Periphery, Crossfaith @ The Gershwin Room, The Espy Melbourne (25/02/2013)
As Japan's Crossfaith walk out on stage for tonights gig at the Espy it seems a lot of people don't know what to expect. I hear mutterings of “if they're shit we'll leave after one song” but as they launch into Monolith from their latest EP Zion they have every single persons full attention with their brilliant brand of metalcore mixed with plenty of samples. From that very first song vocalist Koie Kenta is trying to get people to do circle pits and even a wall of death, they unfortunately don't go ahead but you can tell he has everyones attention. It's almost hard to believe this is their first time in Australia.
Their set mostly consists of songs from their Zion EP but they do throw a cover of Omen by The Prodigy in for good measure and do a great job of it. They even manage to get everyone down on the ground to jump up at Koie's demand, just like Slipknot have become famous for.
It's been a fair while since I've seen a band as energetic as Crossfaith on stage. They put everything into every song with plenty of crowd involvement and I can also add that no one left, despite those initial threats.
Periphery hit the stage next kicking things off with Ragnarok from their latest album Periphery II: This Time It's Personal and one of the first thing I notice is just how great a vocal range singer Spencer Sotelo has. I was a little doubtful he could pull it all off live having never seen them before but he absolutely can which is a huge plus.
Due to the length of most of their songs Periphery only have time for a 9 song set in their hour long spot, majority of these songs coming from their latest album. Part way through their set when Spencer is getting everyone to clap he makes the brilliant comment of “Oh my God! For the first time in history everyone is clapping in time!” Make Total Destroy was the definite stand out of the night before they end with Icarus Lives and the 15 minute epic Racecar which they play as an encore.
Matt Barton
Their set mostly consists of songs from their Zion EP but they do throw a cover of Omen by The Prodigy in for good measure and do a great job of it. They even manage to get everyone down on the ground to jump up at Koie's demand, just like Slipknot have become famous for.
It's been a fair while since I've seen a band as energetic as Crossfaith on stage. They put everything into every song with plenty of crowd involvement and I can also add that no one left, despite those initial threats.
Periphery hit the stage next kicking things off with Ragnarok from their latest album Periphery II: This Time It's Personal and one of the first thing I notice is just how great a vocal range singer Spencer Sotelo has. I was a little doubtful he could pull it all off live having never seen them before but he absolutely can which is a huge plus.
Due to the length of most of their songs Periphery only have time for a 9 song set in their hour long spot, majority of these songs coming from their latest album. Part way through their set when Spencer is getting everyone to clap he makes the brilliant comment of “Oh my God! For the first time in history everyone is clapping in time!” Make Total Destroy was the definite stand out of the night before they end with Icarus Lives and the 15 minute epic Racecar which they play as an encore.
Matt Barton