‘The Black’ is the first tour with Asking Alexandria’s new frontman Denis Stoff who replaced Danny Worsnop at the beginning of 2015. Their latest album The Black, which is the first one with Denis, was released last month. AA played several concerts all across Australia last week and on 9 April they rocked The Met supported by Buried In Verona and Blessthefall.

Just like a lot of fans I was excited for the concert, but also very curious about the new vocalist. The Met was crowded, music lovers of all ages assembled and it was almost impossible to move while standing in the mass of people.

The first support of the evening was Buried In Verona, a metalcore band from Sydney. I haven’t heard a lot about them before but as soon as they started playing, they cast a spell over me. BIV warmed up the fans with a style that is similar to AA, but not as violent.

Then the American band Blessthefall entered the stage. Vocalist Beau Bokan was full of energy, running around on the stage and jumping off the drummer’s pedestal. He motivated the crowd by getting very close to his fans and asking them to sing along and jump. The crowd was raging and the first mosh pits started. The band was sick, they played with such a passion and I enjoyed the diversity of Beau Bokan’s higher growls and the really dark voice of bassist Jared Warth. After their performance everyone was covered in sweat and those who didn’t have the luck to get a spot close to the stage had no more chance. It was so crowded and everyone was waiting for the main act to start.

The members of Asking Alexandria appeared one after another and the atmosphere became intense. Finally, the man everyone was waiting for jumped on the stage and was welcomed with hundreds of screaming girls and the fans were going wild. They started their set with their new single I Won’t Give In, a song that was made for Denis’ voice and fits him like no one else. Their new songs sounded much more aggressive than they appear on the record. The setlist was a perfect mix of their new songs but also the best tracks of the recent years like A Prophecy, The Death Of Me or Not the American Average. Denis presence was lacking and wasn’t felt as strongly as a frontman should. He left a lot of the talking to the guitarist Ben Bruce, who did a wonderful job pumping up the crowd. The crowd themselves were shoving from all sides, creating a mosh pit and later on a wall of death after Stoff’s request. Bruce told the fans to sit down during a song, but that was almost impossible as there was no more space and people were just falling over each other.

The concert was electrifying and the crowd was surging, but a larger venue might have been more appropriate as there were just so many people.

- Natalie Städtler