FIT FOR A KING AT IRVING PLAZA IN NEW YORK CITY
American metalcore band Fit For A King put on an impressive show for their New York leg of “The Hell We Create Tour” at Irving Plaza last Sunday with a powerful lineup including Australian metalcore heavyweights, Northlane and Alpha Wolf. As mature of a band as they are in the scene, this was their biggest headline NY date as of yet.
The show kicked off with the opening band from Norcal, Kingdom of Giants, who did a really solid job at warming up the crowd. Immediately after, it was time for the Aussies to take the stage with Alpha Wolf performing first, followed by Northlane. The former started off testing the crowd with popular tracks from their latest EP in collaboration with Holding Absence, The Lost & The Longing, while ending with the evergreen “Akudama”. Hereafter, it was Northlane’s turn to take the stage and turn up the heat in the room with their signature metalcore sound with a touch atmospheric electronic elements. They opened with “Clarity” from their latest album Obsidian, and closed with the ever so popular “Bloodline” and “Talking Heads”. The added production of light bars on the back of the stage and strobes on the floor directed towards the vocalist and instrumentalists significantly elevated the quality of the production.
A quick changeover later, on came the headliner, Fit For A King opening with the unexpectedly obvious track “The Hell We Create”. Display panels were added to the production along with the lights that were already in place for Northlane’s set. After getting done with shooting from the photo pit, I came up to the second level of the venue, and noticed how much bigger the pit had gotten and how many more people started crowd surfing. FFAK paused after their 6th track in the setlist and said they’re “gonna play some heavy sh*t”, and they sure did, performing “Reaper” with an absolutely brutal breakdown. The pit went bonkers and so did the surfers and the rest of the crowd. Shortly after, they played the track I was looking forward to the most, “Backbreaker”. It has one of the longest screams in a breakdown across all subgenres of metal. Even though I’d heard that track a handful number of times live, it just never gets old and one can never have enough of the chorus and breakdown. The band took yet another pause to thank the opening bands and most importantly the crowd as in their words, they’re “…always excited to come to New York” as it has “…the best crowd we’ve seen on this tour.” The show finally came to an electric end with FFAK bassist Ryan O’ Leary crowd surfing with his mother while the band was playing “God of Fire” as a part of their two track encore.
