Thursday June 6th marked the final date of The Amity Affliction’s 10 Years of Let the Ocean Take Me Tour. This tour brought with it some high energy hardcore and deep heartfelt metal core. Opening the show was California hardcore band Mugshot. This band hit the stage like a bomb. From the second they stepped out it was fast, full-force, and heavy as fuck. Their style is just plain dirty. This is the music that makes you want to curl your upper lip and get down in a mosh pit. Honestly, I have seen this band classified as “metalcore” but they strike me as more hardcore than anything. They have some deathcore elements in there but overall this band is just fun as fuck and heavy from start to finish. They played a solid 9 song set that included their newest banger of a single “24 Thorns”.
The next band to hit the stage was one that blew me the fuck away. I was nowhere near prepared for the awesomeness that is Dying Wish. The amount of energy this band poured into that venue was off the charts. Vocalist Emma Boster was nothing short of a powerhouse. She dominated every inch of that stage and filled the room with her presence. What I loved the most was that she smiled and jammed out the entire time. It added such a positive and fun energy to a normally serious genre. The guitar riffs and melodies reminded me a lot of there the metalcore scene began. They had a style that reminded me a lot of old Bleeding Through songs. I love the amount of amazing song writing that went into that music back then and Dying Wish does a phenomenal job of keeping that style alive. This entire set was so passionate yet in your face, I have never seen something so unique. They were so good live that I was the first person in their merch line when their 9-song-set was over and I bought two shirts from them. Dying Wish mostly played songs off their latest album Symptoms of Survival which was released in 2023. They closed out their electrifying set with a song called “Innate Thirst” off their 2021 album Fragments of a Bitter Memory.
If you are into metalcore at all I am almost positive that you have heard of the band Currents. This band has come so far in the last two years. They gained some heavy traction with the release of their album The Way it Ends in 2020, and their 2023 tour with Memphis May Fire. They really started to blow up in the scene last year when they released their latest album The Death We Seek, which makes sense as to why the Amity Affliction wanted them as direct support on this tour. I have seen Currents before (on the aforementioned MMF tour) and let me tell you this band has not only exploded in popularity, but in production and sound quality as well. They have honed their live performances to perfection. This tour they had a huge drum riser, massive LED screens playing their visuals, and an amazing lighting set up. Their sound has grown in a way that truly allows them to project the emotions buried deep within their songs to be felt in a way like never before. I cannot get over the guitar work in some of these songs. I love the complex riffs, the sweeps, the unique playing style, they really are in a league of their own and I suspect they’ll continue on this upward trajectory for years to come. Currents played a brilliant set that got the entire crowd ready for what was to come next. (Be sure you catch them on their upcoming summer run with Beartooth!)
Last but not least, the band we all came to see, The Amity Affliction. This band has been around since 2003, and they have been killing it since day one. TAA listeners know just how deep and meaningful their songs are, and their shows are quite possibly some of the most intensely emotional and cathartic events you could attend. This tour was dedicated to celebrating 10 years of the album Let the Ocean Take Me, and they played every song off the album, in order…it was a phenomenal experience to say the least. I would venture to say that Let the Ocean Take Me is one of the most immersive and flawless albums of our generation. The Amity Affliction brought a big stage set up with huge LED panels that played visuals related to each song off the album. As always TAA was flawless in their execution. What I loved the most about this show was that Let the Ocean Take Me is such a big album for them (I believe it went double-gold, but don’t quote me on that one), and because of that everyone knows the words to every song. The crowd could’ve sang that entire album for them and they wouldn’t have messed up once. There were so many times Joel allowed the crowd to scream the words instead of doing it himself and it gave me chills almost every time. The only sad part of the show (at least for me) was the absence of Ahren Stringer. I understand that he was sent home to work on himself due to his struggles with addiction, but this was just not the same without him. It also felt a little wrong just because Ahren made this album what it was when it was released. His vocals were the icing on the proverbial cake. I have to hand it to Tim Belen of True North for stepping up and filling some pretty big shoes. Anyone seeing this show without any sort of attachment to Ahren or the lineup in general definitely didn’t miss anything. Musically, the band kicked ass, but for the die hards like myself it was like missing a beloved family member at a reunion. This show was phenomenal regardless and I can’t wait to catch them on their next round. They’ll be taking a break for a while so in the meantime make sure you support the band by listening as much as possible and swinging by their merch store to pick up any extra tour leftovers.
