Live Review: Trivium, Heaven Shall Burn and Malevolence | Eventim Apollo, London | 15/01/2023
Like the finest of wines, Trivium only seem to get better with age. Here's what happened when the Orlando quartet stormed the unprepared Eventim Apollo with Malevolence and Heaven Shall Burn.
Malevolence
Since the release of their latest album Malicious Intent, the popularity of the Sheffield bruisers Malevolence has reached critical levels. The Sheffield crew embark the stage to the soundtrack from Bad Boys looking at a packed out Hammersmith Apollo. 7PM on a Sunday night.
Everyone quickly opened up the middle, people in the seating began standing as soon as the band played the first note. When their song “Life Sentence ” began, the middle was ready to show Malevolence just what Hammersmith could do. The band and the crowd were feeding energy to one another throughout the whole set. With the band laying it extra on them with the intense sub bass they had fitted into their sound system.
Vocalist Alex Taylor plays a good part in hyping up the crowd well enough to create the biggest circle pit from an opening act. Setting his own goal on the amount of crowd surfers Hammersmith has ever had, and even lighting up the room for their song “Higher Place” with the help from fellow bandmate Konan Hall. An monumental moment where the room came together and witnessed this superb performance.
Photo Credit: James Gibbons
Score: 9/10
Heaven Shall Burn
German melodeath titans Heaven Shall Burn make their return to the UK for the time in 9 years. It was an exciting moment for the band and for their fans in the audience. Throughout the set, vocalist Marcus Bischoff was exerting some amazing energy with his headbanging and encouragement. Their light show was something else, all the strobes, colours and movements around the room made this set incredibly memorable. Unfortunately the Hammersmith crowd wasn’t really getting into the performance, most people were standing completely still throughout the set. While the seating area were on their feet for Malevolence and Trivium but sitting down for Heaven Shall Burn.
The kick drum drowned out not only the rest of the kit. But the stringed instruments as well as the vocals. This made it a little uncomfortable to fully take in their music. Once the band finished their songs, there was very little cheering to be heard. Along with people around me claiming this band to be one of the worst bands they have seen live. Overall their presence was great, the band did a great job in putting on a show and getting the crowd going. It’s a shame that the lack of sound quality made a huge negative impact to potential fans in the audience.
Score: 7/10
Trivium
After a long 3 year wait since the announcement of this tour that eventually became a tour in support of two critically acclaimed albums, both released during the COVID-19 times, Trivium took to the stage to a sold out Hammersmith Apollo. The fans are greeted with two dragons either size of the stage, eyes glowing red and a big curtain ready for the huge entrance.
The opening track The End Of Everything from their sophomore album Ascendancy begins playing through the speakers later following up with the next song on the album Rain. Where the curtain drops and in comes Trivium with a huge Japanese style stage setup along with a crazy light show behind them. The crowd bursts out into big mosh pits and a lot of jumping around the room. Vocalist Matt Heafy didn’t even need the mic for this show because Hammersmith was singing every word incredibly loud.
Matt Heafy’s onstage banter created laughter amongst the crowd as if he was hosting his own comedy show. It added its own identity to the entire evening. Trivium made childhood dreams come true for Alex Taylor and Josh Baines from opening act Malevolence by bringing them onstage to perform The Deceived alongside the band. Matt channelled his inner personal trainer, commanding London to mosh harder than last night’s Manchester crowd.
It was safe to say that with the encouragement towards the crowds, along with the extreme talents from the minds of Matt Heafy, Corey Beaulieu, Paolo Gregoletto and Alex Bent spawned what has become known as the best UK Trivium show in their career from the band themselves. If you were at this show, you best believe that it was one of their best shows to date. Proving once again that this band has made an incredibly important mark for modern metal.
Score: 10/10