Story of the Year, Astoria 2, May 21st
Tuesday, 27 May 2008 12:35
Marsala and co unleash The Black Swan
inthenews.co.uk's Lewis Bazley is flattened by the St Louis rockers in central London.
Outside a rammed, beered-up Astoria, the Tottenham Court Road traffic fizzes past, unaware of the post-hardcore headbanging taking place inside as Story of the Year take the stage at a venue too small for their ambitions.
There's a huge orchestral opening as Dan Marsala, Ryan Philips, Phil Sneed, Adam Russell and Josh Wills take the stage and launch into Choose Your Fate, the opening track from third album The Black Swan, and a mighty slab of anti-Bush intent.
The Antidote is tremendous and as the aural aerobatics of the band's first album for Epitaph Records bounce off the walls of the tiny venue, it's a mystery why SOTY aren't a far bigger band.
Recent single Wake Up is screamed and predictably impassioned while Our Time is Now, from second - and unfairly overlooked - second album - In The Wake of Determination is immense in scope, with Philips and Sneed carving out arena-sized riffs and Marsala guttural and intense.
Anthem of our Dying Day, a monumental highlight of their epic debut album Page Avenue, crashes through the Astoria in an appropriately apocalyptic fashion and with the entire set smacking of a deep desire to smack emo lameness in the face, you're faced with the proposition of a band who are too melodic for metal, and too heavy for the black skinnies, eyeliner-heavy denizens of the mo underworld.
Lewis Bazley
Watch the video for Wake Up below, here on inthenews.co.uk: