred Tour featuring co-headliners All Shall Perish, Born of Osiris, and After the Burial. The Oakland area metal outfit All Shall Perish entered the city of Allentown having toured for some time, both at home and abroad, and looked to run off the high energy acts which they followed. In an interview with the band before their set, lead singer Eddie Hermida expressed his excitement over performing with up and coming deathcore acts Born of Osiris and After the Burial, this being their second tour with the latter.

Minneapolis Sumerian signees After the Burial started the night off for the series of co-headliners with a full and breathtakingly heavy set. Their eight string guitars chugged through old favorites and new favorites alike, performed with new singer Anthony Notarmaso. This was Notarmaso’s first nationwide tour with After the Burial after the release of their reissued, rerecorded 2008 LP Rareform. Notarmaso proved himself to be tour ready, never missing a note and in some cases, performing better than ATB’s previously recorded material. When asked about Notarmaso, Hermida passed down his approval in WXVU’s preconcert interview and hinted at a switch from 7 strings to 8 strings for their next album.

Fellow Sumerian deathcore artists Born of Osiris, based out of Chicago, would provide the most energy next to the closing act. Their schizophrenic brand of hardcore led to a great amount of activity in the pit, but also to some very confused headbangers trying to keep up with timing and tempo changes. On most tracks in their set, Born of Osiris slowed down the tempo just enough to make for a tighter show but it did not go unnoticed. Instead of the frantic blasting in Brace Legs or the complex guitar work in Abstract Art, their sound was a bit lazy; wanting to break out into full force thrash, but restricted by efforts to keep their live show together. Despite the tempo change, fans still erupted with the opening note of each familiar The New Reign track. Favorites on the night include “Open Arms to Damnation” and closer “Bow Down”; each containing a moment of mic-reaching, sing-along intensity as the entire GA section sandwiched towards the stage to be closer to the source of the excitement.

Finally, after a short wait, All Shall Perish made their way to the stage and proceeded to pound out an hour long set that appeased new and old fans in the crowd. After almost five hours of hard-hitting acts, the crowd looked rejuvenated as All Shall Perish ran through a setlist that included their two best of the night “Eradication” and cowbell thumping closer “Wage Slaves” off of 2006’s The Price of Existence. The band sounded tight throughout the night playing songs from both of their most recent albums including Awaken the Dreamers. The drumming of Matt Kuykendall was masterful as always as he provided the backbone for All Shall Perish on tracks such as “Better Living Through Catastrophe” and even gave private lessons before the show. During our preconcert interview, Hermida reacted to a question about the Oakland metal scene. Happy to get the opportunity to talk about the area in which they call home and came into their own as a band, Hermida reflected on the glory days of Metallica and thriving metal clubs throughout the Bay Area. However, according to Hermida, the Oakland scene has declined greatly in the recent past and has become a shadow of its thrash-metal prime. But judging from their live show and the music backing it, All Shall Perish is doing their best to restore the Bay Area’s once lustrous metal reputation.

-Brendan Bianowicz