Rockfreaks.net

support Silent Planet + Invent Animate + Sentinels
author AP date 28/02/23 venue Lille VEGA, Copenhagen, DEN

Winter is about to be away (at least as far as the calendar goes), but the season still has one last show in store for me: ERRA’s first ever headlining concert in Denmark, along with a trident of support acts from the metalcore genre. Some of the attendees here will no doubt remember that ERRA also played at this exact venue on their previous visit to Copenhagen back in 2017, when they were on tour with Northlane — and incidentally, Invent Animate was on the bill then as well. But the word on the street is that the turnout for said gig was quite poor, which is not something one can say about tonight; Lille VEGA is verging on sold out, and despite the fact that it is a Tuesday night, there are no signs of tiredness nor timidness as I scan the crowd before grabbing a brewski and finding a spot slightly away from where the pit action is going to be happening.

Sentinels

With his bleached blonde hair, moustache, sunglasses, gold chains, and his rocking a mint-coloured, headless bass guitar, Danny Cruz on stage left is anything but your typical metalcore character. It is no surprise thus, that his bravado steals the spotlight from vocalist Josh Hardiman (and indeed the rest of the band as well) as soon as the set kicks off. Sentinels seem to be all about fragmented riffs and rhythms, with drummer Dave Rucki often deploying stop/start percussion patterns, and guitarist Chris Dombrowski delivering a dizzying noodle soup of lead melodies that seem inspired, in equal measure, by Between the Buried and Me and the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. Usually, this type of music would not translate to a very animated performance by the musicians in question, but with Cruz’s strut and swagger, and Hardiman’s constant cajoling the audience into the pit, Sentinels actually cut a pretty decent figure on stage as far as their showmanship goes. There is also plenty for fans of technical metal to appreciate in the six songs presented to us tonight, with “Tyrant” from the band’s 2021 album “Collapse by Design” introducing a bit of djent to the mix, “Albatross” bringing eerie melodies in the style of Vildhjarta, and “Embers” unfurling into moments of ethereal ambience at times. The group’s set is much more varied than I had dared to anticipate, though if you ask me, all six tracks could use some more hooks in order to leave a lasting impression. It feels impenetrable. A few patrons nonetheless oblige Hardiman’s incessant demands for us to “open the pit right now!”, “go f**king crazy!”, and “bounce, motherf**kers!", resulting in a decent, but never spectacular opening act, and a crowd hungering for even more metalcore.

Invent Animate

Just like Sentinels, who are without their other guitarist Thomas Cardone on this trek, Invent Animate are short staffed for tonight’s concert, with bassist Caleb Sherradan knocked out by an unspecified illness. Thus the band has resorted to using a MacBook as his replacement — and this is far from a seamless experience at first. After the opening track “Shade Astray”, a new single released by the Texan metalcore crew in 2022, both vocalist Marcus Vik and guitarist Keaton Goldwire are forced to spend several minutes correctly syncing the bass track, introducing an abrupt break filled with loud chattering to what began as an energetic and engaging performance. Goldwire in particular is doing his utmost to compensate for Sherradan’s absence, throwing himself around the stage and using all of the space available behind and around Vik for a variety of spin and jump moves. Fortunately, it is not too long before the technical problems have been solved, and “Monarch” (off the group’s latest full-length album “Greyview” from 2020) is unleashed. I am immediately struck by how much better Vik’s clean singing sounds in the live setting than it does on that record, rendering this track into one resembling “Hollow Crown”-era material by Architects — but with extremely good clean vocals. As a result, Vik needs to do far less than Hardiman to instigate a reaction from the audience; a simple “Hands up, Köpenhamn!” is the only call to action issued by the vocalist of Swedish heritage, and this is all it takes for the entire crowd to be waving its arms during “Cloud Cascade”. His level of energy is not far behind Goldwire’s either; his showmanship features jumps galore, and there is just this aura of enthusiasm and charisma about the guy that renders the trio’s set thoroughly enjoyable. And enjoy it the audience does, delivering a pandemonium of moshing, and ultimately a circle pit for the final song, the brand new single “Immolation of Night” off their impending album “Heavener”. An impressive performance under the circumstances.

Silent Planet

As the first band tonight, Silent Planet emerge from backstage in full numbers and, without further ado, launch their first song in the shape of “Orphan” off their 2016 effort “Everything Was Sound”. It is a song that kind of defines this Azusa, CA-based group’s sound, which breaks away from by-the-numbers metalcore with passages of spoken word similar to La Dispute. It is an interesting contrast to their otherwise heavy, chug- and breakdown oriented music and has me, a first time listener, filled with intrigue. Much of the showmanship of Silent Planet thus also comes from their vocalist Garrett Russell, who pours his entire heart and soul into his performance, often kneeling against his monitor with a look of anguish when he delves into a good friend’s struggle with PTSD in the standout “Panic Room”, or when he wrestles with his own demons in the final track “Trilogy”. He uses his hands and facial expressions with incredible efficiency to convey the wealth of emotions packed into his lyrics, and as such, it is no surprise to see how well the audience is receiving it. Although there has been moshing, etc. happening during the first two acts too, it now feels like people are ready to unleash themselves with no holds barred, resulting in some of the most intense action on the floor thus far, including a wall of death at the end of “:Signal:” — the band’s latest single, released last summer.

Silent Planet’s show itself is very intense, both in terms of the four musicians’ immersed antics, but also the stifling atmosphere that Garrett’s harrowing lyrics and vocalisations create. It is so fixating that, against my usual habits, I feel compelled to make my way into the thick of the moshpit as soon as the aforementioned “Orphan” has finished, and watch the rest of the concert from there. It feels more appropriate somehow to experience this group’s music together with the people who feel most passionate about it and want to surrender themselves to a maelstrom of emotions. The bar is indeed set high for tonight’s headliners if they hope to exceed the menacing show put on by Garrett and his companions.

ERRA

It does not take many seconds for ERRA to reach said bar, however. As the intro tune fades and the first track “Gungrave” off their 2021 self-titled album is launched, the entire band surges forward and leaps onto the set of pedestals positioned at the edge of the stage in an imposing demonstration of headliner confidence. Their heavy, yet melodic, djent-infused metalcore is received enthusiastically by an instantly raucous audience, who are just as keen to sing as they are to mosh along to the music. It is no wonder then, that the two guitarists — Jesse Cash and Dustin Davidson, each wielding a bright and sparkling model of axe — seem to be brimming with energy in the face of this, leaping from one side of the stage to the other and swinging their seven-string instruments like pieces of actual weaponry. As the band play their third song “Nigh to Silence” (an uplifting bonus track taken from the aforementioned self-titled effort), I realise that the suffocating darkness of Silent Planet’s music just before renders them a perfect support choice to strike a contrast with ERRA’s lighter brand of metalcore, which, in spite of also featuring extremely dense and heavy riffage at times, is full of clean singing in both soft and more powerful tones by Cash.

Things start to explode on the floor when the 2019 standalone single “Eye of God” and in particular “Vanish Canvas” are aired, inspiring the first crowd surfers of the evening to float their way toward their heroes on stage. Frontman J.T. Cavey, clad in a tactical vest and slouch beanie, cannot seem to stop smiling in between his growls, recounting at one point that there must not have been more than seven or eight people watching them at this venue back in 2017 — and now it’s rammed. It is no surprise though, considering the poise and charisma with which he and his four compatriots are delivering their songs. Songs, that, despite not offering that much variety in truth, are packed with interesting details like the Nintendo-style, tapped guitar lead in “Vanish Canvas”, and structured in aesthetically pleasing ways. It sometimes beggars belief that Cash and Davidson are able to nail their ostensibly demanding parts while they’re storming, spinning and jumping around like a duo of fiends during songs like “Scorpion Hymn” and the penultimate, Meshuggah-inspired “Pull from the Ghost”. And after “Snowblood” has brought the show to a conclusion 12 tracks in, I am left thinking this has both been an extremely strong performance by ERRA, and in general an evening to remember for Danish fans of metalcore.

Setlist:

• 1. Gungrave
• 2. House of Glass
• 3. Nigh to Silence
• 4. Eye of God
• 5. Breach
• 6. Vanish Canvas
• 7. Scorpion Hymn
• 8. Hybrid Earth
• 9. Skyline
• 10. Divisionary

— Encore —

• 11. Pull from the Ghost
• 12. Snowblood