Article: Christian Tallone – Photos: Michele Aldeghi

UPON A BURNING BODY:

At 19:30, UPON A BURNING BODY was on stage playing the intro, the band greeted and attacked immediately with full power! The stage setting was very simple, the classic logo on the banner and just the essential lights.The guys were dressed more like for the rehearsal than for a gig, only the singer looked strangely elegant with his suit.The venue was yet to be filled, it was still early, but the sounds were great, and the band played with precision and power! The crowd showed their appreciation with many mosh and circle pits during almost every song! The only flaw is that the songs were monotonous – we seemed to hear the same song all over again. But as it was only a half  hour show, I had no time to get bored, at 20:00 the band left the stage waving “bye-bye.” UPON A BURNING BODY did a great job to open the evening and preparing our ears for what was about to come…

CALIBAN:

At 20:15 the intro of CALIBAN began.. gloomy as ever, this time the scene was striking in its simplicity .. the most beautiful of this evening .. blue lights made the atmosphere very cold and icy. In particular, in the background there was a banner with dark eyes crying (the cover of the album “I Am Nemesis”) with “CLBN” written and illuminated under the platform of the battery! The band played solid and wild (for me it was the first time I saw the guitarist without a hat .. initially I nearly doubted whether it is him or not), Caliban dedicated the third song to the recently deceased Mitch Lucker, the singer of SUICIDE SILENCE, and immediately was honored the first “wall of death” of the evening! The sound seemed to be less powerful than  the previous ,but Caliban played perfectly in my opinion.The audience went crazy singing every chorus. Unfortunately at 20:51, Caliban had to say goodbye to the audience and leave the stage. The band really deserved to play for longer – promoted with flying colors!

AS I LAY DYING:

At 21:22 started the intro of a band which was the best performance of the evening: AS I LAY DYING. They also had a simple stage setting ..the same lights and a banner with the logo and a moth.Observing the t-shirts that were around me, I could say that AS I LAY DYING were THE main band that the audience was attending for.They rewarded our expectations by offering a performance which was certainly not only memorable, but that left a mark! Unfortunately they had only 40 minutes on stage, but each minute was maximized and played flawlessly, as powerful as a cannon and as fast as a train, involving the audience screaming and yelling and moshing during every single song. All without wasting time on talking, then at 22:09, a hasty escape to leave the stage to the headliner.

Setlist:
Condemned
94 Hours
Anodyne Sea
Paralyzed
Cauterize
Through Struggle
Nothing Left
Confined
A Greater Foundation
Within Destruction
The Sound of Truth

TRIVIUM:

The atmosphere was burning, the two huge TRIVIUM logos were on both sides of the drumkit and behind there was a banner with a mushroom cloud. At 22:30 started the intro with a dark stage to hide the entry of the band.This was the fourth time I had seen TRIVIUM live. After the intro, people were shouting and the band launched into IN WAVES! But unfortunately, it could be immediately perceived that  something wasn’t working as it should. The sounds were confused, and the band was not in great shape, Matt was subtoned and the rest of the band was lacking in precision and cleanliness, perhaps the fault of the earphones? (I’ve always said that the monitors are the best friends of the musicians). But the band continued to falter. However the audience was cheering with enthusiasm and warmth, probably due to the fact that many young fans were fascinated by the context, without being able to give an objective assessment. I’m sorry to say, even though I really like Trivium, they were playing bad that night! Between the songs, the band overdid things with long and boring speeches, and then they performed the songs in a hasty way as if they were eager to leave the stage. When Trivium dusted off some wonderful songs from “ASCENDACY” I hoped to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel… but this hope vanished when Trivium attacked with DYING IN YOUR ARMS, which is one of the most beautiful songs they have written so far, but honestly it seemed to be played by a cover band of average skills. So, after this punch in the stomach, and the 4 hours drive back home ahead of us, we decided to leave the Live Club shortly before the end of the show. After seeing hundreds of concerts in last 13 years, to leave before the end of a show had never happened to me.

Reflections: This exhibition of Trivium could have been judged very positively if they were an emerging band .. but from a band like them, and as I know what they can do, I expected a lot more! The evening began in a great way, with the bands that did well on their part, but when it was the turn of those who supposed to be the icing on the cake … hmmm, let’s hope this was only a single case and caused by some tech issues. I’m hoping that next time I will see Trivium as we all know, professional and full of pure blasting energy!

Setlist:
Capsizing the Sea
In Waves
Like Light to the Flies
Rain
Into the Mouth of Hell We March
Down From the Sky
Entrance of the Conflagration
Black
The Deceived
Watch the World Burn
A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
Ember to Inferno
(Corey on lead vocals)
Built to Fall
Dying in Your Arms
Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
Torn Between Scylla and Charybdis
Throes of Perdition
Leaving This World Behind