A Decade of Destruction Tour feat. As I Lay Dying – REVIEW

The A Decade of Destruction tour feat. As I Lay Dying came to the House of Blues in Chicago with supporting acts Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, iwrestledabearonce, and Sylosis. You can check out our review after the break!

Ten Years, five studio albums, two compilation albums, thirteen music videos, eleven members including the current five, and As I Lay Dying has no plans of stopping now. The “A Decade of Destruction Tour” kicked off Nov 30th 2011 and will run for about 18 days through out December. As I Lay Dying is celebrating ten years of being a band and also the release of the compilation cd “Decas” that has three new originals and a hand full of covers and remixes of previously released songs. Along on the road with them is a wide variety of bands that make this an interesting bill. From across the pond the band “Sylosis” is the first supporting act that released their second album “Edge of the Earth” on Nuclear Blast Records.  “Iwrestledabearonce”, second on the line up, has toured with many well known acts and is promoting their summer release “Ruining It For Everyone”. With many fans wearing their merch “A Ghost Inside” seemed to be a well know supporting act on this tour. “Of Mice & Men” definitely gained me as a new fan last night. With all the hype of a ten year anniversary tour you would think As I Lay Dying would bring along big names but seemed more to be giving bands a chance they wouldn’t normally have.

Sylosis introduced themselves with their first song that showed their love of intricate melodic riffs and sweeps to their passion of “Bay Area Thrash”. Even though this was their first American tour they definitely had their following singing and chanting along. Even though they had a very short set, about 20 min, they took full advantage of every minute on stage. A song that got the crowds attention along with mine was “Empyreal”.  Even though they seemed to be new to the stage in their stage presence I definitely can see these guys on the road with Trivium in no time.

I will be forward about “Iwrestledabearonce”, this band was very hard to follow along in what direction they were going between “pig squealing”, high pitched and Glee style singing to random riffs and breakdowns happening in between programmed samples. I give them credit for their stage presence but it appeared the band was more interested in throwing their instruments around then playing them together. Even with the very different take on metal they seem to have a decent following in Chicago. I would be interested in seeing where this band is in two years.

I am always interested to see bands that are on Mediaskare. The Ghost Inside brought me back to the East Coast metal scene of the “Tough Guy” but positive metal style. Their style of music always gets me wanting to get up and moving and jumping. Seemed to be more interested in breakdowns than solos A Ghost inside owned the stage and took control of the crowd. One song that got the whole venue jumping was “Unspoken” that also had almost every fist in the air. The hardcore dancers and two steppers seemed to be having the time of their lives during The Ghost Insides set. With a 2010 release I am sure there are a lot of us that can’t wait for a new release in the New Year.

With two releases under their belt “Of Mice and Men” seem to have been doing this for years and years. They definitely know how to control a crowd and get them chanting right along and jumping with their breakdowns and slow riffs. It was refreshing to hear one style of screaming and some chorus’ sung in clean vocals by the bass player. Along with A Ghost Inside, this band seemed to be on staged to play music and not just to be praised. “Those In Glass House’s” and “Second and Sebring” we’re two of the crowd favorites that it seemed they all knew every word to sing along with. I was very happy to see these guys on tour and excited to see where Rise Records can bring them into the future.

As I Lay Dying filled everything you wanted in a live performance. Wasting no time starting their set off with “The Sound Of Truth” As I Lay Dying took one break in their set to show off Jordan Mancino on drums for a little drum solo. As I Lay Dying is a band that I see never quitting because they seem to love every second on that stage. It seemed there was not one standing still human in that venue. Before most of their tours As I Lay Dying runs a poll online to see what song most people want to hear, and the winning song was Paralyzed, the first song released off of “Decas”. As the song that Tim said was their last ended, As I Lay Dying wasted no time getting back on stage for their encore. To finish the night the band let the crowd get their last chance to mosh, hardcore dance, sing along, and jump to their hit song off of “Shadows Are Security”, “Confined”. As I Lay Dying will always have a strong loyal following and will always be known as a metal-core forefather.

This tour was very interesting in the sense of different styles of music. Every band is worth checking out to see if it makes your ears happy. Some like me might not be interested in listening to all of these bands but if you are an As I Lay Dying fan there is something for you on this tour.

Information about the review…
Tour: A Decade of Destruction Tour feat. As I Lay Dying
Bands: As I Lay Dying, Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, iwrestledabearonce, and Sylosis
Reviewer: Dustin Smith
Date: December 6, 2011
Venue: House of Blues in Chicago, IL