Even though it wasn’t technically part of South by Southwest, deathcore heavyweights Emmure and After the Burial essentially kicked off the music portion of the festival Sunday night for many with rip roaring sets at Grizzly Hall. After a cadre of opening sets from up and comers like Fit for a King, Emmure took the stage and all hell broke loose.
It’s been a very long time since Emmure has sounded this tight and on point. After a great deal of controversy, every member of the band except for front man Frankie Palmeri left the group in 2015. Many bands would have been finished, but Emmure has always been Palmeri’s baby. He shapes the art, the lyrics, the image, and the sound. So he went and found himself a whole new band to keep the project going.
Going in, no one knew how it would end up. The result has been not only a new record, Look At Yourself, which is a resounding success, but Emmure’s best live lineup to date. In particular, the addition of guitarist Josh Travis, formerly of Glass Cloud and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, has made the new Emmure a beast to reckon with on stage. Travis is more technically solid and much cleaner of a player than any previous members of Emmure, and made sure all their brutal rhythms were like a precise, industrial machine.
The band stuck to songs from Look At Yourself and its’ predecessors, leaving off any classics from their first two efforts, Goodbye to the Gallows and The Respect Issue. In a way, it showed how confident the new Emmure is in itself, forsaking nostalgia for the present. That works for them because their future looks and sounds bright.
Headliners After the Burial took a different turn. Though a majority of songs in their set were from last year’s excellent comeback effort Dig Deep, their first record since the passing of founding guitarist Justin Lowe, the performance spanned their entire career. Fan favorites such as “A Steady Decline” and “Aspiration” made sure no one felt left out, whether they’ve paid attention to the Twin Cities band for the past ten years or not.
For anyone who hasn’t been listening though, the band showed persistence and perseverance. New tracks like “Deluge” got fans moshing like the days of old, and the studio perfect performances by each member, in particular vocalist Anthony Notarmaso who has been screaming his head off for the band for 9 years now and shows no wear and tear in his stellar highs and lows, proved that After the Burial can weather any storm.
Like Emmure after losing the majority of their members, many wondered if After the Burial would or could continue after Lowe’s death. Dig Deep showed how much the band still had to offer, but Sunday’s performance cemented it. After the Burial is quietly taking their place as one of the future legends of progressive metal.
