Mystical Metal Madness - Trivium & BFMV Crush Mystic Lake
Prior Lake Minnesota had its mind blown Friday night! Three metal juggernauts were in town in the form of August Burns Red, Bullet For My Valentine & the mighty Trivium as part of the Poisoned Ascendancy tour, and it was a night to remember! Bullet & Trivium put together this tour package since it was 20 years since Bullet released The Poison and it’s also been 20 years since Trivium released Ascendancy, so why not get together and play some old songs - can’t go wrong right? Held inside the Mystic Lake Amptitheater outside the twin cities, it was a cavalcade of headbanging and riffs that audience members aren’t going to forget any time soon!
Metalcore stars August Burns Reds opened up the show. What’s interesting is that ABR released a re-recorded/remastered version of Thrill Seeker earlier this year - which is also 20 years old - but I guess these guys weren’t interested or didn’t get the memo, because their set didn’t have a single song from that album! Joking aside, ABR has a well-deserved reputation as one of the very best live bands in the scene, and this show was no exception - this band never leaves anything when performing, even at a venue that lead vocalist Jake Luhrs was quick to mention “was a first for them” since it lacked any kind of moshpit. Quite a few classics were played as they dug through their 20 year history, but Constellations highlights “Marian’s Trench” and set closer “White Washed” were true highlights - the opening to the latter especially receiving the biggest cheer of the night (and also the biggest cheer from me personally, since it’s also been about 20 years since I had seen that song). It also goes without saying that the production for ABR was top tier - their lighting direction has consistently been some of the very best around, the the massive logo centered around vertical pillars that pulsed in technicolor vibrance along with every chug and pinch harmonic really elevated an excellent set to an unforgettable one.
Wales’ best export (well maybe not best, but it’s got to be up there) took the stage next - Bullet For My Valentine’s quick changeover set up a few massive panels and strobes to decorate the nostalgic performance of The Poison. As expected, they launched right into “Her Voice Resides” after the brief opening intro, and Mystic Lake was in for it. There was a very touching video talking about these guys’ experiences back in 2005 after they had just released this album and how much it took the world by storm - revisiting this material 20 years later and seeing it performed again, you were really able to get an appreciation for what a big deal it was back then.
With a few modern touches and a bombastic production, these songs didn’t sound out of place at any other non-djent show going on right now! It was really incredible how effortlessly current hearing a rendition of “Tears Don’t Fall” was - the scene may have taken a significantly different direction in the 20 years since its release, but you can hear in these songs and in those bands how the DNA of the groundwork laid by Bullet is pervasive. It was equally touching to hear Matt Tuck comment on just how important this tour and this music was to them - his speeches to the crowd came straight from the heart, touching on which songs were his favorite and what a big deal it was to the band to see huge crowds come out for old songs.
Trivium were up last - and launching into Rain, the audience was hit with exactly the same feeling as watching Bullet - that this material deserved to be unearthed and brought back to life, because even 20 years later, that opening riff in Rain is an all timer. Matt Heafy took to stage already shirtless, his extensive colorful tattoos on full display as he beckoned the crowd into flexing along with him, beaming an infectious grin from ear to ear. This combination of both celebratory aged material and a tried-and-true, seasoned excellent performing band in Trivium lead to a performance that kind of tricked you - if you hadn’t been intimately familiar with the band or that this was exclusively material from two decades ago, then the intensity and theatric antics of the band would have lead you to believe this was any other show.
It cannot be overstated just how good Ascendancy sounds to this day. It was revolutionary back when the NWOAHM scene was kicking off, and Trivium certainly have changed their sound tremendously since the Metallica-adjacent products from the aughts, but Matt has grown tremendously as a singer and a player and the band has grown with him. To put it lightly - Trivium performing material from 2005 sounds as good - if not better - than most other current touring metal bands can hope to achieve. Watching the giant banner drop and the massive inflatable reimagining of the album’s album art brought a wistful, incredibly happy smile to my face. Pair that with hearing Matt scream along to “Like Light to the Flies” as if he’d just written the song yesterday and you were able to gain an appreciation for what a special band they are.
