Worlds Collide ad Advents and Shallowsky Tear Up Los Angeles
- Vic Gerrard
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Tucked away on the second floor of an unseemly bar in downtown Los Angeles is a little venue called the Slipper Clutch. On August 2nd, the venue came to life when metalcore bands Advents and Shallowsky passed through during their “Worlds Collide” co-headliner tour.
First to the stage was a local LA metalcore band Chasing Desolation. The band brought a mixture of heavy sounds to the stage; everything from the driven riffs and beats of hardcore music to the complex metalcore riffs and vocal gymnastics, Chasing Desolation had it all. Partway through their set, the band would go on to play a heavier cover of Billy Idol’s White Wedding before transitioning back into some of their original songs. Complex and groovy bass lines filled the room all throughout their set and powerful vocals complimented the rest of the riffs and beats. When they had to bring their set to a close, Chasing Desolation had definitely left an impression on the crowd.
Next to the stage was one of two co-headliners, Shallowsky. The band, hailing from Phoenix, Arizona brought a completely different vibe to the venue. When they took the stage, everything was dark, and only ambient music filled the room. When LED light tubes finally started to light up the room, the crowd was transported into their own world. With guitarist Casey Ryan and his explosive riffs, Eric Kalina and a bass lines to compliment Ryan’s riffs, drummer Matt Haskell’s huge, rumbling beats and vocalist Brian Stephen’s perfectly technical and emotional lyrics, the four members came together to create an experience so curated and exceptional that you couldn’t look away.
The world they created was one similar to a dark cyberpunk world; electronic elements sprinkled in among the blasting beats and heavy guitars, and cinematic elements in between songs. Even their light show was something out of Cyberpunk 2077. LED light tubes that flashed at every cymbal crash and kept the crowd in the dark until the very next breakdown—which came very often. By the time Shallowsky had finished their set, the futuristic cyberpunk world had melted away with the last ring out of the cymbals, but would never be forgotten.
Finally, it was time for the New York metalcore band Advents to take to the stage. Guitarists Kevin Chapi and Sebastian Ferlin took the stage alongside drummer Joe Koza and after a brief moment of silence and darkness, vocalist Tyler Simpson jumped onstage, belting out the loudest scream the venue had heard all night. That kicked off their first song of the night, Red Thirteen, and set an incredible precedent for what was to come.
Throughout the night, Advents would switch between heavy, scream focused songs with chugging riffs and earth rattling breakdowns, and slightly softer, more melodic sounds that could give the crowd space to breathe before jumping right back into a heavy song. Simpson’s vocal performance was simply stunning; his clean vocals were angelic and his array of screams were about as demonic as you’d want a metalcore vocalist’s screams to sound. They played some of their hits such as Match My Misery, Liminal and Kingdom Falls.
Close to the end of their set, the show was getting rowdy and Simpson ended up hitting his face on a speaker, cutting a clean gash into his eyebrow. Even as blood dripped into his eye, Advents didn’t give up and continued to play to a crowd of people who were so excited to see them.
They did not perform an encore, instead deciding to close out their set with the heavy but lesser known Counterfeit Love. Although it might have been closer to a deep cut, that didn’t take away from the technically precise performance from the band. Simpson’s vocals, both clean and harsh, dripped with emotion, much like how the blood dripped from his eyebrow. Koza’s drum beats and fills saturated the air, and Chapi and Ferlin’s precise riffs rounded out an already outstanding performance.
