On October 20th 2023, Polaris makes a stop at the iconic Palladium in Worcester, MA as part of their Fatalism North American Headlining Tour. Supporting them were fellow metalcore acts Currents, Varials and Paledusk.
First up was Paledusk. Paledusk is a progressive metalcore band from Fukuoka, Japan that formed in 2015 and consists of members Kaito Nagai (vocals), Daisuke Ehara (guitar), Tsubasa "Two" Ishibashi (guitar) and BOB (drums). In early 2020, Paledusk released their four-track EP Happy Talk, which became known for its unique combination of elements of metalcore, industrial, nu-metal, and EDM. This put them on the map and caught everyone's attention instantly. Just two weeks ago, on October 4th, they released “RUMBLE” and it sits at #1 on Spotify with over 82,000 streams.
Before they went on, the red lights started flashing and an alarm was going off, not to warn of a fire in the building, but of a fire performance that Paledusk was about to bring. A small snippet of "Lose Yourself" from Eminem began to play as BOB, Daisuke and Tsubasa go on stage. After a little impromptu jam, Kaito makes his entrance and then things start to go down. Paledusk’s performance was based off nothing but pure energy. Both Tsubasa and Daisuke kept spinning and dancing around the stage and moving back and forth while spinning their guitars. The pit felt their energy and matched it with insane moshing and crowd surfing. I'm surprised the pit had any energy left for the rest of the night because it looked like they were giving it all, as if they were moshing to the headliners. Kaito took the time to thank everyone for coming out early and reflected how this is their first time ever in America. He even thanked the fans in Japanese saying "Arigato! Arigato!" after hearing a fan shouting it out to him. "Arigato" meaning "Thank you" in Japanese.
The fourth song they played was "SLAY!!" a single released back in 2022. Kaito introduced the song by saying "This next one is called 'SLAY!!' if you know the words, sing it with me. If you don't, it's very simple, 'SLAY!! SLAY!! SLAY!! SLAY!! I'm your slayer" and the crowd sang it back right away whether they knew the song or not. The next song they played was their latest single “RUMBLE” which features Masato from coldrain and it was their first time playing the song live. The response to it was amazing as the pit was two stepping the entire time and doing circle pits. It was really cool seeing it go from everyone chilling and vibing to the rap parts to then instantly going hard and heavy. Daisuke kept throwing in these absolutely wild guitar solos that I don't think any normal guitar player could pull off. I even saw him doing spin kicks over and over again WHILE he was holding his guitar. I can only imagine how long it took him to practice that.
This is Paledusk’s first ever North American tour and they have made a standing impression among the American crowds with their fast paced and intense energy, as well as their sense of fashion. I can definitely see them going down as one of Japan’s biggest metalcore bands.
Next up was Varials. Varials is a metalcore/hardcore band from Philadelphia, PA with its members Mitchell Rogers (vocals), James Hohenwarter (guitar), Mike Foley (bass), Sean Rauchut (drums), and Shane Lyons (guitar). Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dave Rucki from Sentinels filled in for Rauchut on drums and for reasons unknown, Hohenwarter was not performing with the band on this tour.
Varials really brought out the hardcore vibe to their set. They kicked things off with “The New Damnation” which is the first track off their 2017 album Pain Again. As soon as the song started Rogers called for everyone to two step and to "open this sh*t the f-k up!!!!". It was from that moment on, the show went as close to a hardcore show as it could get as the hardcore kids made their presence known in the pit and started two stepping and dancing like they were in Karate Kid.
For the song "Cycle of Violence: Chapter 1" Rogers wanted everyone from "the barricade, the pit, to the people in the back and the people upstairs off their f-kn feet" and made everyone hold until the song started and let me tell you, I have never seen so many people get off their feet at the same time at once before.
Rogers took the time to shoutout all the bands including Polaris and reflected on how he's known them for ten years and that they deserve every bit of attention and success they have been getting. Towards the end of their set they played the crowd favorite "Anything To Numb" where Rogers demanded crowd surfing and violent moshing for the hit and the crowd delivered. Security really had to put the work in to catch everyone and if you were near the pit, you had to watch out as people were cartwheeling and throwing elbows everywhere.
Varials was definitely on top of their game tonight. With crushing breakdowns, hard-hitting drumming and harsh vocals and the ability to transition to a more slower and groovier sound, almost sounding like Deftones, while also incorporating some nu-metal influence, Varials has proven why they are a cut above the rest when it comes to Philadelphia Hardcore.
Taking the stage after Varials was the Connecticut-based metalcore quintet Currents. Currents was formed in 2011 and their current lineup is Brian Wille (vocals), Chris Wiseman (guitar), Ryan Castaldi (guitar), Christian Pulgarin (bass) and Matt Young (drums). In May of this year, they released their fourth album, The Death We Seek, and their third single off it, "Remember Me" sits at #4 on Spotify with over 7 million streams.
Currents started with "Living In Tragedy" taken off their latest album The Death We Seek. Currents has always been a band known for going from hard and heavy to melodic cleans like the flip of the switch and it never fails to amaze me when they pull it off. Wille's ability to switch from high screams to low gutturals to clean vocals is so astonishing to see live.
Halfway through the set they played "Better Days" taken from their 2020 album The Way It Ends. This song is a fan-favorite and one of their most emotional songs yet. While not their heaviest song sound wise, its definitely heavy in its lyrics. Everyone was singing along to the song word for word and screaming their hearts out to the chorus. Walking around I noticed the look on peoples faces while they were watching and singing along and could easily feel the emotion radiating off them.
Wille believed the crowd could do more than what they were doing, saying, "I think we can push it a little further. This is a heavy one called 'Into Despair'" and then they got right into the next song, "Into Despair". This pleased the old school Currents' fans as they opened the pit far and wide, becoming an insane mix of pushing and dancing. By the time the song got to its bridge, Wille points at the crowd and goes "Side to side open that up" and almost instantly, the crowd split in half with both sides ready to slam into each other. The anticipation was at an all time as red lights begin to flash and Young was hammering away at the drums which helped bring out the animals in the moshers. Then there was silence for a brief second before you hear the crowd yell "I SAT BACK AND I LET THE DEVIL IN ME" as the breakdown drops, making both sides of the pit slam right into each other at full force, causing complete and utter chaos.
By the time the band reached their last two songs “So Alone” and “Unfamiliar” the crowd gave it all they got and security got really busy. I don’t think I could tell you how many crowd surfers they had to catch all at once but I can tell you it was definitely more than they were prepared for and yet they still managed to catch them all. Currents' is one of those bands that put on a performance you won't see from any other artist. Their ability to flawlessly transition from heavy breakdowns and low gutturals that almost borderline deathcore to melodies with clean vocals and guitar solos will leave you in shock and awe. I've seen Currents multiple times and they never fail to amaze me and from what I saw, they didn't fail to amaze the crowd either.
Last, but certainly not least, the one and only Polaris takes the stage. Polaris was formed in 2012 all the way from Sydney, Australia. The members consist of Jamie Hails (vocals), Rick Schneider (guitars), Jake Steinhause (bass/vocals), and Daniel Furnari (drums). Polaris has been touring in support of their latest album Fatalism which was released on September 1st. The album has only been out for almost two months now and has already crushed chart records, ranking #1 on ARIA Australian Album Charts and #8 on UK Rock & Metal Album Charts.
They started out slow with the Fatalism intro song, "Harbinger". Hails comes out on stage and starts serenading to the crowd before the rest of the band takes the stage and that's when the tone for the night kicked in. The next song they played was "Nightmare" and it kept the energy going. The pit was absolutely intense and Hails showed great power in his vocals while Steinhause got the crowd singing along to every single word.
Hails spoke to the crowd to reflect how he loves touring in America, even taking the time to praise the venue. Hails appreciation went above and beyond, he even said he was still processing playing the band's the biggest US headlining shows to date. He thanked the crowd so much for coming out and reminded the crowd that "Whatever you do tonight, this is a safe space, just have fun." Then, going into the next song "Landmine," Hails shouted "TURN THIS INTO THE BIGGEST CRICLE PIT! LANDMINE!!!!" and let me tell you, it did not take long for the floor to become one gigantic circle pit as people kept running in circles and pulling people from the sides into the pit so they could join. Polaris also brought out a special guest for the later half of the song in the likes of David Benites. Benites is the vocalist of the band Renesans and a well known vocal coach who runs an online vocal course called Extreme Vocal Institute. Benites and Hails kept trading screams off each other till the song ended, it was almost as if they were having a screaming contest between them.
After crushing it with "Overflow", Hails paid tribute to late guitarist Ryan Siew, who was Polaris' guitarist since 2013 but tragically passed away on June 19th, 2 months before the album's release. Fatalism marks Siew's final work with the band. Hails lamented on how the fans have never gotten a chance to meet Siew (Polaris has done 4 US/NA tours before this but Siew had to sit them all out due to visa issues) but thanked the fans for their continued support and helping them made their dreams as musicians come true. The entire room responded with chanting "POLARIS! POLARIS! POLARIS! POLARIS!" which took the whole band aback, I saw Hails could barely keep it in and was getting very emotional. For the next song, "Martyr (Waves)" Hails had everyone get their cellphone lights out and dedicated to song to Siew and anyone in attendance that had lost someone close to them. For the whole song, people had their lights out and you could feel the emotion radiating off the band from Hails' mournful screaming to Steinhause's serenading voice and sentimental guitar solo done by touring guitarist Jesse Crofts.
The last two songs were "Pray For Rain" and "The Remedy" and the crowd used up every last bit of energy they had. They were singing along to every single word to both songs and I saw the pit open far and wide for the crowd to go absolutely insane, especially during the breakdown to "The Remedy".
I could write a whole novel on Polaris and it will never be enough to describe their performance and stage presence. With Hail's insane screaming and growling complemented by Steinhause's cleans, creating this unique chemistry between the two, intricate guitar playing by Crofts which was backed up by Schneider's rhythms, and booming bass and drums done by Steinhause and Furnari respectively; the whole band created this pulsating and energetic performance that has left the crowd astonished.
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