For avid concert-goers, summertime is either constantly busy or disappointingly slow. It can feel like artists are playing festival after festival without coming to a city close by for their own headlining show. However, for metalcore fans, this summer brought about an incredible co-headlining tour between Grammy-nominated bands I Prevail and Halestorm that spanned across the United States.
While both bands are highly established, Halestorm is the most famous of the two. Formed in 1997 by siblings Lzzy (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) and Arejay Hale (drums, backing vocals), the two were just thirteen and ten years old when they started writing and performing music. Since then, the band has released five studio albums and became the first female-fronted band to win the Grammy Award for “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance,” as well as launched the campaign “#Roadiestrong” to raise money for live entertainment crews affected by the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
I Prevail has been making music since late 2013, but they saw their first major breakthrough when they posted a cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” reimagined in their metalcore style, on YouTube. Fast-forward to 2019, and the band was nominated for the Grammy Award for “Best Metal Performance” for their song “Bow Down” and “Best Rock Album” for their second studio album, “Trauma.”
The bands stopped in Georgia midway through the tour to play the Ameris Bank Amphitheatre. Though the day of the show was almost unbearably hot, the 12,000-person capacity venue was still packed with fans.
The night began with the first of two opening acts, metalcore group Fit For A King. Originating from Texas, the band consists of Bobby Lynge (guitar, backing vocals), Ryan Kirby (lead vocals), Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary (bass, clean vocals), Daniel Gailey (guitar, backing vocals) and Trey Celaya (drums). Despite being first on the lineup — and probably the hottest set out of the four — Fit For A King came out onto the stage with an energized performance of “Keeping Secrets,” released earlier this year.
Their set ran for eight songs, each featuring the band’s signature mix between melodic prowess and metallic passion. By the time they reached their final song, “When Everything Means Nothing,” the crowd was ready for the rest of the night.
Rap-rock group Hollywood Undead followed Fit For A King. The multi-vocalist, six-member band has a slightly different style than the rest of the lineup and almost every member of the band got to take the lead on the mic.
Though the band no longer wears the masks they used to be known for, their performance had more than enough personality to make up for it. The members each have their own well-known nicknames: Jorel “J-Dog” Decker (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, “programming”), Dylan “Funny Man” Alvarez (Vocals), George “Johnny 3 Tears” Ragan, Jordon “Charlie Scene” Terrell (vocals, guitar), Danny Murillo (vocals, keyboard, guitar, bass, “programming” and touring member Matt “The Cat” Oloffson (drums, percussion).
Hollywood Undead’s set was longer than Fit For A King’s at twelve songs. Their performance was not only musically impressive — especially with members switching between several instruments depending on the song — it was also nothing short of pure fun. They interacted with the crowd constantly, had a crew member come out to play tambourine (as well as share a beer) and invited several young kids from the front row of the pit onto the stage for a song (all while joking about how their music was definitely not meant for children).
Because this tour was a co-headliner, the two main acts rotated who would go first nightly. For the Alpharetta show, Halestorm was up next after Hollywood Undead. With a theatrical red-curtain backdrop set up and the sun starting to set, Lzzy Hale took to the stage, bright red guitar matching the lipstick on her wide smile. Joining her was Joe Hottinger (lead guitar, backing vocals), Josh Smith (bass, keyboard, backing vocals) and, of course, younger brother and co-founding member Arejay Hale. The younger Hale sibling had an almost Beetlejuice look — bright green hair matching his drum kit and a black and white striped suit.
Lzzy Hale has long been known as a vocal powerhouse, with her voice having just the right amount of grit, an incredible range and the capacity for a stunning, clean belt. Arejay Hale is equally talented on the drums, playing like it was second nature, throwing his sticks in the air and spinning them around. With the air of seasoned performers, Halestorm rocked their way through their twelve-song setlist.
I Prevail was the last to grace the crowd. By the time the crew began setting up platforms and LED screens, the sun had fully set, marginally cooling things down. The band’s set began with all the screens playing a video introduction narrated by a mysterious hooded figure. The entirety of I Prevail’s fourteen-song performance would be accompanied by different visuals on these screens, from abstract graphics to lyrics.
Something that makes I Prevail stand out from other bands in the scene is that they have two members who are solely on vocals and do not play an instrument. Vocalist Brian Burkheiser tackles the clean vocals, which are often at the forefront of the choruses. At the same time, vocalist Eric Vanlerberghe takes the lead on harsh vocals, which tend to make up the majority of the verses. Vanlerberghe spent most of the set closer to the edge of the stage, while Burkheiser constantly moved around, at one point even ending up on the higher platform next to drummer Gabe Helguera. The other members, Steve Menoian (lead guitar), Dylan Bowman (rhythm guitar, backing vocals) and Jon Eberhard (bass, keyboard) were positioned around the stage, both on the high platform with Helguera and toward the front of the stage by Vanlerberghe.
Most of the setlist was from the band’s newest album, “True Power,” with a few older ones mixed in, including their cover of “Blank Space.” Despite having been standing in the heat for hours, the crowd somehow managed to give the band incredible amounts of energy.
At one point, Vanlerberghe talked about how a lot of the venues they had been playing on the tour had not had a designated pit section, but Ameris Bank Amphitheatre did and, because of that, he wanted to see some mosh pits. The crowd in that section happily delivered over the course of the next few songs with a regular mosh pit, a circle pit and a “wall of death.” Even fans not in the pit section still stood singing, dancing and headbanging along to all the songs.
From the openers to the headlining acts, the I Prevail and Halestorm summer tour delivered an evening of nonstop energy and excitement for metal fans. The tour concluded with its final performance in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 17.