CONCERT REVIEW: Suicide Silence, 09/03/2014 in Hong Kong
Monthly concert review from me again! As I said it’s monthly, it’s because I just found that I went to see a show per month in average (at least until this month, haa). This is the 3rd show I’ve been to in 2014, the previous one was The Devil Wears Prada, they’re a metal band. This time I went to see another metal band, more heavier than TDWP: Suicide Silence.
Suicide Silence is an American deathcore band from California formed in 2002. The band’s current lineup consists of new vocalist Eddie Hermida (who replace Mitch Lucker due to Mitch’s death from car accident in 2012), guitarists Chris Garza and Mark Heylmun, bassist Dan Kenny and drummer Alex Lopez. The band is expected to release new material in summer 2014. Suicide Silence started touring again since February. They toured places such as Australia (Soundwave Festival), New Zealand, and currently: Asia.
Hong Kong was the 2nd stop of their Asia tour, right after Thailand’s show on March 8. The reason I went to see their show is because it was on the day after my birthday, so it could be a birthday present for myself. I went to Music Zone (the concert venue) after school yesterday. I met up my friends at Telford Plaza first before we headed to the concert venue. With no rush, we arrived there about 7pm and surprisingly not many people were there queuing. We went to buy some merchandises and my friends gave me a birthday present when I put the stuff in my backpack, what a surprise! We queued for about half an hour then we got to wait inside the venue.
I didn’t really want to stand in the front because I expected Suicide Silence’s show to be quite brutal, at least some circle pits or wall of death would happen during the show, I thought it wasn’t a good idea to stand in the front row. “Unfortunately”, we got to stand at the barricade because there were not many people queued when doors opened (lol). In fact, I was quite safe throughout the whole show so it was absolutely fine.
The show started at about 9pm. Since the band hasn’t released any new material off their upcoming album, they played the songs from their previous records like “Unanswered”, “Wake Up”, “OCD”, “Last Breath”, “You Only Live Once” etc. Eddie is the new vocalist of the band, I got to say his vocal performance was very solid and he definitely nailed it, now I understand why the other guys of Suicide Silence invited him to be their new vocalist.
This show was more awesome than The Devil Wears Prada’s show in February. Here are the reasons:
1 – More energy. This is because their music is heavier and because this was their first visit in Hong Kong, I think they’ve given us a very good impression.
2 – Solid vocal performance. Eddie’s vocals were very strong, I can’t wait to hear more from him on the band’s new album.
3 – Awesome crowd. This show didn’t have a big crowd, with only about 1000 people capacity, but the crowd’s energy was as high as the band’s.
4 – Circle pits and wall of death. In Hong Kong, you can’t see these things happen very often unless there are some foreign metal bands coming here to play a show + the venue is big enough for it. I didn’t go in any circle pits or wall of death, but it was awesome to feel that energy.
In my opinion, Suicide Silence’s show was the best show I’ve been to in 2014 so far. I did lots of headbanging and I shouted a lot during the show. The vibe from a heavy metal show is always the best way to release your feelings and stress. Of course, after this show, my voice was gone and I got a neck pain again. I think I need some exercises to train my voice and my neck (jokes). Suicide Silence has raised my expectation for the next show. I will see Bullet For My Valentine on April 29 and I hope they will bring a show as awesome as Suicide Silence did, looking forward to it!
P.S: Check out more photos I took at Suicide Silence’s show on my Flickr here.
