Attila and Born of Osiris Bring The Angels and Villains Tour to The Palladium Upstairs
Photography By Mia Palazzo
April 18, 2024 - Attila and Born of Osiris bring their 2024 co-headlining USA Angels and Villains Tour to The Palladium Upstairs in Worcester, Massachusetts for a sold-out show. Along with these two metalcore icons, this tour features deathcore bands Traitors and Extortionist and the female-fronted Florida metalcore band, Not Enough Space.
After a long wait in the rain, patrons were let into the venue. Tonight's show was located at Worcester, Massachusetts iconic Palladium, a venue known for some crazy intense sold out shows. In the short thirty minutes before doors, the floor filled with people eager for the show, The Palladium is known to have a tight knit group of regulars, and during the half hour waiting for doors, just about everyone who walked through the door got eagerly (and loudly) greeted by other attendees.
The first band, Florida female fronted metal band Not Enough Space was a shock to the crowd. The band formed in Orlando, Florida in 2018 and features Lizzie and Olivia (vocals), Tristan (guitar), Jacob (bass), and Maurice (drums). The band originally played covers of bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men and Paramore. In 2020, they released their debut single “Drifting”, which ended up being turned into an EP titled “End This Way” in 2021. They describe themselves on spotify as, “2 girls, 1 blegh”.
Over the duration of their set, this band proved that even though they were female fronted, they did not come to play around. With Olivia on blegh, and Lizzie on cleans, this band took the whole crowd by surprise. Olivia’s deep growling vocals are the perfect accent to Lizzie’s beautiful cleans and occasional deeper vocals. They played their top three songs, which all happen to be 2023 singles, “Nightmares”, “Don’t Be Scared”, and “No Way Out”, as well as two brand new songs to be released soon. If you're a fan of female fronted metal, this is an up and coming band I would highly recommend checking out, and if you're going to the rest of this tour, they will be hanging out by merch all night every night to say hi!
Not Enough Space: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | YouTube
The next band, Extortionist has been making waves in the deathcore scene since 2013. Though they have had a slightly rocky history, with a short hiatus in 2019/2020, the band is back and stronger than ever. Upon releasing their debut album 2017, The Decline the band became highly recognized for their vocalists deep vocals, and their signature “pangy” open snare sound. This was followed in 2019 by their biggest album Sever The Cord and EP Self Titled, which features some of their biggest hits, “Circle of Serpents”, “Low Like You”, and “Fill The Void”.
Their set was one of the most energetic of the night, with vocalist Ben Hoagland quickly moving from side to side on the stage. Opening with “Devoid of Love & Light” and, “Drained of Life” two of their newest songs, and then playing two unreleased songs set to be on their upcoming album. These songs get the pit going, with the first stage diver to appear for their next hit, “Low Like You”. Their final song, “Circle of Serpents” had the pit in a rage, a song that everyone knows, the pit expanded, and the moshing was hard, people swarmed to the stage to sing along with Hoagland for the duration of the song. This was the perfect setup for the next deathcore band, Traitors.
Extortionist: Website | Facebook | Instagram | X | Spotify
Traitors is a well known and well loved band in the northeast. Though they are from Mesa, Arizona, they have been a band since 2013, and have been coming around here for around 10 years, having even played New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in 2014. This was the perfect band to put before the opener began on this tour. Opening with “Phantasm”, released in 2015, the pit immediately exploded. They played through “Phantasm”, with some help from some crowd surfers who took the mic, and went on to play “My Regrets”, which sparked just about the same energy.
After this song, vocalist Tyler Shelton requested the front lights be turned off, and left the band to be just backlit, adding perfectly to their already dark presence. The rest of the set was filled with hit after hit, “Lashing Out”, “Nu Hate”, and “Short Fused”, and “RIP” were the next songs to be played, and caused an absolute frenzy in the pit, with people being sent in two and threes up the venue to the stage, and diving back to be carried back into the sea of people.
The band played through with few interruptions, only once stopping to announce that they have been playing The Palladium for many years, though the first time they played a 9 minute set due to technical difficulties at The New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in 2014 which brought out a chuckle in a few people in the moment of peace. Though, the peace was short lived because over the next two songs people were going absolutely wild. By this point the mosh pit was so big that even if you were not in it, you were being moved by it, and during these last two songs, “Menace II Society” and “Nu World Order”, the crowd shows Traitors what a real Worcester Palladium show was.
Traitors: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Finally, after a short intermission after Traitors, it was time for the two bands we were all here for. The first to come on was Attila. If you listen to metalcore and don't know Attila, then you don't listen to metalcore. Formed in Florida, Attila has been releasing rap influenced metal songs since 2005, and has become iconic in the scene for their out there hits such as “Middle Fingers Up” and “Pizza”. Before the band came out, everyone in the crowd cheered “Pizza… Pizza… Pizza…” in hopes that the song would be played, and though I can not answer why sadly they did not play it tonight, but that's besides the point.
Before vocalist Chris Fronzak could even get the entire first line of the first song out, the pit broke open bigger than before pushing everyone forward into the stage, people began flying over peoples heads towards the stage and voices overpowered the entire venue. “Proving Grounds'' was the first song on the set, followed by “Three 6”, it isn't typical to see people getting carried out this early into a set, but there were at least 2 people who got rushed out of the pit, keeping security on their toes. Moving into the third song, “Party With The Devil '' off of their 2013 album About That Life I wasn't even able to stay in the spot I was shooting. Fans rushed the stage, there were 2, 3 people jumping off of the stage at a time and as they were jumping back in people were getting surfed to the front. All while the pit moved the entirety of the floor, causing everyone to shift and sway. This is by far the most insane pit I had ever been in.
The next songs, “Metalcore Manson”, “Bite Your Tongue”, and “Handshakes With Snakes” all caused the same amount of chaos in the pit, it seemed like every single person in the room knew every word to every song, and at times all you could hear was the crowd singing along with the instruments they would sing so loud. Finally, when we got to “Middle Fingers Up” about midway through the set, another song off of the 2013 album About That Life the pit broke open to cover just about the entirety of the floor, with everyone screaming each and every word, and just about every person in the room with their middle fingers held high.
The rest of the set contained various songs off previous albums, including “Payback” off of 2011 release Outlawed, “Mosh Pit” off the 2016 release Chaos, “Timebomb”, the bands latest single, and the 2020 single “Canceled”. The band concluded their set by playing “About That Life”, the title track of their 2013 Album. Though everyone was sweaty and tired by this point in the night, they still gave it their all, the mosh pit was still large, the people were still crowd surfing and stage diving, and singing as loud as ever. The perfect end to the most energetic set of the night.
Attila: Merch | Facebook | Instagram | X | YouTube
Finally, the headliner of the night, Born of Osiris, who I can only assume are the Angels on this tour came onto the stage. The 2003 Illinois progressive metalcore band started off with a strong song, playing “White Nile” a 2021 single. They played through songs off their entire discography, including various songs dating back to their 2007 album The New Reign including hits “Abstract Art '', “Bow Down” and “Brace Legs' '.
Though this set was not as energetic as Attila’s, Born of Osiris live shows are always visually pleasing, with the band members running around stage, interacting with fans, even letting them take the microphone to do vocals throughout the set allowing crowd surfers and stage divers to take control of the stage. The band ended their set with “Brace Legs” off of The New Regin and “Machine” off of their 2013 album Tomorrow We Die Alive. Ending the night off with a song just about everyone in the room could sing, mosh and crowd surf too.
