Concert Review: Hatebreed, Obituary, Terror, Cro-Mags, and Fit for an Autopsy

Editor's note 8/11/19: Originally posted on Metal Amino. I didn't disclose it at the time but this was actually my first concert. A blog post explaining why will be coming soon.

Hey again, all!

I know it's been a while since I've posted a blog. I was working on a huge one a while back and when I went to put it up, the app deleted my blog instead of posting it...for some reason. So yeah, I was pretty pissed and didn't blog for a while because of it. That's what I get for not backing my post up, I guess.

Anyway, a couple days ago, I went to the last show in Hatebreed's east coast 25th anniversary tour at College Street Music Hall in New Haven with a friend of mine. As you can see, the lineup was stacked so it was a no brainer for me. I'm going to go through the performance of each band along with the crowd reaction to try to paint a good picture of what every set was like.
First, I'll talk about the venue. College Street Music Hall is a smaller venue that holds about 2,000 people and there isn't a bad seat in the house. We were sitting on the far side of the left balcony and could see everything clearly. Security there was nice and professional for the most part, plus they answered any questions, which is always good to see. Food and drink prices there are stupid though (they charge $6-8 for a soda for example) and selection is very limited, so I recommend eating before going to the show if you find yourself attending one there. There were also some minor technical issues that I will get into later, but overall very nice venue. Now, let's get into the bands.

Fit for an Autopsy

Fit for an Autopsy are one of my favorite deathcore bands and the friend I went with really likes them too, so I was super excited when I saw they were the opener. The band did not disappoint live either. From the first few notes of Hydra through the entire set they sounded tight as fuck, like they were in the studio. Their energy wasn't super high, but at the same time they weren't shoegazing the whole time or anything. To tell you the truth, they sounded so damn good I didn't even care. Interestingly, Joe (their vocalist) does pretty decent highs live that aren't on their studio releases. The band was super humble as well, thanking the audience for coming early and checking them out while shouting out the other bands and talking about how well they were treated on tour. The band played some of their best songs IMO, like Murder In The First, Thank You Budd Dwyer, and Black Mammoth, though I would've loved it if they played song off their first album, which I am a total sucker for. I will admit, I was super salty that no one moshed during their set. The crowd was dead the whole time, though they did seem to enjoy the band. Just conserving energy I guess. The band definitely did a good job though, I was very happy with their performance.

Cro-Mags

Up next were the Cro-Mags, or the Faux-Mags according to Harley Flanigan. It took me a while to figure out who was in this lineup besides John Joseph because of the whole legal battle between him and Harley. Just for the record it was John, Mackie on drums, AJ Novello from Leeway on guitar, and Craig Setari from Sick of it All on bass. To make things even more confusing, they didn't have their own banner, so we just saw Terror's kind of half hoisted so we expected them next. Confusion aside though, John and company did a great job. They sounded good, though the crew fucked up the mic a bit and John's vocals were a little drowned out as a result. John's energy onstage was incredible! The dude's like 57 years old and moves as much as a teenager, plus he kept the energy up all the way through. Most of what they played was off of Age of Quarrel. I personally wish they played more stuff off of Best Wishes, but I love Age of Quarrel too so I can't really complain. The crowd responded well to the band, thankfully. The second they started playing, the pit opened up a little bit and was present for their whole set. I'm very happy I got to see the legends themselves perform because who knows how much longer they're going to be here?

Terror

Terror played next and holy shit I was not prepared for this. Since it was kind of a multi genre show, there were a ton of hardcore fans there as well as metal fans. Once Terror came on, the hardcore dudes went absolutely nuts. Their energy was infectious and pretty soon everyone in the place was losing their minds. Even in the balconies, everyone was standing up. Scott and the other guys in Terror had crazy energy and were jumping all over the place while sounding perfectly in sync with each other and playing stuff from all across their catalogue. The crowd, like I said before, was really into the set and Scott made sure to egg them on as much as possible. In addition to the pits, there were people crowdsurfing, trying to rush the stage to sing along with Scott, and some dudes were even launching themselves all over the floor. Terror made Security earn their pay that night, that's for damn sure. If you like Terror and have a chance to see them live, do it. They're something else.

Obituary

Obituary were up next. When they started playing I was very thankful I was wearing my high-fidelity ear plugs because these dudes are loud as fuck live. They opened with Redneck Stomp without John Tardy on stage to set the mood. As the song ended, he came out, grabbed the mic, and the band went straight into Threatening Skies. The band played a pretty diverse set from across their catalog, roughly one song per album. They also played a pretty sick cover of Celtic Frost's Circle of the Tyrants, which is probably the closest I'll come to seeing Celtic Frost live. To the surprise of no one, they killed it. They sounded half their age and had incredible chemistry. Seriously, John was going around hugging other band members in the middle of songs. They just looked like they were having a blast playing for us. It was a great set, though I will say I felt like they were trying to give everyone a seizure with all the crazy light shit they were doing. The crowd was into it, though the pit was pretty small for their set. I will also say that I thought their set was too short. They only played for like 35 minutes and ended half an hour before Hatebreed went on. I was very happy with their performance other than those minor gripes.

Hatebreed

Now for the hometown heroes themselves. Hatebreed were introduced by a radio host who started spinning them in the mid 90s when they were still playing basement shows. Once they came on and started playing Empty Promises, the place erupted. The set got off to a rocky start because once again someone fucked up the mic and Jasta's vocals were barely audible for the first three songs. After this was fixed, the performance was great. To my delight, Hatebreed's setlist leaned heavily toward their first three albums, which I view as pretty much the holy trinity of metalcore. Their stage presence was awesome too, especially Jasta, who was extremely enthusiastic and animated, though that may have to do with the fact he was playing his home state. The crowd was loving every minute of it, obviously. Every time there was a breakdown in any song, the pit doubled in size. Oh and by the way, I remember seeing some washed up hardcore DudeBro on Facebook comment on an announcement about the show something really stupid, hipstery, and vague along the lines of "Hatebreed used to be cool in 1998. I used to watch them play in backyards. They forgot their roots." After seeing them live I can tell you with certainty that that is utter bullshit. Between songs Jasta was shouting out local bands and venues, thanking some random old lady who let Hatebreed practice in her basement when they started out, and getting into arguments with fans over the best New Haven pizza. The band even brought out original Hatebreed members to play old songs and their chemistry on stage made it seem like they never left the band. They still seem very in touch to me. Really kickass set and show.
So there you have it, pretty much everyone was awesome. Great venue, great bands, overall a really good time. Hatebreed and Obituary are heading to the West Coast next month with different support so if you dig both bands I highly recommend going. As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you all again soon.