Part of what makes certain tour packages so successful are that there's a pretty good chance that you'll never see that combination of bands on the same bill again, save for some fateful festival appearances. Case in point: in the spring of 2022, Spiritbox and Bad Omens toured together, with both bands supporting Underoath. If that tour were to happen again, there would be some sort of knock-down, drag-out argument over who should headline, and Underoath may not even be in that fight. The same can go for any band that took Arm's Length out on tour last year, as the band have just announced they'll be headlining venues where they performed as the opening act in 2023. Luckily, we do get some exceptions every once in a while, as we've seen Bayside and Senses Fail pull of multiple cross-country treks with one another, and The Wonder Years seems to have Fireworks on speed dial. Still, there's something going on in metalcore the likes of which I can't recall seeing before. The Devil Wears Prada, coming off their career-best release of Color Decay in 2022, the same year Fit For A King saw their stock continue to rise with the release of The Hell We Create. The similarities between these two bands don't end there: they're both currently signed to Solid State Records, both have had their religious beliefs placed under the microscope at times in their careers, and both bands have gone through more than their fair share of challenges across their decades-long existences. A co-headliner made sense for all those reasons and more, as they were able to bring along longtime hardcore stalwarts Counterparts and European exports LANDMVRKS for the Metalcore Dropouts Tour last fall, traversing the US to sold-out rooms more often than not. Shortly after that tour wrapped up, though, the surprise came: the co-headliners were running it back, and Counterparts was too, and this time up-and-comers AVOID would be joining them in the opening slot. As a mosh pit-packed night at Starland Ballroom at the end of January proved, this was a tour that merited a second semester.
Taking the stage with a blistering energy, AVOID blasted through a set that mostly features tracks from their 2022 effort Cult Mentality. While the band haven't fulfilled that title yet to amass a group of fans like Bad Omens or Sleep Token, there's no denying they have the chops to do so. Whether it was frontperson Benny Scholl hopping the barrier to crowd surf early in their set, or the band pointing out members of the Starland Ballroom audience who were holding up pictures of their cat on their phones (I don't know, whatever). The band were able to overcome the typically-cramped stage and maintain great energy throughout their set. Scholl staked his claim as the most well-rounded vocalist on the tour, which was no small feat, as his range of screams surpasses many in the metalcore scene. It's no wonder why AVOID became the first band to sign to the newly-minted Thriller Records: they're oozing with potential.
Whether you know them from their visceral blend of hardcore/metalcore, or you know them from their always-sarcastic online presence, there's a good chance the name Counterparts has come across your social media throughout your internet travels. However, to know Counterparts is to understand that their music is best experienced in a live setting. As they built to a frenzy on "Love Me" to open their set, the crowd frenzied with them. vocalist Brendan Murphy provided some tongue-in-cheek commentary between tracks ("If you know the words, sing along. And if you don't, we're getting paid anyway," he remarked at one point) to reset the mood before blitzing into another track that treads the emotional waters the band have navigated for so long. Murphy's now-infamous cat Kuma was honored beautifully before the band ended their set with "Whispers of Your Death," which was one of the best songs played all night. The band's set was headlined by yet another 2022 release, their spellbinding A Eulogy for Those Still Here, but the band found time to span their entire career, and kept the crowd enthralled throughout.
I'm sure there's some kind of system in place that determines which band plays last on a co-headlining tour, but the former athlete in me hopes that there's some kind of competition involved. So whether it was tug-o-war, some sort of relay race/obstacle course, or perhaps a high-stakes game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, The Devil Wears Prada ended up taking the stage first, and provided a difficult act to follow in the process. Throughout a set that heavily focused on the tracks that comprise Color Decay and last year's deluxe edition, both Jeremy DePoyster and Mike Hranica repeated a very poignant statement: there are no bad Starland Ballroom shows. Judging by the reaction TDWP garnered, there's a lot of truth to that statement. Whether the band slowed things down with new tracks like "Salt" or "Time," or when things got heavier during classics like "Outnumbered" or "Dez Moines," the energy onstage and in front of it never dipped. Hranica left it all onstage, ending the band's heat-check of a set by tearing is undershirt clean off before the band finished their sweltering set. OF course, the band's set--and the entire night, from my vantage point--was once again highlighted by "Sacrifice" the first Color Decay single and the most chaos-creating song going right now. I'm in danger of running out of ways to tell you how perfectly the band perform this song, but here's this tour's version: no band performs one of their songs better than The Devil Wears Prada performs "Sacrifice." I hope it never leaves their setlist, especially when we (hopefully) see the band tour in celebration of their 20-year anniversary in 2025.
Following a legend of their scene could have been a difficult task, but Fit For A King are a band building a legacy of their own, and through these two semesters of the Dropouts tour, they've proved they belong right on the top echelon of metalcore. Vocalist Ryan Kirby's clean and screamed vocals rang triumphant throughout the night, and were accented perfectly by bassist Ryan O' Leary and guitarist Daniel Gailey. O' Leary's energy was perhaps the most infections of the evening, as he flung his bass across his body and jumped off of anything he could climb. Meanwhile, Kirby was in total command onstage, pumping up the crowd and showing off his own impressive range alongside AVOID vocalist Benny Scholl on the evening--ending "God of Fire." This was my first experience with Fit For A King, and in honor of the tour name, I didn't want to become a metalcore dropout myself. I did my homework on FFAK, and discovered that this is a band who have done the right thing at just about every turn. Whether it's talking openly about their faith while also acknowledging the shortcomings of Christianity or Catholicism, allowing guitarist Bobby Lynge to remain a member of the band who appears in their music videos and assists in songwriting despite no longer being an active touring member, or taking time to acknowledge each of the incredible bands that played before them individually, the impression that I'm left with is that Fit For A King is a band that leads with the heart in all of their ventures. There's a lot worse ways to be in this world, and it's a warm feeling to know that metalcore is in such steady hands between TDWP and FFAK--not bad for so-called dropouts.
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