aaamusic | On 01, Jul 2019

Thursday 20th June, London

Palisades got the packed-out venue warmed up and rowdy with their fusion of post-hardcore and electronicore tracks, throwing us in at the deep end by opening their relatively short set with War, immediately initiating mosh pits to the heavy riffs and dynamic vocals. Better Chemicals and Let Down were also played, and Erase The Pain, a favourite among fans, closed the set where vocalist Lou Miceli shouts to the crowd “I want you to feel this next part in your fucking soul”, and proceeds to scream the final chorus emitting a wave of energy pulsating throughout the room before the crowd are left anticipating the wait for the Michigan quintet, I Prevail.

Pouncing onto the stage, I Prevail open with the explosive new hit Bow Down which puts the room into total madness, and the chaos doesn’t end there as they play the tracks Scars, Rise Above It and Gasoline which all initiate surges of head banging and mosh pits (even scream vocalist Eric Vanlerberghe says “holy shit this is fucking wild”). 

As Hurricane starts to play, strobes turn into a soft blue glow where clean vocalist Brian Burkheiser talks about mental health over the prolonged, poignant intro, which is what drove this album to come about putting us all into an emotional trance. However, this didn’t last long as we are soon awoken to the hard-hitting rock chorus bringing life to the first (but certainly not last) circle pit of the evening. 

Tracks Lifelines, Stuck In Your Head, Face Your Demons and Deadweight brought about even more chaos as people were being thrown into the air whilst Burkheiser pours a whole bottle of water into the crowd, band members are going wild by jumping and spinning about on stage, mosh pits and head banging are just ongoing at this point and Vanlerberghe proceeds to chug a beer and burp into his microphone. 

We then hear tracks Paranoid and Goodbye which changes the atmosphere from metal to a more electronic/trap sound allowing us a much-needed break however, with Low being the next track played, we are soon absorbing more of those roaring vocals, muscular riffs and breakdowns. Guitarist Dylan Bowman then introduces the song Every Time You Leave where he comments on how he should dedicate the song to his girlfriend but instead is going to dedicate it to his dog, and DOA, Breaking Down and Come Get It were the final songs of the evening allowing us to be taken on one more turbulent journey before they left for the States. 

You can easily see how this was a sold-out event. Their consistent energy kept the crowd going from start to finish with their outgoing stage presence, and even Burkheiser, who had a broken foot, was bombing around the stage for the entire duration. Insane! This tour was based on the release of their new album Trauma which follows Burkheiser’s struggle with depression and mental health following his severe vocal cord injury and hearing these songs live, being played with so much passion and emotion, was nothing short of inspiring. I hope they come back to the UK again soon as I would not hesitate to see them live again!

Zoë Barton