Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying & Soilwork Friday, August 12, 2005 Roseland Theatre
By Marc Halverson
This was a great off date for Ozzfest 2005 and a line-up with Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, and Soilwork was ideal. I had never seen Soilwork live before, but I had always heard nothing but good things about their music and live shows. I have seen Killswitch Engage and As I Lay Dying a few times and they always tear it up and bring a ton of energy to the stage and it spreads through the crowd.
Soilwork took the stage and ripped right threw material from their latest release "Stabbing The Drama", "Figure Number Five", "Natural Born Chaos" and even off of "A Predator's Portrait". Soilwork has weathered the storm of metal-core and despite many imitators, they still stay true to their roots of "Gothencore". They sounded tight and the crowd responded with huge pits and lot's of good old headbangin'.
As I Lay Dying opened with '94 Hours' and 'Falling Upon Deaf Ears' off of "Frail Words Collapse". Front man, Tim Lambesis, took control of the audience and they continued to pummel the crowd with 'Distance Is Darkness', 'Undefined' from "Frail Words Collapse" and 'Confined', 'Empty Hearts', 'Through Struggle' from their latest release "Shadows Are Security". They ended their set with their crowd favorite 'Forever'. Both guitarists, Nick Hipa and Phil Sgrosso ripped through heavy hitting melodic riffs followed by the tight bass playing of Clint Norris, and ground breaking drumming executed by Jordan Mancino, who is easily one of the sickest drummers in metal right now.
Next, it was time for Boston's own Killswitch Engage who absolutely tore the Roseland Theatre down. The highlight was seeing guitarist, Adam Dukiewitz, run onto stage in daisy dukes. Only he could pull it off while playing metal! They opened their set with 'A Bid Farewell' off of their latest release 'The End of Heartache'. They ripped through songs from all of their albums and kept control of the crowd from beginning to end. Howard Jones (vocals) sounded perfect as always and displayed his unique style of screams and melodic tones throughout the set with songs like 'Numbered Days', 'Self Revolution', 'Fixation on the Darkness', 'My Last Serenade', 'Life to Lifeless' off of "Alive or Just Breathing' and 'Take This Oath', 'When Darkness Falls', 'Rose of Sharyn', 'Breathe Life', 'The End of Heartache' and played 'World Ablaze' for their encore.
In short, it was a great show with a sick line-up of pure metal and every band delivered the intensity and heaviness that fans have embraced and grown accustomed to. Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, and Soilwork are all on top of their games and expect much more material from these bands in the near future.
