The Acacia Strain Brought The Worcester Palladium Six Feet Closer To Hell

The Acacia Strain's Six Feet Closer To Hell Tour has come to an end and the band wrapped their tour up in a very special way. The tour's final date landed on August 23rd at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts and it marked the band's 40th performance at the iconic venue. In celebrating this occasion, the show was labeled as a festival titled New England Sadness & Failure Festival and it featured a stacked lineup, including No Cure, Ingrown, Bodysnatcher, and Massachusetts own; On Broken Wings.

I managed to get inside in time to catch No Cure. If you haven't heard of No Cure before, you should definitely check them out. They are a straight edge metallic hardcore band from Birmingham, Alabama and they deliver grimy metallic riffs and gutturals to share their straight edge ideals. The band is made up of Blaythe Steuer (vocals), Aesop Mongo (guitar), Kyle Ray (guitar), Jake Murnane (bass) and Duncan Newey (drums) and have released four EPs so far. Their most recent release, being their fourth EP, I Hope I Die Here, was released last December via Pure Noise Records. No Cure's performance was everything I was hoping to get from them. I knew just by how brutal they sound on recording that it was gonna go even harder live. From the very first note they played off the opening song "Hang Me From The Bible Belt", the pit's animalistic nature took over and everyone was swinging their arms from side to side and two stepping whenever Steuer called for it. Steuer was a very interactive frontman, calling for two stepping whenever a song called for it and climbing up to the barricade and handing his mic out to the crowd for them to scream the words out. Both Aesop and Kyle's guitar tones were nothing short of clean and heavy and their speed was incredible to say the least. Aesop had to have emergency surgery a few days ago but she didn't let that stop her from riffing it up on stage and she killed it. I've been wanting to see No Cure live for a while now and it was great to finally see them and they did not disappoint. In fact, they exceeded my expectations and I cannot wait to see them again.

Up next was Ingrown, the hardcore trio from Boise, Idaho that has been serving up gritty metallic hardcore and aggressive death metal in a blender since 2015. The band is made up of Ross Hansen (vocals/guitar), Gavin McWilliams (bass), and Charlie Ritch (drums) and have released two studio albums to date, GUN in 2021 and their most recent one, IDAHO back in March of this year. If I could sum up Ingrown's performance in one word; it's fast. From start to finish, the band played with extreme speed and aggression, especially Ritch who was delivering thunderous blast beats and punishing chops on the drums. Hansen was throwing out riffs at the highest speed possible and gushing out furious gutturals. The pit responded to the band's set with violent swinging and moshing as well as two stepping. There was even a circle pit that formed at one point. Ingrown ended their set with "Hard Time" and as tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, the band played the intro to the Black Sabbath song "Cornucopia" as the outro breakdown and I have never seen a Sabbath song be used as a crowd-killing breakdown before in my life and Ingrown made that possible.

Keep Up With Ingrown: Instagram | X | Spotify

Coming up next was one of the best beatdown deathcore bands today, Bodysnatcher. Bodysnatcher is from Melbourne, Florida and has been causing violence and wreaking havoc on stages all around the world since 2014. The band consists of Kyle Medina (vocals), Kyle Carter (guitar), Kyle Shope (bass) and Chris Whited (drums). Let me tell you something, I have seen Bodysnatcher four times now, this one being my fifth time, and they have never failed to be one of the scariest and destructive bands I have ever seen live. This was the first time seeing them in like three years and they are still THAT band. Their guitars sounded crisp and DEEP and Medina was throwing out pissed off vocals and low gutturals. Every time the band dropped a breakdown, the moshers in the pit made it their mission to make everyone around them a target and were throwing spin kicks and windmills in all directions. Kyle Medina is one of the best mosh callers in the scene, saying whatever he can to incite the crowd to get as violent as they possibly could. Before starting their set, he told the crowd "you better f*cking move or learn to f*cking duck" which was a telltale sign that things were about to get messy and even told moshers to "aim for the head" and let me tell you....they did not hesitate to. He also threw mosh calls out before breakdowns like "we're not the f*cking Denny's band" before the breakdown on "Twelve/Seventeen". Bodysnatcher shows are not for the faint hearted and if you are gonna be upfront, or by the pit, then you better be ready to take some heat and the band will make sure you do. Bodysnatcher wrapped their set up with their 2021 single "King of the Rats" and on Medina's orders, they pushed the pit back as far as they could and didn't care if the people in the back didn't want to move, they forced them to back up. It was a pleasure to see Bodysnatcher again and I can't wait to see them again.

If you thought the show couldn't get any more intense than it already has, well you're in for a rude awakening because up next were Massachusetts own, the one and only On Broken Wings. On Broken Wings is a metalcore band from Boston, Massachusetts that consists of Jonathon Blake (vocals), Mike McMillen (guitar), Burke Medeiros (guitar) Rob Diangelo (bass), and Kevin Garvin (drums) and was formed in 2001. They have a sound that blends elements of metal, post-hardcore, hardcore and even a little bit of grindcore as well and call this sound "moshcore". On Broken Wings turned The Palladium into a war-zone and Massachusetts showed up for the hometown heroes. On Broken Wings sets are notoriously chaotic and this night was no exception. Crowd surfing, violent moshing, two-stepping, ALL OF IT was happening from the second they kicked off with "The Spawning of Progression". Blake is an insane frontman and was screaming his heart out the entire time. McMillen and Medeiros guitar tones sounded clean but also very powerful which made for violent-inducing sounding breakdowns. Most of their set contained songs from their landmark debut album Some of Us May Never See The World including their biggest tracks like "I Do My Crosswords In Pen", "Maybe The Earth Is Flat", "Six Hundred Cubic Centimeters" and of course; "Like Starscream". Other songs included "Frozen Over" and "Suffer" from It's All A Long Goodbye and "Crowns Meant For Kings" from Disintegrator which they dedicated to The Acacia Strain. In between a certain amount of songs, the band played instrumental interludes of cover songs as a way to segue into certain sections of the set. The first one was "Natural Born Killaz" by Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, the second interlude was "Army of One" by Björk and the last one was "Wu‐Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit" by, you guessed it, Wu-Tang Clan. Towards the end of "I Do My Crosswords In Pen", Blake got up to the barricade and handed his mic to the fans upfront to let them scream the words "HEARTLESS" back at him all while crowd surfers surrounded him. The band wrapped things up with "Like Starscream" and everyone was still beating each other up in the pit, but stopped very briefly to do that signature clap clap before the final breakdown altogether, only to get right back into beating each other up again instantly. After not getting the best view of On Broken Wings when I saw them last September in the upstairs room at New England Metal & Hardcore, I'm glad I got a second chance this time around and I'm also glad to have gotten pictures this time. Another one in the books for the Boston metalcore legends.

Keep Up With On Broken Wings: Instagram | Spotify

After a long, chaotic day it was time for The Acacia Strain to take the Palladium stage for the 40th time. The Acacia Strain have been in the game since 2001, 24 years now, and show no signs of slowing down. The band is made up of Vincent Bennett (vocals), Devin Shidaker (guitar), Mike Mulholland (guitar), Griffin Landa (bass) and Matt Guglielmo (drums) and have released twelve studio albums with their thirteenth one, You Are Safe from God Here coming out October 24th via Rise Records.

As the fans waited with bated breath for the band to come on stage while also throwing beach balls and balloons around, the lights went out and the band made its way onstage. Bennett took center stage and opened with "WE'RE THE ACACIA STRAIN AND WERE HERE TO F*CK YOU UP!" and was immediately followed by Shidakerand Mulholland playing the opening riffs to "Human Disaster". As Bennett screamed the words "REST" he then let the crowd finish the line "IN PISS", and in an instant, chaos erupted. The pit opened up into a whirlwind of moshing and two-stepping to Shidaker and Mulholland's sludgy down-tuned riffs. Vincent Bennett is another one with one of the most powerful vocals in the scene. He was delivering deep level gutturals with ferocious anger. Between Bennett's fiercely powerful vocals, Shidaker and Mulholland's deeply down-tuned guitar tones and the hard hitting machine that is Matt Guglielmo on the drums; The Acacia Strain have one of the most angriest sounds in metal ever. It's one thing to listen to it and make you pissed off but hearing it live....well it will make you get angry at the person next to you for no reason, no wonder the mosh pit was so violent.

The band's setlist had something for just about anyone whether they were a new or old fan. With older and popular songs like "Carbomb", "Whoa! Shut It Down", "Dr. Doom", "The Hills Have Eyes", "Beast" and "Doomblade", the band also played songs from their latter albums like "Crippling Poison", "Seeing God", "CHAIN", "IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?" and "UNTENDED GRAVES", making this a career-spanning set for The Acacia Strain. They also played their latest release "A CALL BEYOND" which will be featured on their upcoming album You Are Safe from God Here. The band's set saw a number of guest vocalists hop up on stage to sing the words with the band on certain songs like Vincent Bennett's nephew on "Send Help" and Blaythe Steuer from No Cure on "Beast". Bennett took time to talk about The Palladium and how important it the venue was to him and reminisced on all the bands he saw here and the memories he has made both working there and going to shows there in both the main room and the upstairs room. With the history that has happened in these walls and the shows/festivals that this place has held over the years, The Palladium has become more than just a venue but an entity, a safe space that anyone can come to and be themselves and make memories and experience many great shows there. As someone who does not live in Worcester but lives three plus hours away from it in New York, I don't get to come to this place as often as I would like to but whenever I do, I leave with unforgettable experiences and seeing shows there hits different that it does seeing them at like Irving Plaza or Webster Hall.

The band did not play an encore but saved some of their best songs for the end, especially the last three songs which were "Beast", "The Hills Have Eyes" and "Carbomb". When they played "Beast", NO ONE was friends with each other, just enemies. Had a friend you came to the show with? Well for the next four minutes, they weren't your friend, just a target and everyone on the floor was targeting each other, only stopping for a few short seconds to sing out the song's chorus. A circle pit formed during "The Hills Have Eyes" and Vincent called for some two-stepping. The band wrapped their very violent set up with the destructive "Carbomb" which Vincent led right into, shouting out "HOLY SH*T!". For the next minute and a half, the people on the floor let out the remaining animalistic rage they had left to the deeply-tuned unforgiving chugs to help the band close out their special 40th performance at the legendary Palladium and help bring the Six Feet Closer To Hell Tour to a booming end.