Suicide Silence – 10 Years of The Cleansing Tour 12/17/17 Review 

In many genres, we can all picture in our heads that one album that defines what a genre is and sets the bar for what future releases for the genre should be. Suicide Silence’s album The Cleansing is just that for the deathcore genre. This album is iconic for so many reasons: the dynamics, the distinct vocal stylings of Mitch Lucker, and the lyrics that drew people in. This iconic album hit its 10-year mark, which meant the band would go on tour in support of this release, along with some amazing bands supporting them. With a 40-day tour, and this being the last date, I knew we were in for a treat.

While there were some local opening acts, the first official band from the tour was Prison. Now, Prison has an interesting story. This was their very first tour, they came out on that stage and killed it. They played every song off their debut EP titled “N.G.R.I”. Also, Prison was the only unsigned band on the tour, which is very cool to see. I feel they will become signed very soon, as they have the talent and passion to get there. Prison speaks about issues a lot of people and bands are scared to talk about: suicide, depression, the struggles we go through on a day to day basis. The lead singer, especially, has a deep life story about depression that hit me deep to my core. It meant the world to hear a band speak boldly about conquering depression, and deriving their whole being from how to overcome that depression. It was amazing to see just an emotion-driven performance, filled with amazing crowd participation.

The next band up was the infamous Upon a Burning Body. This was my third time seeing this band and they always have some of the best stage presence I’ve ever seen. Playing songs from their whole discography, it was amazing to see them light up the stage. Though mainly backlit, it was fun to shoot their set. They chose a perfect eight-song set, spreading the songs out almost equally through their 4 albums, although 3 songs came from their most recent release “Straight From The Barrio”, via Sumerian Records. I knew they were amazing live, but out of the three times I’ve seen them, this was by far the best I’ve seen them play live. They were on fire out there.

The second to last band up was Winds of Plague. Now, I have a fun story, I met the members outside before the show and they were so down to earth and happy to meet people. I brought every album from their discography, as well as an album from their keyboardist Adrienne Cowan’s other band Seven Spires, which made her, and the rest of the band, very happy. When it came to the performance on stage, they were brilliant from head to toe. With a ten-song set, with songs from most of their five-album discography, they were filled with energy, fire, and talent. I was extremely excited to watch them play, as I had been waiting to see Winds of Plague since I got into them back in 2011 from playing Rock Band on my Xbox. Their newest release “Blood Of My Enemy”, release on EOne Music, is their best release to date, and what they played from it last night proves just that. Winds of Plague is back and better than ever.

The final band on was the one and only Suicide Silence. This was my second time seeing the legends of deathcore and they did not disappoint. Being the 10-year anniversary tour for their very first album, they knew they had to go out hard. Vocalist Eddie Hermida did his part to scream those vocals out hard, in memorial of previous vocalist Mitch, who died in a motorcycle accident November 1st, 2012. That incident shook the fanbase to the core, but the band continued with Eddie as the new vocalist. Since then, they released two albums with Eddie, the newest being the self-titled “Suicide Silence” via Nuclear Blast Records. On every date, the band played The Cleansing in its entirety, being twelve songs. Along with the twelve songs, they played three encore songs, being off three out of four of their other releases. I was blown away to see how on fire they were with these songs, as well as how identical Eddie was able to make his vocals sound to Mitch’s with these songs. At the end of the set, drummer Alex Lopez smashed his drum set and Chris Garza set his guitar on fire and then smashed it to pieces. Both members threw their instruments into the crowd, which resulted in people in the crowd fighting over pieces of broken guitar and drum parts.

Overall, it was an amazing show to attend and I’m so grateful to have covered it.

Review courtesy of Jamie Kaufman 

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