NYS Music 20​13

Tag: all that remains

  • All That Remains headlines 95X Syracuse’s Nightmare Before Xmas

    All That Remains has been touring nonstop and riding the momentum of commercial success with albums like For We Are Many and last year’s A War You Can Not Win.  Returning to Syracuse for the second time this year for Nightmare Before Xmas, they brought in Chicago’s Soil, who reunited last year with original singer and ex-Drowning Pool singer, Ryan McCombs.  95X brought in local acts Era, from Oswego and Cry To The Blind, from Rochester, to complete the entire act.  The show was at the Wescott Theater, which may be the venue of choice for metal acts in Syracuse.

    Dealing with absolutely shitty weather for a December 14 night, the Metal Fans and 95X listeners proved that shitty weather does not stop anyone from catching a great show.  It was a packed house.

    Era opened the act.  I don’t know a whole lot about them; this was the first show they played with their new lineup.  They opened for Hatebreed back in December of last year.  They were more metal oriented than the other acts.  I would say they were a combo of Slayer and Clutch.  But they were solid and the crowd was very receptive to them.

    Cry To The Blind stormed the stage for their 20 minute set.  They have a more hard rock flavor to them and VERY energetic.  When it’s ball shrinking cold outside, it’s nice to have a band jumping around getting the crowd pumped up and having a great time.

    Soil, who was part of the tour, played a 30 minute set.  Keep in mind, Soil played Syracuse over the summer as well which I was in attendance for.  The first time they played, they actually played a couple of Drowning Pool songs.  This time, they didn’t.  Frontman Ryan McCombs made it clear to the crowd that he wasn’t feeling well. But that didn’t stop him from giving a stellar performance.  Opening with “Loaded Gun,” then the rest of their set consisted songs off their 2001 CD Scars.  And of course, they closed with “Halo”, with McCombs going into the middle of the crowd to get everyone into.  Hopefully Soil sticks around and comes back soon.  The rest of the band actually hung at the merch table after their set which is always nice to see.

    All That Remains made quite the entrance.  With House of Pain’s “Jump Around” playing over the PA before they got on stage and opened with “Down” and “Stand Up.”  I’ve seen All That Remains several times.  The first time I  saw them was back at Ozzfest in 2006; at the time they were relatively unknown.  Talk about progression (in a good way).  All That Remains did a good job of blending their heavier songs with their mellower hits and ballads.  Most of the Ballads were played in the middle of their set while their heavier stuff opened and ended their set.  One thing I was really impressed with in their overall performance is Jeanne Sagan’s backing vocals to harmonize with Phil.  And I personally think Phil is one of the best singers that can go from a death metal growl to singing clearly.  That’s always been the band’s strength.  Also this was the 3rd to last show of the tour and no one seemed worn down at all.  Some of the other songs that were played were “For Now We Tremble”, “Dead Wrong”, of course “What If I Was Nothing”, and their 2 closers were “Hold On” and “2 Weeks”, rounding out about a one hour set. No encore.  The crowd went nuts.  A good-sized mosh pit was in the middle of the entire venue.   Overall fantastic show. I would imagine All That Remains will return next year.

    According to ThePrp.com, All That Remains tour bus was in an accident on the NYS Thruway on the way to their next show at Clifton Park.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  It didn’t help the roads were shitty before and after the show.  Also I would imagine we will start seeing more metal shows at the Wescott than the Lost.

  • One Weird Night for All that Remains

    All that remains — one weird day.

    All That Remains rolled into Clifton Park a few days ago. They rocked the house along with Soil and local openers Hollow is thy Heart, but the day left us with some questions and stories to tell. Here’s what went down:

    1. Lead vocalist, and official band a – hole, Phil Labonte called out the New York State Police on their apparent violation of the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. Actually, their tour bus was hit by a car. No one was hurt, but the responding officer asked for the names and ages of everyone on the bus. Labonte specifically said on Facebook, “The fuck has absolutely no right to ask for that information…welcome to NY where the Bill of Rights won’t protect you.”

    Just so Labonte knows, the 4th Amendment protects you from unwarranted search and seizure, not someone asking you for your name. I guess you could just say no if you really want to. He’s not going to shoot you.

    Even so, reports have just been confirmed that Labonte will be working on a Fuck the Police type mix tape alongside no-longer-relevant rapper 50 Cent.

    2. Hollow is thy Heart proved, once again, that they are one of the biggest forces in local metal right now. They played both fan favorites, “Death Comes Marching, and Without a Savior.” Although the snow led to a lot of cancellations, the ever-building crowd may have been one of Hollow is thy Heart’s milestones, as drummer Brandon Weaver said.

    As always, AJ Justiniano’s voice was nothing short of powerful, while the instrumentation was on dead point. The crowd began to move. Hollow is thy Heart is certainly big-time material. Give them some time and those guys will be on tour.

    3. Soil may be up and coming, but they certainly proved that they deserve to be on stage with All that Remains. They were not necessarily unique, but they came out with a bang and the crowd could move along. If nobody knows your music, at least have a catchy hook.

    4. Apparently, All That Remains has become a country band. When Labonte came out with those sweet, angelic pipes for one of their slower songs, everyone got their lighters in the air for “What if I was Nothing?” While this song could have easily been denounced as a horrible rip off of Taylor Swift, it actually sounded very different in a live setting. Who knows what the cause was, but Labonte has stepped his game up when it comes to clean vocals.

    The magic didn’t stop there. ATR played some of their old classics as well. From the perspective of someone who first heard the band when they came out with the Fall of Ideals, it was pretty enjoyable to hear some of these once again. In the same way, the performance ethic of the band as an entity has greatly improved.

    5. An anonymous source told us that Oli Hebert, the lead guitarist, smoked a bowl with a few members of other bands after the show. Since this is unconfirmed, we just wanted to make sure that the responding car crash officer doesn’t go after any of the other smokers. Don’t even think about asking for names, sir!

    All in all, there’s nothing like going to a sweaty metal show, being packed into a room like Upstate Concert Hall, and singing along with some of the first metal songs you ever heard — with or without the silly antics apparent before and after the show.

  • Preview: All That Remains set to return to CNY and Capital Region

    All That Remains is set to bring their heavy melodic metal-core sound back to the Capital Region on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013 at the Westcott Theater in Syracuse, N.Y., and Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013 at Upstate Concert Hall in Clifton Park, N.Y.

    Opening for the show at both venues will be hard alternative post grunge rockers Soil.

    All That Remains:

    From Springfield, Massachusetts, Philip Labonte (vocals), Mike Martin (guitar), Oli Herbert (Guitar), Jeanne Sagen (bass), Jason Costa (drums). Formed in 1998, ATR has recorded 6 studio albums and 1 live album, in their 15 year history including Behind Silence and Solitude (2002), This Darkened Heart (2004), The Fall of  Ideals ( 2006), Overcome (2008), For We Are Many (2010) and current album A War You Cannot Win (2012).

    Soil:

    From Chicago, Illinois, Ryan McCombs (vocals), Tim King (bass), Adam Zadel (guitar). Formed in 1997, Soil has recorded 6 studio albums in their 16 year history including Throttle Junkies (1999), Scars (2001), Redefine (2004), True Self (2006), Picture Perfect ( 2009) and current album Whole (2013).  

    Original vocalist Ryan McCombs is back with Soil to make the original line-up complete. McCombs left the band in 2004 to be with his family and resurfaced in 2005 as lead vocalist for Drowning Pool.

    Other December Tour Dates:

    Dec 2 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall **

    Dec 4 – Minneapolis, MN @ Mill City Nights *

    Dec 5 – Ashwaubenon, WI @ Green Bay Distillery

    Dec 6 – Pontiac, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom

    Dec 7 – Joliet, Il @ Mojoe’s

    Dec 10 – Charleston, SC @ Music Farm **

    Dec 11 – Johnson City, TN @ Capones *

    Dec 13 – Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live! ***

    Dec 14 – Syracuse, NY @ The Wolcott Theater

    Dec 15 – Clifton Park NY @ Upstate Concert Hall

    Dec 28 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street ****

    * Motionless In White

    ** Motionless In White/Soil

    *** Asking Alexandria/Devour The Day & more

    **** Jasta

  • Review: Krockathon 18

    Krockathon 18 was held in the Chevy Court of the N.Y. State fairgrounds. The lineup for this show was just amazing! Sevendust, Skillet, Three Days Grace and Chevelle to name a few.

    Krock even tweaked some things to the venue so they could sell 500 more tickets. The show went pretty smoothly for the most part. The main drawbacks from the fans were that there was no tailgating allowed in the parking lot, and there were not enough beer and food vendor’s. They could have used about 30 more port-a-potties also.

    First up was Stars In Stereo. They got the crowd going for this one. They did a decent cover of Aerosmith’s Dream On. Singer Bec Hollcraft seemed a little reserved at the beginning, but came into her own by the end. She could be a star someday. If I had to compare them to another band, I would have to say that they are like Paramore kicked up a notch.

    All the way from the UK, The Virginmary’s were up next. They were pretty good. I really never heard anything by them, but I really enjoyed their performance. They can definitely rock it live.

    This next band was just amazing live. Aranda, to me, is one of the bands on this bill that stole the show. The Aranda brothers, Dameon and Gabe, have some fun with each other using one guitar and holding it in different positions while the other brother plays it!!! Pretty cool $#!^. I highly recommend Aranda’s “Stop The World“cd. It is just hot from top to bottom. I would really like to see this band play a longer set.

    The next band on the bill was Red. Red had their Graffiti brick wall set up behind them, which I love as a backdrop. Michael Barnes vocals were just right on point. The Armstrong twins just know how to rock, and they have a ton of energy. I’ve seen Red live of couple of times now, and they just bring it to every show. They are also some of the coolest, most down to earth guys you can meet.

    Skillet, who just dropped their “Rise” cd, was next. Here is another band that just stole the show for me. Skillet live is just f’in awesome. Watching Jen Ledger on drums is insane. She just kicks so much @$$ up there. Skillet had their usual co2 pyro in front of the stage. Korey Cooper on guitar and keyboard is just amazing. Watching her rock out is just really fun to watch. The crowd was just nuts for Skillet and John Cooper had them wrapped around his finger. Jen also threw her drumsticks to a fan holding a sign asking her for them, which I though was classy move.

    Asking Alexandria were up next and the crowd loved them. I personally am not a huge fan of theirs, but they do put on a good live set.

    Flyleaf was set to play next. I am really not feeling Kristen May live. The band itself is OK but she is the $#!^’s. It seemed like every song was butchered by her, and it made me sick. I saw them the night before this show, and again I was not impressed.

    Another band I saw the night before was P.O.D. This is when the first of two rain showers started, and it lasted for most of P.O.D’s set. Every time I see this band they kick @$$! I love watching Sonny on stage because you can see how he just feels the lyrics he is singing.

    Well up next, according to front man Phillip LaBonte, is the hardest band on the show! All That Remains took the stage next and, like usual, they just killed it. I’ve seen this band a couple of times now, and I love them more and more.

    One of my favorite bands ever, Sevendust, is now ready to rock the stage. The topless women are now starting to come out in full force. Lajon is one of the best front men in the business to me. I love him on stage. His emotions bring my emotions out more. The whole band just rocks from start to finish. Lajon said halfway through, “We are not rockstars, we just love to play music.” One classy guy, and a very classy band. You’re all rockstars to me!

    I was standing next to a girl at this show who was there for this next band only. Chevelle took the stage and the crowd just loved them. They were really good and sounded awesome.

    Last up is Three Days Grace. The second rain fall is now starting. This is where the only snag took place as 3DG took forever to come out and delayed everyone in the rain for about an half hour. After chants of “WTF” and “this is B.S,” the show finally started. This was my second time seeing Matt sing for 3DG and he is really good. I think I liked him better the first time I saw him, though. The crowd was really over for them and even though it was down pouring rain, it was still awesome.

    What a great event Krockathon was. A couple of things that I would like to see added to next year’s event—besides more vendors and bathrooms—is a more of a festival experience. I think the bands should have been more hands on for the fans. Don’t get me wrong, some were, but not enough. I think if they set it up like Mayhem/Uproar and they had different tents for the different bands. The facility sure looked like they had enough room for it. One thing I didn’t get was the sticker that they passed out at the gate that was for random meet-n-greets with the bands, but I noticed that the Krock staff was also grabbing people who didn’t have stickers instead of the ones who did, which annoyed a lot of people who got there early to get one of the stickers.

  • K-Rockathon 18: Photo Gallery

    Sometimes as a photographer you are lucky enough to shoot a decent band or two.  As a concert photographer I have been lucky enough to photograph some of the best in the business.  On July 27th, I was able to shoot a whole shitload of great bands in one place, just a couple hours from my home at K-Rockathon 18 at the Chevy Court at the New York State Fairgrounds.  Bands like Sevendust, All That Remains, Chevelle, Skillet and many more shared the stage with Three Days Grace.  Luckily for me my relationship with 3DG helped get me access to everything to bring those photos to you… the fans.  The readers of Upstate Metal are the greatest fans in the world.  We know it, and every band that visits our region knows it too.

    I’m not going to spend a lot of time with words on this one… it’s all about the photos for me.  I hope you enjoy and I hope to see you at the next show.  If you see me out there in a vest, a couple cameras and my hair blowing all over the place, yell out “Upstate Metal” or “JT”.  I will be sure to answer!  Until then, “Horns Up!”