The Poisoned Ascendancy tour in DC Review

Hey guys normally I don't go to a lot of shows but this year as part of my birthday present my parents paid for my ticket to go see the concert on May 6th in Washington DC and I was so thrilled as it was the one concert this year that I had wanted to see the most since it's like a once in a lifetime experience for this.

I went with my mom and my little sister to see it and we got to see 4 bands instead of only the 2 like I thought originally which was really cool so today I wanted to talk about the concert and what I thought of the concert. So anyways let's get into this.

First off I will say that this was my first time at the venue called the Anthem and it seemed like a really good venue. It wasn't too big and it wasn't all seats and most of the people were on the ground. Overall as a venue I'd say it's the second best venue I've been to so far and will still say that the Canal club was the best venue I've still been to yet. I saw tons of fun metal shirts for Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Bullet For My Valentine, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, 36 Crazyfists, August Burns Red and even a really cool Holyname shirt out in the wild that really made me excited, I never got to tell him that his shirt was really cool. We got there as soon as the doors opened so I had to wait for over an hour which was kind of boring and I got a little tired. Luckily I got chicken tenders and some water to tide me over. Eventually it finally started and I was no longer anxious but excited and had a really fun night.

Bleed From Within

Bleed From Within opened the show and I was very excited to see them and truth be told, more excited I got to see them than Sylosis who were the opening band for the first half of the North American concerts. I have only recently gotten into them after their guitar playthroughs of some of their songs popped up in my YouTube feed but I really like them and assumed they were going to be amazing and they were absolutely fantastic. They had a very short set but they delivered so much energy and got the crowd moving and there were tons of mosh pits, crowd surfing, and a wall of death which forced us to get pushed more towards the side of the venue than where we originally started. The front man Scott really impressed me and ton as he was such a good front man as he was just so good at getting the crowd going and moving around the stage and putting attention on the other band and not to mention he was just such a good vocalist in a live setting in my opinion, the music didn't overshadow his vocals and at least for me I could hear every word. He also had a thick Scottish accent when he'd talk and he was just really cool and gave off strong Austin Carlile vibes, if I were a frontman of a band this is how I'd aspire to be. He said during the concert that he would give people crowdsurfing a fist pump and I almost did just to do that but I didn't end up doing that.I got to see them play The End of All We Know live and that was an legendary moment for me too but my videos I took of Bleed From Within weren't the best. Still for such a short set they were probably among the best band of the 4 in my opinion which isn't saying a whole lot but they were really great and when they come back next year hopefully I can see them again.

August Burns Red

Next up was August Burns Red and we were all excited to see this band. They were also fantastic and they had a great show as well although they didn't get much time like Bleed From Within did. They opened with a cover of Toxicity by System of a Down and then played a bunch of their most popular songs. I was hoping they'd play Marianas Trench and they did as the second to last song and it was great as people were waving their phones with flashlights on and the vocalist gave a very nice little speech and ended it with God bless which I really liked. There wasn't a whole lot of Christian references in their set but during the songs he would subtlety point towards the sky and after the final song White Washed he did a much bigger nod to the sky and it was such an awesome ending to their set, my sister was happy because that's her favorite ABR song. My mom was surprised that August Burns Red doesn't really have any clean vocals and so I had to tell her they only have one album with clean vocals. The whole band also killed it and I was thrilled that I got to see them as August Burns Red is one of the bands that's been a bucket list band to see for years and they were as amazing as I believed them to be. I just wish they could've had a longer set to be able to do more but it's ok, I'll hopefully see them again someday.

Bullet For My Valentine

After August Burns Red was the band that everyone came to see the most, Bullet For My Valentine. They should've been the main headlining band at the end but due to something I'll mention later it's actually a good thing that they played third. Their show started with the screens showing old footage from 2005-2006 and taking us all back to that time;their lights and visuals the whole show were very insane. Everyone was chanting "Bullet! Bullet! Bullet!" in the crowd like some tribal chant and the crowd was losing it every second the whole show. It was so awesome to see the band only like 100 feet away from me and the show was so good. They played the Poison in it's entirety and getting to see a band play one of your favorite albums by them is definitely the cream of the crop for a concert. Like I said the crowd was losing it changing and singing along to every song and everyone knew the lyrics to the songs by heart, it was almost perfect. People were crowdsurfing and me and all of the people were so engrossed into the show during Tears Don't Fall that we didn't see the guy crowdsurfing and he fell and got the wind knocked out of him, thank goodness he was ok. My favorite moment though was when they chose to play my favorite song by them Hand of Blood and Matt pulled out his original white Jackson flying V he used from 2005 that hadn't been played since then, it probably isn't that exciting but to me it was like he pulled out a mythical weapon and I was so thrilled to see it, and he played several songs with it too before he went back to playing his black flying v he has. Matt barely had to do anything to get the crowd roaring and Bullet For My Valentine ruled the night besides Bleed From Within. They ended the show with The End and then they came back out for an encore and played Your Betrayal and Scream Aim Fire to end their set, it was so epic. They were my favorite band of the night overall and definitely stole the show, but considering how stacked in quality this concert was it is still not saying much. I'm so glad I got to see BFMV as like with August Burns Red they are one of the bands on my bucket list to see and they were well worth the months of waiting for this show to see. Matt thanked the fans at least 6 times throughout the show about how thankful he is to the fans and said they would release a new album for us next year which is the best news to hear and the crowd had to of been screaming for like 2 minutes straight without stopping when the show ended. The band threw guitar picks and drum sticks into the crowd but I was too far away to grab them which bummed me out because I imagine they wouldve been very nice picks to plsy with. I did almost grab a crumpled paper of the setlist but it landed a few feet in front of me and someone else grabbed it. It was just an amazing performance all around and hopefully I can see them again next year.

Trivium

Finally to close the show was Trivium and they were playing Ascendancy in it's entirety to celebrate its anniversary as well. Trivium were really good alongside the other bands and I was excited to hear Ascendancy songs but they were my least favorite of the 4 bands. I was just super tired and sore from standing so long and as much as I like Ascendancy, it's like every Trivium song where the songs are like 5-7 minutes long on average but despite me not being as into them as the other bands they did and awesome show. The crowd was loving it and there was a giant mosh pit during one of the songs and everyone was headbanging along to the songs. It was so cool to see Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu in the flesh playing guitar and I was in awe of the drummers 10 piece drum set which was so gargantuan compared to the other bands standard and double bass drum sets. I will say though that in of making a show though Trivium had the most elaborate stage decorations with a really cool flag with the blue and orange angel demon thing from the Ascendancy artwork on it with the redone artwork, actual metal gates, smoke and lights and even a giant inflatable balloon of the same creature which had the flag behind it change to a flag that made it look like giant wings. It was such a fun performance despite me not enjoying it as much as the other bands and even my mom and my sister who don't really like Trivium as much as me started enjoying it. Matt heafy also did really good at getting the crowd hyped and it was crazy how good he still sounded live on the songs. During one of the songs Scott from Bleed From Within also came back on stage and did the vocals with Matt and the crowd lost it like they already did many times throughout the night since Scott is awesome. Unfortunately though my concert had to be cut short as we had to leave the venue early so we wouldn't miss our train to go home. I would've loved to stay longer but we cut it so close to board the last train that if we would've stayed longer we would've missed it which sucks but it's just what it is. I was super sore and tired when we left and J couldn't hear anything for like 20 minutes after we left the venue and I thought I would've ed out a few times. At least we got to see all of the bands this time unlike the Christian metal concert I went to. Still it was an absolute blast and since most of my favorite Ascendancy songs are more towards the beginning of the album I got to see them play most of what I wanted to hear and I'm glad still that I got to see Trivium live, which was also cool as it was the first time they were in Washington DC in almost 20 years.

Although I went home empty handed from not getting any guitar picks I did want to have something as a memento from the show and so before the show even started when we first got there I bought myself a Poisoned Ascendancy tour shirt for myself. Its very nice and comfortable and I put it over my Killswitch shirt I was wearing to the show and wore it for the whole show. I'm super happy to have it:

So that was my experience seeing the Poisoned Ascendancy concert. It was a blast and besides one moment where someone rudely pushed me out of the spot I was standing in during one of the songs for a lover of metalcore it was like heaven on Earth for a brief moment. I hope next year I could see all of these bands again next year when they return or other bands on my bucket list to see but one can only dream. I hope you all enjoyed the blog and I'll see you all whenever I might finish another blog. Goodbye

Kyrie Eleison ☦

Glory to God

#blog