Live Review: I Killed The Prom Queen, The Ghost Inside, In Hearts Wake

Twenty-fourteeen has seen tours popping up in the hardcore and metalcore genres sporting up to five bands.

These massive mini festival tours a la Northlane’s Free Your Mind earlier this year are not only bang for your buck, but lets fans celebrate the diversity of the expansive and ever-growing genre and allows up and coming bands to play in front of the larger audiences drawn by well-known heavyweights.

The latest of these mini festivals occurred on Friday with I Killed The Prom Queen’s The Rise Of Brotality tour featuring Hellions, Buried In Verona, In Hearts Wake and The Ghost Inside.

Byron Bay metalcore act In Hearts Wake were in fine form, coming off the back of a number five peak on the ARIA charts with their much-anticipated third record, Earthwalker. These tactile young musicians delivered a high-energy set full of their signature smooth yet heavy guitar tones, groovy breakdowns and catchy vocal hooks to an already loaded venue, as eager fans bounced incessantly and grabbing the mic to have their own shot at screaming the lyrics.

Direct from California, The Ghost Inside brought a distinctly American feel to their brand of melodic hardcore, delivering a set so chocked full to the brim with bone-crunching tones, walls-of-death and high-flying stage divers that they may have even trumped IKTPQ themselves.  It was a distinctly heavy affair, and favourably so with much respect to the churning bass lines of Jim Riley and strong backbone built by drummer Andrew Tkaczyk, who is built like the Titanic.

Wearing the crown of a tumultuous history full of line-up changes and an almost 15-year tenure under their collective belt there are good reasons why I Killed The Prom Queen have remained on the scene for so long, and there’s plenty of auditory, visual and sensory (I did cop a punch to the nose in the mosh pit) proof that this band is capable of upholding a relentless and climactic amount of energy for the entire duration of their set list and leave a reminder ringing in your ears for days to follow.

Weaving together some of the heaviest, longest, hardest-hitting breakdowns with well-placed melodic segments and haggard riffs means that when the band performs Sharks In Your Mouth you really do feel as if there’s an aggressive oversized fish in your gargle-hole.