Sooner or later, I'm going to run a series on this blog where I take a trip down memory lane and remind people of how things were in emo/metalcore/pop-punk, and the things that happened that had the scene buzzing, be it on MySpace, Facebook, or otherwise. One of the more fun eras to look at will be in the late 2000s where, on a dime, The Devil Wears Prada turned their career trajectory straight to the sky, and never looked back.
Imagine, if you will, that you're back in 2009-ish, and you'd a metalcore fan. Hot Topic's CD section and your own collection are one in the same. You have a neon shirt of a band that played last year's Warped Tour. It's a shirt that displays a bear eating a horse alive, and the horse is puking all over the floor. In the vomit, the name of the band (let's just assume it was Pierce the Veil for this exercise) is spelled out, clearly enough for your young eyes to read, but sloppy enough that your parents--who just don't get you and never will--are definitely going to ask you about it. It was a simpler time, and metalcore's who's-who reflected that: you threw in some electronics or synths, you did an album with Joey Sturgis, you got an article written about you in AltPress, and in a few years, you'd be forgotten as the emo revival and the pop-punk renaissance took over the scene. I'm not sure if The Devil Wears Prada were aware of this formula at the time, but at some point in this neon chaos, they decided they'd had enough.
What followed was the band's final assertion that they were going to transcend their era, and become a force in metalcore for as long as the band survived. It all started with the Zombie EP, the band's heaviest material to that point, and it may very well have been there best. What followed, however, was even better: 2010's Dead Throne, easily one of the best metalcore albums of its era, and likely among the best all time. The success of the Zombie EP showed TDWP that going heavier wouldn't scare away their core fans, but rather invigorate them. The band dropped the sign-of-the-times wardrobe and haircuts for good, and let the music speak for itself, and the results were a deafening affirmation of the band's greatness.
After veering into a different path with the Space EP, and losing nearly all of its original members across the next decade of their career, TDWP conjured up the motivation to put together the unexpected sequel to Zombie, a twist not even The Walking Dead could pull off. It's chock-full of more heavy riffs, and as TDWP proved at the Irving Plaza stop of the Zombie Tour, ZII could be signaling the coming of the band's next great release.
Taking the stage first was Dying Wish, who, at the simplest terms possible, are a promising hardcore band. To fully understand how promising they are, though, context is necessary. If you've never heard one of the band's songs, there's still a pretty good chance you've heard the voice of vocalist Emma Boster, who shines on Knocked Loose's "A Serpent's Touch." If the band catching the attention of hardcore's torchbearers wasn't enough, consider the bands Dying Wish has also played with already in 2022: they opened up the show on Code Orange's anticipated headlining tour, appeared on the lineups for the Blue Ridge Rock Festival and the upcoming Furnace Fest, and even opened for Limp Bizkit (yes, that Limp Bizkit) for a couple of dates on their most recent tour. It's been a busy year for the band already, and they're far from finished, as they'll be opening up for Hatebreed this fall, and going overseas to support Terror as well. For a young band to keep such elite company, and to tour so tirelessly, they were sure to impress the crowd assembling at Irving Plaza. Entertain they did, as Boster and co. stormed the stage for a blistering set. If you're looking for the next big thing in hardcore/metalcore, your search stops at Dying Wish. This band is going to be a force.
Up next was Stray from the Path, a band who revealed during their set that the last tour they did before the pandemic shut down touring was in Europe with...The Devil Wears Prada! This tour is a perfect reunion for the two bands, as both are about to put out new albums this fall. SFTP certainly felt the love from their hometown crowd as soon as their set started, and showed their appreciation for the city that built them by filming a portion of a future music video during their set that night. You may recall that I've seen Stray already this year, as they opened up for Underoath's spring tour, and it's nice to see the band's politically-charged hardcore, in a time in our country where it's sorely needed. While it's easy to be pessimistic in the wake of the asinine overturning of Roe v. Wade, the band's addresses to the crowd were always positive, and carried the same message: if you treat people with kindness, you're always welcome at one of their shows. If you don't, well, listen to the anger communicated in the band's entire discography, and know that you'll be on the opposite end of that fury.
The Zombie Tour is happening at a very odd time in The Devil Wears Prada's career. Sure, this is their first headlining tour since pandemic restrictions were loosened, but to be playing two EPs front to back when the band's new album Color Decay due out next month is a peculiar issue of timing, if I've ever seen one. That's not a complaint, though, as the band's decision to play all four Color Decay songs they're released thus far shows they're clearly proud of what they're about to put out there. The Zombie EPs were sandwiched in between two four-song sets, in addition to a two-song encore that was well-deserved. The band opened with "Sacrifice," the first taste of Color Decay we were given, and a song that you need to experience live in order to understand its power. There's a bit of a fake ending, and as distortion and feedback filled the air in Irving Plaza, every single member of TDWP was working to charge the crowd into a frenzy for the final breakdown. Typically the band relies on Mike Hranica, their chaos-incarnate vocalist, to rile up the crowd, but this tour shows that every band member is committed to getting the most out of their crowd. Whether it was Jeremy DePoyster imploring each voice to sing along, Jon Gering using his elevated space on the stage as a launch pad, Kyle Sipress thrashing his guitar with extreme force and zero regard for what's around him, Giuseppe Capolupo standing on his stool to get a view of those assembled, or Mason Nagy storming out of his spot in the rear of the stage intermittently, there wasn't a single moment the entire night where every member of The Devil Wears Prada was standing still, and it was like that from the time they started their very first song. It's a great way to open a set, to be sure, but seeing "Sacrifice" close out a set might cause structural damage to some venues. I can only hope to see that carnage one day.
Of the two Zombie EPs, it appeared the crowd was more raucous for the first (you really never forget your first) of the two, but the band, in the midst of the longest set they've toured with in their career, sounded crisp regardless of what they were playing. The second mini-set of songs included one huge surprise: Plagues lead single "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?" one of those pesky early-career songs TDWP have an on-again, off-again relationship with. Tucked around the band's classics "Dez Moines" and main set closer "Chemical," "Hey John" was a rare treat from the band. However, the inclusion of "Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over," a song they were also playing on their Spring Tour with Beartooth, could be showing signs that some of the band's older material may be coming out of retirement. That could easily be me stretching for something that isn't there, though. The Zombie EP is an unintentional celebration of their career, and the band's set reflected that. So few bands have made it this far, and TDWP are nearing their 25th-year anniversary(!!!) in 2025. You don't get there without taking some risks creatively, and Zombie EP was certainly a risk that paid off, and set the band's career on a new, exciting path. With how great all of the songs from Color Decay have been, it's very possible that ZII is creating a similar spark within the band, and proving that even on a night that celebrated The Devil Wears Prada's past, I left Irving Plaza even more excited for what their future holds.
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