August 1, 2019 at Vinyl inside the Hard Rock Hotel was a night for the books for someone like me. A product of the 2000’s big wave of metalcore. As I had mentioned in my pre coverage piece, Miss May I have been around since 2007-2008. I hadn’t seen them since they made their breakout onto the scene. (From what I could dig up, it was a Pulsar show put on at The Farm! Time flies, man.)
Afterlife & Thousand Below
Opening up the night were Afterlife, Thousand Below, and The Word Alive. All three of these bands did exceptionally well this night in my opinion. I thought that they were great picks to compliment the style and scene tastes that the kinds of people at these specific shows are drawn to.
Thousand Below has this very interesting melodic hardcore sound. It’s blended with metalcore and almost pop punk like vocals to create a very fresh sound that I haven’t quite heard in this niche of the scene. I’m very interested to see if this type of musical blending lifts off. Because it very well could!
Afterlife took on a little more of the hardcore influence to me. But also clearly influenced by other genre blending artists upon listening to their catalogue further. The Slipknot influence in the vocals in ever present, but there’s something completely different here going on so don’t take that influence too much to heart. They put on a bitchin’ intense set and I would love to see them again in the future.
I won’t drag on too much, but I definitely think these guys are worth checking out. Especially if you happen to be intrigued by the direction that this style of music has drifted off into. (I’ve been watching a lot of The Punk Rock MBA on YouTube lately, and this style is definitely something new that I wasn’t aware of. And it’s super interesting.)
The Word Alive
The Word Alive was one of those bands that I had always heard about, but I never had a chance to see them when they made their debut on the scene. (Either that or I just can’t remember… I’m getting old. Don’t judge me.) Nevertheless, their musical style combines some of my favorite kinds of energies, and I really loved their whole set. It was when their vocalist had the crowd hold up their phone flashlights while he made his way to the middle of the Vinyl floor that did it for me. The connecting with the fans and the intensity within the people around me, it just made me smile.
This show was a co-headliner! And The Word Alive played their album, “Deceiver” in it’s entirety. (But it wouldn’t be a show if they didn’t throw additional fan favorites in there! Which, they did flawlessly.) I’ll leave you guys a playlist below to check that one out, because it’s a great album!
Listen to DECEIVER by THE WORD ALIVE below!!
Miss May I
Man oh man…. If you did check out my pre coverage piece for this show, I spoke a little bit about my expectations for these guys since it had been so long since I had seen them. I did see an overwhelming amount of growth up on that stage since I saw them all those years ago. I also stand by my statements regarding Miss May I being severly underrated in the world of metalcore.
Hearing the guys play “Monument” front to back was absolutely amazing. I can honestly say that I felt like I was connected with my inner 19 year old self. This feeling usually happens in brief moments, but for their set I felt it the entire hour and a half that they played.
The night was filled with great energy. I have to say that watching the pit on the floor this night really made me miss being younger and able to take the hits that come with being in a mosh pit. I couldn’t help but glance and smile, because I remember those days so fondly.
Go ahead and listen to “MONUMENT” by MISS MAY I below!!!
I look forward to the next time these bands all hit the Vegas scene!
All live photos by Courtney Ware for ZrockR Magazine 2019. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.