Wintersun’s North American Summer Headline Tour – REVIEW

We recently had the opportunity to go out to the Chicago date of Wintersun’s North American summer headline tour at the House of Blues. The tour also featured Fleshgod Apocalypse and Arsis. You can check out our review of the tour, after the break.

If this show could be described as a type of gasoline a car drives on, it would definitely be premium! Even with as familiar as I was with most of the bands catalogs, I wasn’t even ready for the roller coaster that was ready to hit me! Unfortunately I couldn’t catch Starkill due to Chicago traffic even after leaving early to beat it lol. O well, there is ALWAYS next time!

Virginia Beach Virginia’s Arsis came out swinging like there was no tomorrow. I saw them once 3 years ago and at then I thought they were good but a tad bit underwhelming, but this time the Virginian’s struck lightning in a bottle. Vocalist/guitarist James Malone has gone through more line-up changes than a regular at a bar cruises through beer but this time it is safe to say this is the line-up that GELS the most in my opinion. The music may be dazzling with technical musicianship, but Arsis are not afraid to have memorable hooks in between all of that. These dudes just released their newest LP, “Unwelcome” in April and I highly suggest you check it out and come around the very next time they are at a town near you!
Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse continued to have the engines fired with their unique mix of symphonic death metal. Now backed with an Opera vocalist for their live show, these behemoth’s let the sound of Italian death roar loud enough even to scare a bear away. Even after seeing these guys a few times live, I am still blown away by the freaky good yet well executed musicianship yet without failing to be insanely credible song writers. “The Violation: off of 2011’s Agony really sent this Chicago crowd off into a feeding frenzy. New songs off their upcoming album out August 20th titled “Labyrinth” definitely show you what they have developed into and what they are well on their way into becoming as a unit. It won’t be long before you see these stallions headlining tours everywhere! YOU JUST WATCH!

Straight out of the ice cold land of Helsinki, Finland was the long awaited return of Wintersun to Chicago. Fresh and hot off their 1st ever tour in the US, a co-headlining run with Eluveitie, the finnish 4 were primed, ambitious and thriving off the energy that the Windy City crowd was giving off to them. All songs off their newest LP “Time I” were played as well as several anthemic classics off their classic self titled opus from 2004. The music was loud and abrasive as well as all those in attendance. The audience was so loud that if Wintersun were to have a choir, it would by far and large be their fans! The lads were even kind enough to present 1 song off the upcoming “Time II” album due early 2014 to the delight of many. Who would’ve thought metal could be so much fun?! Well it damn sure is, and these guys set a great example of just that!

My closing thoughts: I was definitely curious to see how Wintersun would draw after just doing a co- headline tour earlier in the year but it looks like coming back only half a year later has paid off as many told me they were at the previous show and many missed them from the previous show so it turned out to be a win-win situation for everyone! Those who were at the previous show even said this one was way better! Well that makes me glad I stuck it out for this one! Seriously, GET ON THE BALL AND CHECK THIS KILLER PACKAGE OUT!

Information about the review…
Tour: Wintersun’s North American Summer Headline Tour
Bands: Wintersun, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis
Reviewer: Nicholas Wier
Date: August 15, 2013
Venue: House of Blues in Chicago, IL