Mar 10

Mar 10 Photos, Show Review: August Burns Red Celebrates 20 Years As A Band in Sacramento

August Burns Red
20th Anniversary Tour
w/ The Devil Wears Prada, Bleed From Within
Ace of Spades
Sacramento, CA
March 2nd, 2023

Review by Jared Stossel
Photos by Jared Stossel

The fact that August Burns Red has been around for twenty years and still selling out venues around the world speaks to the power of their music (and also to the fact that I’m getting old). On Thursday evening, the Lancaster, PA-based Grammy-nominated five-piece took the stage for a devastatingly heavy performance that encapsulated their twenty years together. There isn’t much more that I can say about August Burns Red, nor an act like The Devil Wears Prada (who opened). Bands like them have been slogging it out on the road and in the studio for the better part of two decades, and they’ve mastered the art of performance. They know how to make a crowd lose their mind, let them know when to take a breather, and then bring it right back up again.

The show was opened by Bleed From Within, a Scotland-based heavy metal act that has been around for nearly two decades yet has never toured the United States. From the moment they hit the first note, they were captivating, and I thought they did an excellent job setting the tone for the rest of the show. Much like the other two artists on the bill, Bleed From Within has been at it for a long time, and they’ve managed to craft a punishingly heavy performance to get a crowd worked up.

Amidst a scream from vocalist Mike Hranica declaring, “we’re back, motherfuckers!”, The Devil Wears Prada launched into a brutally intense main support slot that found the band pulling out a couple of fan favorites like “Danger: Wildman”, “Born to Lose” and “Dez Moines” before relying mainly on material from their most recent effort, 2022’s outstanding Color Decay. In the past, I would have been disappointed in Prada for not embracing their past, as they’ve noted in interviews that they’re not the biggest fans of their older work. But this later material that they’ve been putting out (Transit Blues, The Act, Color Decay) has been so good that I can’t be irritated. I was endlessly entranced by their entire performance, and I wouldn’t have cared if they’d played an unreleased new song or an old track like “Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over”. To watch this band is to watch a masterclass in metalcore, and they’re even more of a must-see band after all these years.

The electronica-esque intro track is pumped through the PA system as the members of August Burns Red run onto the stage. The band strikes an open-C note, vocalist Jake Luhrs gives a signature war cry atop his stage platform, and the five-piece metalcore act dive into an eighteen-song setlist kicked off by “Composure”, one of their best compositions and an all-time classic in their respective discography. This tour found the band pulling out all the stops, with material from nearly every album, from Thrill Seeker (“Your Little Suburbia Is In Ruins”) to their forthcoming effort Death Below (“Ancestry”, “Backfire”). I was quite surprised to hear songs thrown in from albums like Rescue & Restore (“Fault Line”, “Spirit Breaker”) and Found In Far Away Places (“Ghosts”), selections I don’t recall getting played all that much other than during their initial touring circuits. There’s always going to be an August Burns Red show where I think, “Oh I wish they played that one,” but they’re pulling from ten full-length albums so expectations should be tempered at the door. What I got that evening was everything I could want from an August Burns Red performance: over-the-top energy, intricate guitar solos, and lengthy compositions brought to life by a band that has perfected their craft tenfold over the last two decades.

After an excellent performance of the Constellations opus “Mariana’s Trench”, drummer Matt Greiner returned to the stage for a drum solo before the band brought it back to Messengers (“The Eleventh Hour”) and concluded the evening with “White Washed”, a Constellations track that could move mountains with its breakdown. At the end of the night, it was impressive to look back on the set and think about all the songs that were just played. August Burns Red’s twentieth-anniversary tour is a celebration of the best songs they’ve brought to life over the last several years, and it should be noted how impressive of a discography they have. Nary has deteriorated in quality, and even their older work has impressively stood the test of time. It is clear that they are one of the best bands to ever do it in metalcore, and this show is a must-see for any fan of the genre.

The tour resumes tonight at The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, CO. Tickets can be found here.

August Burns Red Set List
Composure
Your Little Suburbia Is In Ruins
Fault Line
Ancestry
Empire
Ghosts
Invisible Enemy
Spirit Breaker
The Truth of a Liar
Meridian
Backfire
Bloodletter
Laniakea
Paramount
Marianas Trench

Encore:
(Drum Solo)
The Eleventh Hour
White Washed