Word and pix by Robert Forte
The Summer of Loud Festival was close to winding down for, well, the summer when it landed at the footsteps of the Xfinity Centre in Mansfield, Massachusetts recently. The festival, which eschewed heavily towards all flavours of “metalcore” featured eight different bands from the genre, although the acts could easily have been bucketed into four distinct groupings.
The first of such groupings, featuring festival openers Dark Divine and Australia’s own Alpha Wolf, would probably be best described as the “still trying to find our audience” group. It’s difficult to gauge how well a young opener with a limited audience like Dark Divine ultimately affected the Mansfield, Massachusetts audience, as they simply played to a venue that might have been ten to twenty per cent full when they took to the stage.
That being said, whether Dark Divine truly ended up being anyone in the audience’s thing, there’s no doubt that the band’s affinity for mixing up aggressive metalcore alongside theatrical, gothic and even horror-driven elements came off at the very least, interesting. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the band that followed Dark Divine, Alpha Wolf.
The Melbourne, Australia-based quintet has made somewhat of a name for themselves, leaning a bit more into the heavy side of metalcore as they blend deathcore, nu-metal and hardcore fundamentals to create their signature sound and in Mansfield, Alpha Wolf certainly came across as nothing but aggressive and heavy. However, unlike the band that preceded them, Dark Divine, they seemed to not be playing to many, if any, of their own fans.
But I shall leave it there, because my Mother once drilled into my head “if you haven’t got anything nice to say…”
The next of the four groupings to hit the Xfinity Centre stage were long-time metalcore darlings The Amity Affliction and The Devil Wears Prada. This grouping would probably be best labelled as “long-established club acts”. The Amity Affliction is somewhat of a shell of its former self at this point, as the band today only boasts two long-term members, lead vocalist Joel Birch as well as bassist Dan Brown.
More of a post-hardcore band than strictly a metalcore outfit in 2025, the Amity Affliction were still able to deliver a brutish, heavy and for the lack of a better term, fun set to the Mansfield faithful.
Dayton, Ohio’s own The Devil Wears Prada has long since ditched their Christian hardcore beginnings; instead, musically they lean much more heavily into a clever combination of metalcore, meets post hardcore – meets emo these days. Much like the Amity Affliction, despite playing to a limited number of audience members so early in the day, the band was able to get a rise out of most of them while delivering a set that deserved to be heard by far more bodies than it ultimately played to.
The third grouping of bands to play were Beartooth and I Prevail. This third group would probably best categorized as “on the verge of greatness”. Both bands have recently graduated from simply being beloved club acts with long since established fan bases.
Instead, each of these acts has continued to grow in popularity while also refining their individual sound (s) as they aim their sights on being able to headline larger amphitheatre crowds on the strength of, well, their own music and names. Beartooth’s music is as emotionally intense as it is captivating. Mixing mosh-pit moments with soaring anthemic choruses is not something lead singer Caleb Shomo invented; however, it’s worth noting the frontman and the band have 100% mastered this approach in a live setting.
Some long-time industry heavyweights such as Kerry King from Slayer might find Shomo’s mid-drift T-shirts and over-the-top live showmanship corny, and I suppose any element of any band’s live performance is subject to individual perception. That being said, Shomo’s and Beartooth’s live set was as gleefully boisterous as it was downright convivial from beginning to end. If those are things that you personally find off-putting when it comes to live music, you might just be the “Grinch who stole Metalcore,” so there’s always that to take into consideration.
Next up in this grouping is Southfield, Michigan, outfit I Prevail. The band are in the midst of going through both a musical and even an identity transformation these days. The post-hardcore, pop-punk and metalcore outfit has largely been identified throughout their career as more of a rap-rock band whose music was more palatable to the mainstream than those who would call Sirius XM Liquid Metal one of their favourite radio stations.
However, that mainstream tinted era of the band clearly ended with co-lead vocalist Brian Burkheiser’s, parting ways with I Prevail in May of this year. As 2025 moved forward, so did I Prevail and singer Eric Vanlerberghe with the release of their new single, Violent Nature. The track leans much more towards both the heavy and aggressive as did I Prevail’s entire time on stage.
Just a few years ago, it would seem as though a band such as I Prevail had reached their ceiling as being an outfit that could often sell out the 1,000 – 2,500 seat venues across the globe. Yet, based surely on the band’s performance here it sure as hell seems as though I Prevail is destined for much greater things throughout 2025 and beyond.
The final grouping of bands to play were likely the two bands most in the audience came to see live, Byron Bay, Australia’s Parkway Drive and Massachusetts’ own Killswitch Engage. This final group of bands to play could probably be best described as something rather simple but to the point, “true headliners”.
Witnessing a Parkway Drive live show is more akin to going to a carnival sponsored by the words aggressive and awe-inspiring. The second brooding lead vocalist, Winston McCall and Parkway Drive took to the stage it was beyond clear that the true headliners had indeed landed. Spellbinding, cathartic and wildly entertaining would only be the start to describing Parkway’s set on the evening. McCall doesn’t just command the lighted stage; he stalks it and the crowd with every growl seemingly challenging the audience to one-up him and the band.
Parkway Drive 100% feels like they’re a band on the verge of taking another leap forward, and that apparently is what McCall himself has in mind. Recently speaking to Rolling Stone Australia, the front man commented on Parkway Drive potentially making the leap to stadium-sized performances in the near future.
“It’s the only level left. The concept of Parkway being in a stadium after you’ve seen what we can do in arena, surely, you’d want to see what we could do with that. I want to see what we’re going to do with that because I know when it happens, because it’s a when, it’s going be fucking mental”. I’m not sure anyone could doubt McCall’s premonition of their future as the band sure as hell seems up to the challenge of taking on much larger audiences and venues, and when they do, it’s going to be beyond fucking epic.
Despite Killswitch Engage hailing from Westfield, MA and having toured the world for over twenty-five years, they’ve never actually headlined the Xfinity Centre themselves. That long overdue drought came to an end when KsE served as the final act and true headliner for Summer of Loud.
One curious caveat regarding the lineup was that the final four acts, Beartooth, I Prevail, Parkway Drive and Killswitch Engage, all actually rotated from night-to-night in terms of who played in front of who. Some nights on the tour Beartooth and/or I Prevail would serve as the final two acts on the evening, whereas in other markets, Parkway Drive and Killswitch Engage would be the final two bands to play on the night.
This configuration, albeit unique, must have presented some unique challenges to each of the bands depending upon the city they played to on any given night. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with Killswitch Engage bass player, Mike D’Antonio, for a few minutes to discuss the current tour and that perceived conundrum. I mentioned to D’Antonio that all four headlining acts in KsE, Parkway Drive, I Prevail and Beartooth had a larger segment of die-hard fans and that it would seem entirely possibly that once one of those particular headliners played their set, it was entirely possibly a decent number of fans might not even stick around the venue beyond that point.
D’Antonio agreed with that sentiment, stating that sometimes if they were slotted towards the daytime that the audience they would play to could be a bit smaller at times, while also stating the same thing about being the final band to play on any given night of the tour.
“Fortunately, all four headlining bands were able to pick or suggest the markets that we’d like to serve as the final act for so for the most part, every audience we’ve played to has been very receptive but the format itself definitely created some unique challenges for all of us.” Should that have been the case in Mansfield, recently, no one would have remotely noticed as D’Antonio and Killswitch Engage went on to deliver what had to be the most uproarious and gleefully aggressive set of the entire evening.
It should also be mentioned that every band that played had their fair share of fans singing along to their musings, however, KsE’s set in Massachusetts felt like an hour-long band versus the audience karaoke battle that was as fun to bear witness to as it was gloriously joyous to take part in. Killswitch Engage have found life in their second act with vocalist Jesse Leach. Leach himself feels more engaged with the band, their music and the fans themselves, and nothing speaks to that more than the fiery, emotional and visceral performance the lead singer and band dropped in Massachusetts to close things out for the night.
The Summer of Loud 2025 Festival may now be in the books and nothing but a mere memory to the bands and the tens of thousands of fans it played to throughout its run in 2025. However, those memories from Mansfield will be forever etched in the minds, hearts and souls of so many who attended one of the festival’s many dates.
Should you have unfortunately gotten a bit too drunk or inebriated otherwise at your particular Summer of Loud performance this summer, well, you’ll always have YouTube or at the very least, one of those sweet black and purple tour t-shirts to serve as your beloved keepsake of days gone past.
