Hatebreed Plays Multi-Stage 30th Anniversary Home State Show
Photography By Mia Palazzo
March 17 - Connecticut locals, Hatebreed play a multi-stage matinee show for their 30th anniversary. The show was hosted at the Toyota Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, Connecticut with a second stage set up in The Dome. With the show starting at 12, the show flowed seamlessly through local bands, alternating between The Dome Stage and the main stage. Even though it was St. Patrick's Day, the venue was packed with over 2,000 attendees eager for a night of local metal.
Kicking off the night at The Dome Stage was New York’s hard-hitting heavy rock ‘n’ roll band, Demonscar. The three-member band has only been around since 2018 but contains members I could only imagine are cultured to the scene. Their songs have an old-timey rock ‘n’ roll feel. The deeper near-speaking vocals go perfectly with their powerful riffs. Demonscar opened with one of their biggest songs, “Don’t Bite the Hand That Feeds” and rolled through 30 minutes of their biggest hits, ending off with a cover of “God of Thunder” by Kiss.
Demonscar: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Website
The next band to play on The Dome Stage was Eyes of The Living, a Philadelphia underground thrash band. Their music is known for its fast-paced rhythms and aggressive instrumentation and contains rapid drumming and intense guitar riffs. Their high-intensity music, combined with their erratic stage presence creates an electrifying atmosphere that resonates with any thrash metal fan. Eyes of The Living was the first band to break out a mosh pit, and even though it was smaller, it got people ready for the rest of the band. If you are a thrash fan and see their name pop up in your area I would highly recommend attending a show.
Eyes of The Living: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Dead by Wednesday was the next band to play The Dome, and brought all of their energy. One of my favorite local bands, Dead by Wednesday, always knows how to work a crowd. Not only is the band visually stylistic, having a vocalist who is easily recognizable by his kilt and big Yankees calf tattoo, and a band who looks ready to rock. Their primary founding member, drummer Christian "Opus'' Lawrence is well known in the Connecticut metal community, but also globally as the drummer of hardcore-punk band, The Crow Mags. With ecstatic live energy, this band is a must-see.
You can see Dead by Wednesday’s full set at the show here via their drum cam.
Dead By Wednesday: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
After 3 exceptional bands in The Dome, the main room finally opened its doors. The first band to make an appearance at this stage was a bit of a throwback. Formed in 1997, Sworn Enemy is a New York hardcore band that any long-term hardcore fan has heard of at one point or another. Though the band took a lengthy hiatus, Sworn Enemy played old and new music at this show, causing a massive pit to break out. Though the band had some rough patches, people still admire their hard-hitting rhythms, aggressive vocals, and catchy hooks mixed with the constant conversation of the band leading up to their set made this set one that stuck out to me.
Sworn Enemy: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Connecticut locals, With Honor, took us back to The Dome stage with an exceptional set. Formed in the early 2000s, they are known for their energetic live performances and melodic take on hardcore music. They had a major impact on many local bands, local and beyond. After dismembering in the mid-2000s, and just recently coming back to performing, the crowd was more than ready for this set. The over 2,000 people in the venue eagerly packed into the small room, prepared to tear it up to some of their hit songs, notably “Like Trumpets' ' which sent the whole pit into chaos.
During the set, With Honor also played music from their most recent 2023 album, Boundless, which the crowd seemed to enjoy just as much, if not more than some of their older hits.
With Honor: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Staying on the trend of local bands, 100 Demons played next on the main stage. Though I had never listened to the band previously I had been told they have a very intense live performance due to having such an aggressive sound with the band being known for their raw and unapologetic lyrics. 100 Demons did not disappoint at this show, tackling themes of inner turmoil, anger, and societal injustices in their music, it was very easy to become sucked in by their sound.
The band opened with “Suffer”, off of their 2014 release, In The Eyes of The Lord. Though I had never heard this song, it had me instantly banging my head along with the vocalist. Between the heavy, grooving guitar riffs and hard-hitting bass lines, I completely understand why this band caused an almost immediate pit to form in the room. Playing a perfect split between songs off of their newest album, and 2004 self-titled release, this set was arguably one of the best of the night.
100 Demons: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Closing out The Dome stage was Connecticut deathcore icon Shadow of Intent. A personal favorite of mine at this show, Shadow of Intent is known for blending death metal with symphonic elements to create perfect dark, atmospheric songs. This is a band I have seen now seven times, and not once, including this set have they been less than perfect. Though they are not the most energetic live band, Shadow of Intent always knows how to create the biggest pits, and this set was no exception. By the end of the first song a pit was open, and people were singing along and headbanging aggressively to vocalist Ben Duerr’s aggressive vocals.
Shadow of Intent opened their set with “Gravesinger” off of their 2019 album Melancholy, a popular song for the band to open with. Following this song were some of their biggest hits, “Barren and Breathless Macrocosm”, the band's newest single “The Migrant”, and “The Heretic Prevails '. All songs that have brought the band great attention. Though Shadow of Intent was a bit of an odd band out on the bill, they added a great layer of youth and genre diversity to the lineup. Shadow of Intent is often featured on many great tours and is a band that I would highly recommend seeing at least once if you are a deathcore fan.
Shadow of Intent: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Hailing from Springfield, Massachusetts, Shadows Fall is no stranger to the metal crows in Connecticut, and the general New England area. Being in the same scene as Hatebreed for almost as long, it is no surprise they were right below them on the bill. Shadows Fall combines thrash, melodic death metal, and metalcore to create a sound that is not like any other in the scene. They are known for their intricate guitar work, heavy riffs, melodic leads, and solos, and even though they have been doing this for over 20 years, I am happy to say that they have not lost their touch.
Shadows Fall achieved commercial success with albums such as The War Within and Threads of Life and played songs from each of these albums at the show. Though Shadows Fall hasn't released anything since 2012, it seemed that fans still knew every word to every song, people lined up against the barricade even before Shadow of Intent finished. The set included all of the band hits, opening with “The Power of I and I”, the heavy drum beat and aggressive vocal sending the crowd into a pit, through the set the band also played songs from their earliest work, such as “Fleshold'' from Somber Eyes To The Sky, which had people moshing, jumping and crowd surfing.
To see Shadows Fall on future shows, follow them on social media below.
Shadows Fall: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube| Website
Finally it was time for the headliner, the reason we were all there that day. Everyone rushed into the main room, over 2,000 people anxiously waiting for the local legends, Hatebreed. This event is not just notable because it is the band’s 30-year anniversary, or because it is St. Patrick's Day, but because it was guitarist Wayne Lozinak’s birthday.
After much anticipation, lights went down, and a video began playing on the screen behind Hatebreed’s iconic stage setup. The video featured members of major metal bands/artists including Ice T, who stated “Fuckin Hatebreed, mother fuckin unfuckwithable, stop fucking playing”, Anthrax, Shinedown, Bad Wolves, Terror, Biohazard, and even Lamb of Gods frontman who stated, “That is such an accomplishment for a bunch of Connecticut cavemen... Hatebreed holiday forever”. Along with these great metal bands, the video also included athletes such as Braun Strowman from the WWE and Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Finally, the video cut and Hatebreed came onto the stage, immediately rolling into “To The Threshold”, a long-time favorite opening song for the band. Immediately the pit opened, and by the end of the second song, photographers were being escorted out for safety purposes as excited fans went flying over the barricade. The set rolled seamlessly through the first 5 songs, but after “Before Dishonor” the room went into a complete blackout, setting us up for the next three songs to be intense, with the pit widening, Co2 blasting, and everyone in the crowd screaming along.
About midway into the set, original members Dave Russo (drums) and Larry Dwyer (guitar) came out to play “Not One Truth”, off their 1997 album Satisfaction is the Death of Desire, and the title track of their 1999 album Under the Knife. They switched back with the current members, and out came longtime guitarist Sean Martin to play the next three songs in the set, “Proven”, “Beholder of Justice” and “This is Now”. The band played through many of their releases of the last 30 years, ending their set with one of their biggest songs to date, “Doomslayer”.
Except it wasn’t over yet, the crowd chanted for one more song until the band came back out and played their two biggest songs, “Looking Down the Barrel of Today” and “I Will Be Heard”. During these two songs, the crowd showed that they had lost no energy, the mosh pit was the biggest it had been all night, and the crowd surfing was at max, with vocalist Jamey Jasta even encouraging crowd surfers to high-five him on the way through. These songs made for a great ending to the night, with everyone cleared out of the venue by 8:30 PM and on their way home after a great St. Patrick’s Day metal spectacular.
