By Andrew Bansal
March 9th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Since their 2006 inception, Los Angeles-based record label Sumerian Records have played an active part in discovering and spotlighting the talents of heavy metal bands from the U.S. and beyond, mainly in the modern progressive metal, hardcore and deathcore categories. To celebrate their 10-year anniversary, they announced a five-band all-Sumerian North American tour featuring Born Of Osiris, Veil Of Maya, After The Burial, Erra and Bad Omens. The ’10 Year Tour’ visited the label’s hometown for a well-attended gig at the Roxy in West Hollywood last Wednesday March 9th 2016.
Being an all-ages show catering primarily to the under-21 crowd, proceedings started as early as 7 PM with Los Angeles-based Bad Omens taking the stage for a short set of alt rock/metalcore. This was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of the musical style, and many would consider it ‘entry level’ heavy music, but it was well executed with plenty of energy, and got a positive response from the crowd which had already packed the Roxy to near capacity even at this point in the evening. Bad Omens are certainly the most ‘metallic’ band on this lineup, for better or for worse.
Next up was Erra, a modern prog band all the way from the unlikely and unconventional source of Birmingham, Alabama. These guys created a great first impression when they opened for Tesseract at the Troubadour last year, and solidified it further with this performance. They presented some compelling melodies and balanced it well with some heavier segments towards the end of the set.
And soon after, it was the turn of Twin Cities, Minnesota prog perpetrators After The Burial, who were quite honestly the focal point and the main reason you are reading about this show on this site. If there’s one Sumerian Records band that garnered unwavering support from this site and never dropped off our radar, it’s After The Burial. After the tragic and sudden passing of guitarist Justin Lowe, the band understandably canceled their appearance on last year’s Summer Slaughter tour, but have bounced back full-on with a revamped four-piece setup and an aptly titled new album ‘Dig Deep’. They are now only a one-guitar band as the six-string duties are handled by Trent Hafdahl alone, which has made a big difference to the sound which no longer boasts of the twin harmonies and trade-offs, but one feels that the band has adapted successfully to their new setup, and the tunes they played from the new album proved it in plenty. Notably, the towering presence of longtime bassist Lee Foral is also missing from this particular lineup and the band is playing this tour with a substitute bass player. But the four members on stage held their own and gave the crowd much to cheer about. After The Burial were by far the best band of the show and one wishes that they were higher on the bill and were allowed to play longer than 30 minutes.
Veil Of Maya and Born Of Osiris have undoubtedly gained huge legions of fans over the past few years and their top billing on this lineup is perfectly justified, and although musically I don’t find them as engaging as After The Burial because of the direction they’ve both taken through their recent material, the crowd was clearly here for them and were having a blast during their sets, and all that can be said is, more power to them.
Overall, an undeniably successful 10-year anniversary hometown celebration for Sumerian Records, and a lineup recommended to those open to ultra-modern interpretations of heavy music.
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Remaining Tour Dates:
03/16 Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
03/17 Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater
03/18 St. Louis, MO – Fubar