The electric night at the Reno, NV Knitting Factory kicked off with a spectacular set from Tremonti. The band opened their set with the title track off their second album, Cauterize. Opening with Cauterize set the theme for the show by showing the ability of the band to play some clearly thrash influenced songs while mixing in some songs with incredible melodies and sometimes songs with both characteristics. Cauterize being one of the latter. After Cauterize, Tremonti turned up the heat by playing a few songs leaning toward the thrash side from their first album, All I Was. The change in pace from the melodic songs that Mark Tremonti is known to write, from his days as chief song writer in Creed, created a circle pit that would not let up until the conclusion of the show. Intermixed within all of the great songwriting, Tremonti’s guitar sorcery was a spectacle to behold. Intermixing incredibly fast solos with melodic that you can sing to the man is a force on the guitar.
Towards the middle of the set, Tremonti unveiled some more of the melodic tracks from the repertoire. Including songs such as The Things I’ve Seen, Providence, and Dark Trip. To my surprise, Tremonti passed off some of the lead guitar duties to Rhythm Guitarist, Eric Friedman. Eric impressed with some tasty blues licks that showed that he is more than just a Rhythm guitar player.
The final quarter of the show included what I think is the highlight of Tremonti’s set, Brains. Off of All I Was, Brains put the unison of the rhythm section and the incredible vocal delivery center stage and showed how much more power one song could have live than recorded. The set concluded with the thrashiest song in Tremonti’s repertoire, Wish You Well. After an incredible set from Tremonti I could not believe that there was another headlining act to follow.
Trivium continued the night of melodic heavy music with the title track off of their brand new album, Silence in the Snow. Typically known for his incredible screaming on earlier albums, Matt Heafy, Lead Singer and Lead/Rhythm guitarist, displayed his incredible clean vocals during Silence in the Snow which I thought could not be replicated from the album. Following Silence in the Snow, the band’s performance of Down from the Sky ignited a mosh pit that would burn for the rest of the set. More fuel was added to the fire with the guitar virtuosity and epically heavy breakdown of Becoming the Dragon.
Towards the middle of the set, Trivium introduced their lead single off of Silence in the Snow, Until the World Goes Cold. Until the World Goes Cold encapsulated what Trivium is about at this point in their careers with excellent vocal harmonies from bassist Paolo Gregoletto in addition to the sweet guitar harmonies between Matt Heafy and lead guitarist Corey Beaulieu. The guitar virtuosity continued with an incredible performance from Corey in the always pleasing A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation. This was not the only time that Corey’s lead playing was impressive. He also dazzled during Becoming the Dragon and Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr. Trivium concluded their phenomenal performance with the title track from their fifth album, In Waves. The band displayed excellent stage presence throughout the show and did not disappoint.
I felt that the pairing of Tremonti and Trivium by the HardDrive Live was a good move. It brought together two bands who have a very different approach to metal. Tremonti’s sound being more melodic and closer to hard rock while Trivium’s sound being closer to the extreme genres of metal. Going into the show, I was already a huge fan of both of these artists, but I can’t help but think that if you attended the show to see one band that you would leave being a fan of both. You can get Trivium’s new album, Silence in the Snow and Tremonti’s new album, Cauterize at their respective websites or on iTunes and Amazon.
