Sep 18, 2026 · 3 hr 19 min · 15 segments
September gets us all sludgy as reviews pore over new Mastodon, Green Lung, Anthrax, Chat Pile, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Sleep, Devil Master, & Wrong Man, Evanescence playing the UK's biggest…
Sam DignamHostAnd at that stage, you go, well, okay, you've basically packed out literally the biggest arena space that you feasibly can do here.
I have long said I've long been a champion of, you know, the idea that they have been overdue a download spot.
But, you know, for me, I look at Evanescence and go, why aren't you headlining that thing with the songs that you have in your can? And I would say maybe off the back of this tour, where I know they played the O2 as well.
I think Evanescence are a band who we should be I think we have a people sometimes have a tendency to look over Evanescence because they are a strange dark horse in that group because they don't really feel like a new metal band in the same way that you know Core or even Deftones or whatever do they are like their own specific sort of phenomenon but they're very much there as part of that enormous pack right and Evanescence of those obviously a very if you're a long time listener you will know a very formative important band for me Fallen is basically the first metal album I ever went out and specifically you know sought out and bought so whenever I get the chance to see Evanescence like this it's always a big one even though I have not really cared about a great deal of what they have released in the last handful of years and I'll tell you this you know when you see people at shows and it's like you maybe the elder millennials or whatever but you see people at shows and it is so clear that they are like again getting on a bit in life and they are there for the old songs that they remember from their youth and they don't really know any new stuff just at any band you know show you can imagine in your head this is the most like that i have maybe ever felt at a show i was like i'm not i'm not even 30 yet and yet i have completely become like that old man millennial because it was honestly it was a case of like i was with you know a friend who has similarly formative evanescence feelings and it was like they would play a bunch of new songs and we'd be like okay alright and then they'd play Going Under and we'd go fucking feral and then they would play a bunch more new songs alright and then they'd call me when you're sober and we'd go fucking feral and it was just like this real rolling momentum of it they put out their album Sanctuary earliest year, which is the Jordan Fish produced one.
We didn't review it on the show, mainly because you and I, Sam, did not have it in us to talk about Jordan Fish producing a band who we both care about deeply in Evanescence.
I listened to the album for the second time ever on my way to this show to refresh myself on it, and It's certainly not the worst, like, you know, fishcore that is out there in the world.
And on a second go, and then seeing it live, there are a few songs on it that I think are alright.
There's the title track Sanctuary, which they opened the set with, I think is decent.
There was a song called Afterlife, which I think is the one they put out with, like, was it Devil May Cry? The
Because they had like anime playing behind them On the screen when they were playing the song But like there's a couple songs That I'm like okay you know this is decent They clearly are very much enamoured With their new album because If you include a couple of collab songs As well which I will get onto mentioning But songs released in the last like Two years right or since 2024 They played 13 New songs that is Two collabs plus I think 11 out of the 12 of the new album songs which is very confident and is very a lot right so when you take into account what i've just said about again the momentum for me of like oh my god going under oh you know and then going into like three or four songs it was very very weighted and i think you could certainly look around in it there were other people in my position who uh you know maybe remember fallen from back in the day and are not so up to scratch with everything that has come out um in the last few years it was very weighted i would say as a big rock show i mean obviously the songs are already better live because you have amy lee in front of you singing them who is just absolutely incredible and she was on it all night as usual thinking about for example what i've just said about a possible like if they were to get lifted up to a big festival slot like a download headline or something like that I'm not saying cut out the new stuff because they are still to a degree relevant because, for example, one of the songs they did was the End of You song, which is the big collab they did with Poppy and Courtney LaPlante.
who poppy was one of the two support acts um the other one being kayflay who they did the song that i think it's from the john wick ballerina soundtrack they did together but fight like a girl with so they brought out kayflay and did that song uh and then at the magic state they brought out poppy through end of you i think at the london o2 show maybe because spirit box have also started their uk tour now they did have both of them so they brought out courtney as well um and like i have essentially no feelings towards that song like it's so perfectly all right but it did i don't know seemed to excite people you know out there in different areas of the rock world and garnered a lot of attention and it garnered a lot of headlines when they came and played it together and stuff so they are to a degree i think still you know making headlines and still relevant and they are still a band who kind of means something to the current crop of you know metal upcoming Stars or whatever I would say if you took those 11 new album songs I'm not saying ditch all of them You can still even have a healthy weighting of your new material But if they cut out The four most boring ones Like for example there's a song It's the starter on the album Called Beautiful Light Which I think is just like a non-starter Like it's a really boring start to the album And if you're not going to open the set with it Which they didn't do, they did it like halfway through At that point I'd just say don't bother doing it at all Take the four most boring songs From the newest album And then swap in these songs which they did not do Sweet Sacrifice Everybody's Fool What You Want, My Heart Is Broken They did nothing off the self title Which I thought was crazy Like My Heart Is Broken is just staggering And if you were going to do something like a download slot I would say you need to do that But if you took out four most boring songs from your album You still then got loads of it Because they were doing so much Just put in those four of what I would say were the hits That were notable in their absence At that stage for me Even if again I still don't really love half the material You've still got I think a very worthy Download or just any big festival slot where the um headline shot and they did of course do as i say you know uh obviously bring me to life my immortal call me when you're sober for me the the peak of the evening was uh the first like older song they did was going under which is just you know sent me over the top at that point in time because i've been building up some portion of you know like excitement for when they did a song i know um but then they follow that up with a one two of open door songs which as we know sam is a masterpiece It was a one-two of piano songs They did Lithium Which is basically, I was listening to it And I was like, this is a Funeral Doom song This song is basically Swallow the Sun But with Amy Lee singing on it That's brilliant And then they were like, yeah, this is also the 20th anniversary Of the release of our second album, The Open Door So on this tour we are playing The one song off that album that we'd never played before um which was like you which is the saddest ballad on that fucking album but that was like you know again some some deep cuts being thrown out there as well like i said if you just like it was not a bad show it was i mean it was a really great show during the parts when i was losing my fucking mind like i had a wonderful time um i just think if you address the balance a little bit like throw in a few not tons more don't have to wait it too crazily but a few more of those like standard hits i and maybe they would do that at a festival setting as opposed to like the new album support tour um then i think you would have a set to seriously reckon with when it comes to just like you know showing all the the great stuff that evanescence have done down the years and then 24 hours after that The most dramatic flip around In a small venue I went to go see Funabrarum Whose album That we reviewed a few months ago early this year Is still I think one of the handful of really great Death metal records this year And it fucking ripped so that was a really good time as well So that's what I've been up to this week What has been going on elsewhere in the news Well we're going to start off talking about a band We're going to talk about loads more later But Mastodon Did a little intimate warm-up show For the beginnings of their Going to start touring in America First of all in the support of their new album Marrow Deep But at this little small warm-up show Which they did under a pseudonym As many bands do It was Big Hairy Elephant You can clearly work out what that's describing there But they brought out with them Mr John Baisley from Baroness To join in on vocals For a run of six songs On this setlist which included several songs they have not played in a long time and these stats are crazy when i think about like these are iconic songs all in all they had not played oblivion from crack the sky since 2019 they had not played colony of birchman which to me is one of the fucking that's like hit single mastodon that's one of the biggest songs they had not played that since 2018 and And the real head-turner that I think most people recognized and said, what? Is they played Curl of the Bull for the first time since 2013, right? Over a decade.
And at that stage, you go, well, okay, you've basically packed out literally the biggest arena space that you feasibly can do here.
I have long said I've long been a champion of, you know, the idea that they have been overdue a download spot.
But, you know, for me, I look at Evanescence and go, why aren't you headlining that thing with the songs that you have in your can? And I would say maybe off the back of this tour, where I know they played the O2 as well.
I think Evanescence are a band who we should be I think we have a people sometimes have a tendency to look over Evanescence because they are a strange dark horse in that group because they don't really feel like a new metal band in the same way that you know Core or even Deftones or whatever do they are like their own specific sort of phenomenon but they're very much there as part of that enormous pack right and Evanescence of those obviously a very if you're a long time listener you will know a very formative important band for me Fallen is basically the first metal album I ever went out and specifically you know sought out and bought so whenever I get the chance to see Evanescence like this it's always a big one even though I have not really cared about a great deal of what they have released in the last handful of years and I'll tell you this you know when you see people at shows and it's like you maybe the elder millennials or whatever but you see people at shows and it is so clear that they are like again getting on a bit in life and they are there for the old songs that they remember from their youth and they don't really know any new stuff just at any band you know show you can imagine in your head this is the most like that i have maybe ever felt at a show i was like i'm not i'm not even 30 yet and yet i have completely become like that old man millennial because it was honestly it was a case of like i was with you know a friend who has similarly formative evanescence feelings and it was like they would play a bunch of new songs and we'd be like okay alright and then they'd play Going Under and we'd go fucking feral and then they would play a bunch more new songs alright and then they'd call me when you're sober and we'd go fucking feral and it was just like this real rolling momentum of it they put out their album Sanctuary earliest year, which is the Jordan Fish produced one.
We didn't review it on the show, mainly because you and I, Sam, did not have it in us to talk about Jordan Fish producing a band who we both care about deeply in Evanescence.
I listened to the album for the second time ever on my way to this show to refresh myself on it, and It's certainly not the worst, like, you know, fishcore that is out there in the world.
And on a second go, and then seeing it live, there are a few songs on it that I think are alright.
There's the title track Sanctuary, which they opened the set with, I think is decent.
There was a song called Afterlife, which I think is the one they put out with, like, was it Devil May Cry? The
Because they had like anime playing behind them On the screen when they were playing the song But like there's a couple songs That I'm like okay you know this is decent They clearly are very much enamoured With their new album because If you include a couple of collab songs As well which I will get onto mentioning But songs released in the last like Two years right or since 2024 They played 13 New songs that is Two collabs plus I think 11 out of the 12 of the new album songs which is very confident and is very a lot right so when you take into account what i've just said about again the momentum for me of like oh my god going under oh you know and then going into like three or four songs it was very very weighted and i think you could certainly look around in it there were other people in my position who uh you know maybe remember fallen from back in the day and are not so up to scratch with everything that has come out um in the last few years it was very weighted i would say as a big rock show i mean obviously the songs are already better live because you have amy lee in front of you singing them who is just absolutely incredible and she was on it all night as usual thinking about for example what i've just said about a possible like if they were to get lifted up to a big festival slot like a download headline or something like that I'm not saying cut out the new stuff because they are still to a degree relevant because, for example, one of the songs they did was the End of You song, which is the big collab they did with Poppy and Courtney LaPlante.
who poppy was one of the two support acts um the other one being kayflay who they did the song that i think it's from the john wick ballerina soundtrack they did together but fight like a girl with so they brought out kayflay and did that song uh and then at the magic state they brought out poppy through end of you i think at the london o2 show maybe because spirit box have also started their uk tour now they did have both of them so they brought out courtney as well um and like i have essentially no feelings towards that song like it's so perfectly all right but it did i don't know seemed to excite people you know out there in different areas of the rock world and garnered a lot of attention and it garnered a lot of headlines when they came and played it together and stuff so they are to a degree i think still you know making headlines and still relevant and they are still a band who kind of means something to the current crop of you know metal upcoming Stars or whatever I would say if you took those 11 new album songs I'm not saying ditch all of them You can still even have a healthy weighting of your new material But if they cut out The four most boring ones Like for example there's a song It's the starter on the album Called Beautiful Light Which I think is just like a non-starter Like it's a really boring start to the album And if you're not going to open the set with it Which they didn't do, they did it like halfway through At that point I'd just say don't bother doing it at all Take the four most boring songs From the newest album And then swap in these songs which they did not do Sweet Sacrifice Everybody's Fool What You Want, My Heart Is Broken They did nothing off the self title Which I thought was crazy Like My Heart Is Broken is just staggering And if you were going to do something like a download slot I would say you need to do that But if you took out four most boring songs from your album You still then got loads of it Because they were doing so much Just put in those four of what I would say were the hits That were notable in their absence At that stage for me Even if again I still don't really love half the material You've still got I think a very worthy Download or just any big festival slot where the um headline shot and they did of course do as i say you know uh obviously bring me to life my immortal call me when you're sober for me the the peak of the evening was uh the first like older song they did was going under which is just you know sent me over the top at that point in time because i've been building up some portion of you know like excitement for when they did a song i know um but then they follow that up with a one two of open door songs which as we know sam is a masterpiece It was a one-two of piano songs They did Lithium Which is basically, I was listening to it And I was like, this is a Funeral Doom song This song is basically Swallow the Sun But with Amy Lee singing on it That's brilliant And then they were like, yeah, this is also the 20th anniversary Of the release of our second album, The Open Door So on this tour we are playing The one song off that album that we'd never played before um which was like you which is the saddest ballad on that fucking album but that was like you know again some some deep cuts being thrown out there as well like i said if you just like it was not a bad show it was i mean it was a really great show during the parts when i was losing my fucking mind like i had a wonderful time um i just think if you address the balance a little bit like throw in a few not tons more don't have to wait it too crazily but a few more of those like standard hits i and maybe they would do that at a festival setting as opposed to like the new album support tour um then i think you would have a set to seriously reckon with when it comes to just like you know showing all the the great stuff that evanescence have done down the years and then 24 hours after that The most dramatic flip around In a small venue I went to go see Funabrarum Whose album That we reviewed a few months ago early this year Is still I think one of the handful of really great Death metal records this year And it fucking ripped so that was a really good time as well So that's what I've been up to this week What has been going on elsewhere in the news Well we're going to start off talking about a band We're going to talk about loads more later But Mastodon Did a little intimate warm-up show For the beginnings of their Going to start touring in America First of all in the support of their new album Marrow Deep But at this little small warm-up show Which they did under a pseudonym As many bands do It was Big Hairy Elephant You can clearly work out what that's describing there But they brought out with them Mr John Baisley from Baroness To join in on vocals For a run of six songs On this setlist which included several songs they have not played in a long time and these stats are crazy when i think about like these are iconic songs all in all they had not played oblivion from crack the sky since 2019 they had not played colony of birchman which to me is one of the fucking that's like hit single mastodon that's one of the biggest songs they had not played that since 2018 and And the real head-turner that I think most people recognized and said, what? Is they played Curl of the Bull for the first time since 2013, right? Over a decade.
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