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wage warLuxor, Cologne, Germany
30th May 2019
Wage War - European And Uk Tour 2019 - Special Guests: Our Hollow Our Home

The Californian Metalcore quintet WAGE WAR has already been able to impress concertgoers several times as support in Europe. Among others during the last European tours of AUGUST BURNS RED, OF MICE & MEN, and MOTIONLESS IN WHITE. Now the band came to Europe for their first headlining tour. With the current single ‘Low’ the band gives us a taste of the upcoming third album, which will be released later this year. The predecessor album ‘Deadweight’ made it to number 2 in the US hard rock charts and number 8 in the US rock charts in 2017.


Our Hollow Our Home

The above-mentioned band - which fans also refer to as OHOH - is a Metalcore band from Southampton UK, and they have formed in 2013. So far, the band has released a debut EP called ‘//Redefine’, and two albums, ‘Hartsick’ (2017) and ‘In Moment // In Memory’ (2018). https://www.facebook.com/ourhollowourhome / http://www.ourhollowourhome.com

Music & Performance
The five members of OUR HOLLOW OUR HOME entered the stage at 8pm, tuned their guitars and fixed their earpieces, and opened their set. Their music definitely ticks all boxes of melodic Metalcore, where the following artists might serve as a reference: WHILE THE SLEEPS and BURY TOMORROW.

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Shouter Connor Hallisey together with rest of the band put on a very intense show, and the Cologne audience seemed to have waited for this to happen all day long (that day was a bank holiday). Otherwise it would be hard to explain the mayhem that unleashed in the pit of the tiny club Luxor. OUR HOLLOW OUR HOME set new heights for a support act in terms of the escalation level in front of the stage. It did not take long for scores of crowd surfers to appear, while the people in the front used whatever confined space they had to create circle pits, all with the encouraging support of Connor and his crew. The thirty minutes flew by very quickly and near the stage, everyone was covered in beer and sweat. The only lesson that the Luxor crew should learn is only to give out plastic cups during Metalcore concerts, as the floor was covered in broken glass pretty soon, which made it rough for people who fell during the pit activities.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7 / 10


Wage War

WAGE WAR was up next. The Metalcore formation originally started under the name EMPIRES in Ocala, Florida, in 2010. Anyone who has been to this inland area section of Florida knows that there is not a lot to do, which in turn provides a fertile breeding ground for awesome musicians and insanely aggressive music (similar to Iowa, I suppose). https://www.facebook.com/wagewar / www.wagewarband.com

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Music & Performance
After the obligatory stage break, it was time for WAGE WAR. Around 9pm, the speakers began blaring the hip hop track ‘Leglock’ from SHAKEWELL. Then, the first notes of the opener ‘Don’t let me Fade Away’ from the band’s second album ‘Deadweight’ resounded, while the band entered the stage, and when they kicked off the song together, the already warmed-up pit was sent into frenzy. WAGE WAR provided their winning formula for an encapsulating performance: an immensely intense version of Screamo-oriented Metalcore, twinned with excellent technical abilities and carefully augmented electronic effects. The audience celebrated the performance with circle pits and the occasional wall of death (yep, didn’t know that was possible inside the Luxor). Also, stage divers were clawing their way on top of the crowd’s hands towards the stage, were they were caught by three stage hands, and OUR HOLLOW OUR HOME guitarist Tobias Young, who also live streamed parts of the gig on Facebook.

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The end came far too early after 45 minutes, and was marked by the song ‘Stitch’ from their second album: a song monster that exudes the raw brutality of the early MACHINE HEAD records, and which left the audience heavily out of breath and screaming ‘One more song’, which unfortunately did not materialize.

Setlist
01. Don’t Let Me Fade Away
02. Alive
03. Twenty One
04. Youngblood
05. Witness
06. The River
07. Low
08. Johnny Cash
09. Two Years
10. Southbound
11. Gravity
12. Stitch

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 7
Total: 8 / 10

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All pictures by Christian Beyermann

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