Wage War + Zero 9:36 + Avoid @ Beanfield Theatre

Tuesday night was time to take in a nice metal show at the newly renamed Beanfield Theater (formerly Virgin Corona Theater) with Wage War headlining the marquee. We knew it would be a powerful night.

First we had Avoid, a progressive melodic metalcore/djent/post-hardcore/mathcore 5 piece from Seattle, their stage presence was felt from the first riff and they killed it. Not being aware of these guys I didn’t know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. Singer Benny Scholl commanded the room with his presence and his deep growls; every band member was in sync and had some good livelihood to them. They played a tight 7 song set including “Flashbang!” and “Song about James” Look forward to seeing them again when they open for Silverstein later this year.

Rapper Zero 9:36 brought his aggressive style of mixing rap and heavy music to the table. He started with “II X Two” and followed with his hit “The End”, playing an 11-song set. His vocal performance was on point; however, I thought he could have been more engaging. All in all, it was a good set, with “Adrenaline” being the highlight for me.

Finally, it was time for the Floridian metalcore outfit to kick ass and that they did. Singer Briton Bond came out with a force, and he was not to be taken lightly. They went right into “Relapse” followed by “Teeth ” they continued for a good hour and a half, 19 songs later everyone was fully satisfied with the night of metal we just witnessed. Playing bangers like “Gravity,” my personal favourite “Slowburn,” and “The River” and wrapping it up with an acoustic version of “Johnny Cash” and the song the tour was named after, “Maniac” If I had a complaint was I would have liked to see them a bit more as they played to flashy lights, however, they never complimented the band, and it was sometimes difficult to enjoy the guys playing and working so hard.