Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Dying Fetus, etc. - 2/14/13 at Empire, Springfield, VA

This will be a pretty short review cause it's now been a week since this show :/ But I want to have something on record saying that I went, something to look back on in a couple years when I'm like, didn't I once see Hatebreed on Valentine's Day? Yeah, I did...

So yeah, S and I had our Valentine's Day date at Hatebreed, and before that at BGR with friend J. Who is not part of our threesome. Really.

Due to the V-day dinner at the burger joint (or perhaps just due to not caring), we missed the first band, The Contortionist.

I can't recall if we saw all of Dying Fetus's set, but what we did see, I liked. They are a death metal band with a very groovy feel, a bit like Six Feet Under but maybe more complicated, and their music is very headbangable (my number one criterion for judging metal music!). I enjoyed their set.

I was looking forward to seeing the quasi-melodic Shadows Fall, but unfortunately I was pretty disappointed with their set. The first half of their set sounded very messy - riffs, vocals, melodies all seemed out of sync. "Weight of the World," the only song I know well enough to judge, sounded terrible. They got better as the set went on, the vocals and guitars getting clearer, so we could actually hear the melodies and riffs. They were still not as melodic as I would have liked, though (possibly my second or third criterion for good metal).

There was a mom with a young child (3 years?) at the show. I'm all for introducing kids to metal - after all, I foist it on my daughter every day - but her behavior during Shadows Fall's set was questionable. I'm sure S says more about it in his review.

Hatebreed, however, was great like always. Jamey Jasta and the crowd were both very energetic. I got to hear most of the songs I wanted to hear like "This is Now," "I Will be Heard," "In Ashes they Shall Reap" and of course "Destroy Everything." They didn't play too much from the new album, which was fine with me as I don't know the songs too well yet (and the whole point of being at a Hatebreed show is to jump around shouting along to the lyrics).

For a Valentine's Day date, the only better show I can think of would have been Kamelot. That would have been a little more romantic. But this was pretty awesome, too.