Live Review: In Hearts Wake, We Came As Romans, Beartooth, Storm The Sky

In Hearts Wake are thinkers, and sneaky ones at that. Releasing a double album when no one knew it was a double album was ambitious to say the least, but that is what the band has always strived towards, and their sold out show at HQ on Thursday night was no exception. 

Storm The Sky opened the night and was, as always, a solid addition to the bill. It has been amazing to watch the band develop both on stage and musically and their relentless touring of Australia could be what largely attributes to that. They paved the way to allow Beartooth to absolutely tear HQ apart with an energetic performance loaded with gusto and enthusiasm. The Ohio-based five-piece could easily assemble their own run of Australian headline dates. Body Bag was a fitting end to a musically eclectic yet overall aggressive set and judging by the crowd’s response, Beartooth are welcome on our shores any time. 

Contrastingly, metalcore heavyweights We Came As Romans, who sat as main support on the bill, seemed a little bland in comparison to the other acts, with an exception of their Taylor Swift cover. This was, unfortunately, largely due to clean vocalist Kyle Pavone’s onstage awkwardness. Though he has a decent enough clean vocal, so does screamer Dave Stephens and therefore that makes Pavone a rather redundant member of the band. This, coupled with the enthusiasm of the rest of the band — with special mentions to bassist Andy Glass who could have easily been a frontman in his own right — left this reviewer relatively neutral to the performance.

The night was brought to a whole new level by the main act In Hearts Wake, who came out of the blocks with a screaming passion and keenness to give a blockbuster performance. From singing Happy Birthday to guitarist Eaven Dall, to making a circle of life pit (equipped with a Rafiki, baby Simba and the epic Lion King soundtrack), In Hearts Wake raised the level of performance standards in the heavy music world tenfold. As a result, it wouldn’t be surprising if this band were on the 2016 Groovin The Moo bill. A stellar performance overall.