Review: The Amity Affliction @ The Drive
The Amity Affliction celebrated a decade of Let the Ocean Take Me at Adelaide's The Drive and cemented their status as Aussie metalcore royalty.
Words by Belinda Quick // Images by Justin White
The Amity Affliction, Ice Nine Kills, We Came As Romans & Heavensgate @ The Drive 15/11/24
In Chasing Ghosts and putting words to life's pain, The Amity Affliction has given so much of themselves to their music over many years. A night to give just a little more, TAA celebrated a decade of Let the Ocean Take Me at Adelaide's The Drive.
From humble beginnings as Youngbloods with High Hopes hailing from “The Town That Saved Queensland,” The Amity Affliction’s penchant for channelling their emotions and struggles through the transformative power of music has saved so many of us. Dedicatedly exploring and destigmatising themes of death, addiction, mental health and suicide across their discography, deeply personal moments have been shared with reassurance: “We fight together, ‘Never Alone’, no matter where our bodies roam.”
A band whose commitment to message, music, one another and their audience had already begun their rise with their first three studio albums, but tonight's occasion belonged to the 10th anniversary of their critically acclaimed fourth record, Let the Ocean Take Me. This is the record that broke TAA beyond the Australian market, divining their future trajectory of Gold and Platinum certifications and poll positioning on charts at home and abroad. There is no denying the significance of LTOTM as one of Australia’s greatest heavy music exports.
One of three stellar supports for the evening, Melbourne's HEAVENSGATE, opened proceedings as Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Dream a Little Dream’ played over the sound system. No stars but the sun was still high in the late afternoon sky, heat emanated across the covered foreground during this brief but brutal act. ‘GINSICK’ was the first on a setlist full of ‘VIOLENT JOY’. The blissful ‘LOVERSDANCE’ was dedicated to tonight’s hosts. The newest single ‘RATKING’ devolved into deathly breakdowns. HEAVENSGATE had just enough time to introduce We Came As Romans in their final track.
Without hesitation, Michigan's metalcore messiahs launched into the title track from 2022’s deeply personal opus, Darkbloom. Vocalist Dave Stephens asked, “Who wants to get fucking wild tonight?” as ‘Doublespeak’s’ twitch turned terrifier. ‘Wasted Age’ “the sound of closure” from a relationship ‘Cold Like War’, a ‘Plagued’ circumstance that is universally felt, finishes in an overarching place of ‘Hope’.
An accepting affirmation echoing why “we all love concerts so much,” the band dedicated the metaphorically fitting ‘Lost in the Moment’ to WCAR’s Kyle Pavone, who tragically and suddenly passed away in 2018. We Came As Romans have never allowed themselves to dwell in the ‘Black Hole’ of their sorrow. Honouring rather than mourning, they've retracted the ‘Daggers’ from their hearts and continued their epic reign.
A selection of songs from Scream subtly provided the next interlude’s soundtrack. Smoke swirls across the stage foreshadowing the appearance of Ice Nine Kills. Lights dropped as a vintage TV blinked to life, projecting ‘The American Nightmare’ about to begin. Characters in skull masks frantically scattered across the stage before frontman Spencer Charnas announced the band's arrival via ‘Rainy Day’ - a strikingly named song that contrasted our warm evening.
Hannibal Lector’s digital effigy was the backdrop to ‘Meat & Greet’ as a masked man appeared on stage, taking out two guards in a recreation of the infamous cage scene from Silence of the Lambs. ‘Ex-Mortis’ channelling A Cabin in the Woods, Charnas wielded a Texas Chainsaw as the band broke into a cataclysmic cover of ‘Walking On Sunshine’. Accompanied by a montage of the Jaws and Friday the 13th series, this performance was truly a ‘Work of Art’; the newest song receiving an AI-generated Terrifier twist as the clown himself appeared.
Ice Nine Kills do nothing by halves: gravediggers appeared, enlisted for the ‘Funeral Derangements’. A nod to American Psycho’s infamous Huey Lewis murder scene, ‘Hip to Be Scared’ saw Charnas axe the stage as Patrick Bateman did Paul Allen. Brandishing Freddy's finger-knives, “the American nightmare living the American dream” entered Bates' Motel to stage ‘The Shower Scene’ before slitting his own throat. Contradictorily, ‘Welcome to Horrorwood’ was goodbye. Theatrics building to this point, Charnas’s court scene finalised his and INK’s fate.
Already having taken the anniversary tour to the UK and Europe from “across the pond” in North America, TAA’s 2024 touring schedule has been relentless. They have finally Let the Ocean Take Me home to close the year. Adelaide's turn taking place on the city’s first balmy evening, the penultimate night promised the most impassioned performances of these tracks since they were released in 2014.
A prophecy fulfilled, Joel Birch went wild during ‘Pittsburgh’. Spectacular stage lights illuminated the crowd who sang the traditional choir refrain; fireworks cascading down, ‘Lost & Fading’ illuminated Ahren Stringer. ‘Pabst Blue’ ribbons shot over the crowd as stalactites give way to pyrotechnic stalagmites on ‘The Weigh Down’. Seconded by strobe lighting, ‘Never Alone’, TAA’s two vocalists conducted the crowd's adoring hands and voices.
Birch roared, “Let's see this place split down the fucking middle!” Stringer exchanged his place with guitarist Dan Brown atop the raised platform, where Ocean Grove’s step-in drummer, Sam Bassal, beat the drumkit with ‘Death's Hand’. Bolts of fire projected flames across the stage as ‘F.M.L.’ signalled the final songs of LTOTM and The Drive burned as one to ‘Forest Fire’. To their last breath TAA ‘Give It All’, lyrically and literally “standing by the riverside,” the front-facing camera switched between crowd shots and archival footage.
Having just seen the “ghosts of my friends,” TAA opened the first encore with ‘I See Dead People’. A cross-section of fan favourites that ‘Drag the Lake’ from (largely) the last decade, ‘All My Friends Are Dead’ from their most recent album leads ‘Like Love’ into the evergreen ‘Open Letter’. An eternal finisher, though blessedly not so tonight, ‘It’s Hell Down Here’ described the opposite experience of this evening. Far from fulfilling their prophecy that ‘Everyone Loves You… Once You Leave Them’, ‘Soak Me In Bleach’ was the true and resplendently received farewell.
Pouring out onto Adelaide's busy streets, everyone in attendance need not “search the skies for a reason to live,” for The Amity Affliction and their almighty friends have given us the best one of all. Here's to the next anniversary, with hope that in 2026 This Could Be Heartbreak might ‘Bring the Weather’ once more.
Check out the full gallery of images of The Amity Affliction at The Drive here.
