Arch Enemy and Trivium co-headline as a powerful duo at MTELUS

The Metropolis (now renamed MTELUS), played host to a wide variety of well respected metal acts on Sunday night. Arch Enemy and Trivium co-headlined this tour, with While She Sleeps and Fit For An Autopsy as openers.

Fit For An Autopsy were the first to get things going on the night. With a name like that, you expect a band to play brutal, heavy, dark music. And they did not disappoint. You could tell they have a strong influence in Montreal, as the venue was already filling up for an act starting at 6:30pm on a Sunday.

The show then took a quick 180 to the next act, While She Sleeps, who are an English metalcore band. At first, looking at this bill was confusing, as all four bands play completely different styles of metal. It turned out to be a great decision, as hearing the diverse forms of music made sure you were never hearing the same thing throughout the night. The band delivered a solid set with plenty of energy that had lead singer Lawrence Taylor crowd surfing only a few songs in.

Fresh off their new album release, Trivium took the MTELUS by storm, as their speed driven riffs and broad vocals set off the crowd into a frenzy. Reminiscing on the last time I saw Trivium, in which they played at Place des Arts opening for Dream Theater, this set had a much different mood and lingering intensity. The frantic pace the band displays is one to behold, but you can’t forget about their ability to switch tempos, breaking down into crunchy power chords that the crowd gobbled up.

In promotion of the October 20^th release ‘The Sin and the Sentence,’ Trivium went right into the title track, and later playing three more off the latest album. A perfect way to end their set, Trivium concluded with “In Waves.” Before starting the song, singer Matt Heafy encouraged the entire crowd to get as low to the ground as they could before jumping up when song dropped, which looked like rolling waves crashing into the front of the stage.

The best was truly saved for last, as Swedish metal legends Arch Enemy took to the stage in dramatic fashion, in front of a filled-to-the-brim MTELUS. As the lights dimmed, drummer Daniel Erlandsson led the band on, followed by the opening riff of ‘The World Is Yours’ echoing throughout the hall. If that didn’t get a loud enough cheer, lead singer Alissa White-Gluz then walked out. From Montreal, it was a homecoming for Alissa, and she seemed just as excited to be stepping on the MTELUS stage, saying that it was a dream of hers to be headlining the night, even giving a shout out to her parents who were in the audience. Alissa joined the band in 2014, taking over for another female vocal powerhouse in Angela Gossow.

Playing a large portion of songs off 2017’s Will To Power, the band has definitely gone through a growing period. The latest release, while still incredibly heavy, has had the ability to reach out to new audiences, combining catchy hooks and almost power metal-like chord progressions. The band has had several shifts in members, but they currently hold in a lot of people’s opinion, one of the best guitarists Europe has to offer in Jeff Loomis. His solos looked effortless, yet very intricate and difficult to pull off.

Arch Enemy always puts on an amazing live show, and this time was no different, which had all twenty-three hundred fans completely immersed in the performance.