AUGUST 7th, 2023
AVENGED SEVENFOLD

Review by Metallic Barbie
Photos by Peter Ruttan

It was a triple threat night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on August 7, a holiday Monday for BC and a savage way to close out the long weekend.

For those smart enough to get there early, they would have been backhanded by the set put on by Kim Dracula (aka Samuel Wellings), an Australian nu-metal/metalcore/screamo act named for a Deftones song.  Dracula, who uses the pronoun they, performed an in-your-face assault, including their infamous TikTok cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi”, and widely known original “Make Me Famous”.  A mix of musical genres with a decidedly Marilyn Manson-esque groove, Dracula owned a very intimidating stage and prepped the crowd for mayhem to come.

Canadian act Alexisonfire took a thirsty throng over from Dracula, diving right into a track off their June 2022 album, “Sweet Dreams of Otherness”, smashing through “Young Cardinals” and even including a cover of The Tragically Hip’s “Fully Completely” – a very Canadian move.  Vocalist George Pettit, vocalist/rhythm guitarist Dallas Green, lead guitar and backing vocalist Wade MacNeil, bassist Chris Steele, drummer Jordan Hastings, and keys/synth man Matt Kelly made use of their time to satisfy the aural fetishes of both new and old fans alike stretching from the inaugural Alexisonfire album to their latest release.  Tight was the word of the day as these veterans demonstrated how Canada was able to put screamo/metalcore/post-hardcore on the map in a seriously violent way.

Headliners Avenged Sevenfold hit hard, opening with “Game Over”, a single from their new album, Life is but a Dream…, released in June 2023, where a light was shone on M. Shadows as he sat, singing through a balaclava.  With a stage boxed in by silkscreens and projections, while visually impressive from certain angles, created a real blockade to those on the left or right of the venue trying to see M. Shadows singing, or Synyster Gates shredding his axe, or Zack Vengeance layering rhythm on his guitar, or Johnny Christ slamming his bass, or Brooks Wackerman pounding the skins.  For us old-school fans, the setlist was split too far in favour of the new album which, so far, has received lukewarm reviews.  We did get “Bat Country”, “Nightmare” and a few others, however the entire encore bled new music, which had many fans funnelling out.  If you’ve caught A7X in the past, the expectation of pyro, sweat flying and an embodied rage that only these 5 slayers can deliver, is your benchmark.  Instead, despite sounding like the band stepped right off their albums onto the stage, the energy was dialed down and there was a palpable absence of fire.  Despite whether it was your first or fifteenth show, A7X are masters in their universe, M. Shadows sounding like he did 20 years ago, and Gates working the strings as if no time had passed.

It's clear A7X is moving into another stage in life and in their career, as is Alexisonfire, and it’s arrogant to think things will not change.  If you’re a life-long fan, this tour may lack something of old, but it certainly delivers on days of the new.