I Prevail Provide Visceral Energy at the 02 Academy Glasgow
I Prevail took to the stage on their second night of their EU/UK Tour on Sunday, alongside prog metalcore legends Polaris & fresh off the block metalcore hard hitters Gore. This tour sees the band play songs from their most recent album, “Violent Nature” for the first time in the continent.
First up we have Gore. signed to Spinefarm Records, kickstarting the night off with an otherworldly set, bending heavenly vocals with some serious breakdowns. Think if Within Temptation tuned their guitars down a few steps, that about sums up the energy of Gore. They are a metalcore band out of Texas, with a front woman who by day is an electrical engineer for NASA, but by night absolutely tears down the walls of any venue she enters. They are hitting the metal scene with force right now and show no signs of stopping.
Opening their set with “Wrath”, a beautifully melodic song that tears into a mountain of sound from her accompanying band members Alex Reyes on guitar and Devin Birchfield on the bass. The whole band sonically fit so well together and have a refreshingly unique sound.
Closing out their set with their largest song, ”Babylon”, it is a hopelessly romantic song, that depicts the death of true love in modern society. As depicted in the song, it explains the heartache of losing this and what they wish they had. While being such a soft melody, it still has some hefty guitar parts that hit you unexpectedly.
Next up to hit the stage was Polaris, Prog Metalcore legends who annihilated the O2 Academy with their complex riffs and double kicks from doom. Hailing from Australia the five piece have definitely made their mark in the Prog/Metalcore world.
Opening their set with their newest hit, “Without You”, the ambiance echoed through The Academy as people started rising from the crowd to surf to the front. Lead singer Jaime Hails belted out in full force with all his might with bandmates Rick Schnider & Jesse Croft chugging on guitar respectfully. On top of the thumping bass of Jake Steinhauser and the heart of the band, Dan Faznari, the band was well on their way for a thunderous 45 minute set.
They continued playing bangers like “Dissipate” “Above My Head” and “Hypermania” before closing out with their song “Nightmare”. The entire set was volcanic as the band kept up with their paces, it was a thoroughly enjoyable set to watch and a pleasure to be able to shoot the band. I hope Polaris don’t stay strangers to the UK as I would love to see them in the continent again!
Last but not least. We have I Prevail, the headline act for the night. They started off strong with a new track off their “Violent Nature” album, titled “NWO”, a hefty track sporting chantable lyrics “This is the New World Order”. This hyped up the crowd enough before they blended into their GRAMMY nominated track “Bow Down”, the crowd erupted and the entire building moved with concert goers flying over the barricade at a rate of knots. This lead to us photographers having to get escorted out of the photo pit after two songs due to the sheer volume of crowd surfers, a shame but it was amazing to see!
The set continued with other staple songs on their setlist like “Violent Nature”, “Theres Fear In Letting Go” and “Body Bag”, before Haley from Gore. took to the stage one more in the place of an absent Amira Elfeky, who was not able to make the tour due to unexpected logistical reasons. She performed the song “Paradise” with the band before they continued with tracks like a cover of “Sad But True” by Metallica, “Rain” and “God”.
The band closed out their set exclaiming “Once we go off stage, there is no “One more song” BS, that's it!” before dropping their two largest songs of the set, “Hurricane” and “Gasoline”, two raging songs with tones of energy and a crowd that just couldn’t get enough. Abruptly ending after an extended outro to “Gasoline”, the band left the stage and with that, the crowd from the venue.
Overall, it was a night field with down tuned guitars, brutal screams and beautiful heartfelt singing. All bands poured their heart and soul into their performance, and with a lengthy tour ahead, it's a given that a lot of cities across the UK and Europe are in for a treat!
You can see the remainder of I Prevail's tour dates below, along with their socials:
26/09 - BIRMINGHAM, O2 Academy
30/09 - BRUSSELS, Ancienne Belgique
01/10 - TILBURG, 013
03/10 - DÜSSELDORF, PSD Bank Dome
05/10 - STUTTGART, Porsche Arena
06/10 - PARIS, Zenith
08/10 - ZURICH, Halle 622
09/10 - MILAN, Alcatraz
10/10 - VIENNA, Wiener Stadthalle
12/10 - WARSAW, Stodola
13/10 - BERLIN, Velodrom
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