Thursday 06/12/07 Avenged Sevenfold, Operator, The Confession, Black Tide @ The Rialto Theater, Tucson, Arizona

It’s a sold out house and the Rialto is bulging at the seams. The heavy metal of Black Tide opens the show and we’re a bit shocked when lead vocalist Gabriel Garcia opens his mouth. Not only does he shred on the guitar his voice has a rough, deep and mean quality that seems well beyond his years. The band member’s ages range from 15 to 19 and their metal is outrageously fresh and pure. They perform ‘Show Me The Way’ leaving no metal corner unturned as drummer Steven Spence pounds like an animal and Gabriel sears steaming screaming licks into our brains. During ‘Where’s The Top’ all three guitarist line up and just wail, they absolutely have the skill to match those bitchen axes they carry. What garage did these lads come from? The crowd is moshing, screaming and won. Black Tide will release their debut album in February and that’s exactly when their UK tour starts.

The Confession takes over with ‘No Angel’ as bassist Matt Pauling lays the framework for this urgent piece and crowd surfers begin to fly. Smoke fills the stage, blue and red lights flash, the crowd is beating their fists whilst Kevin Fyfe plays a killer lick. Lead singer Taylor Armstrong’s vox is precise as he moves through growls, roars, nastiness and purity. The audience is holding up their lighters before the song is done. The crowd now claps overhead as the intro to ‘The End Is Near’ begins then the band drags us willingly into their metal depths. Taylor says “This song goes out to all the rowdy motherfuckers, spin that fucker boys!” The unruly mosh pit complies as ‘Rise And Fall’ smashes into us. Hold on a second do we hear a cowbell or is that just our ears ringing?

The bold and outrageous Operator give us ‘Soulcrusher’ and blow us away. The vocals of Johnny Strong are beyond good. Many have compared him to Chris Cornell but we beg to differ he is much more akin to Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. Just when we think Johnny has reached his vocal limit we discover he’s just warming up as he pours himself into the song reaching a new level of intensity with ease. Cocky and sure Operator begins ‘What You Get.’ Paul Phillips does an incredible long screeching lick that rises, falls and thrills. Then Paul ends the lick with a high flying scissors jump and the crowd roars. They finish with the powerful, hot and addicting ‘Nothing To Lose.’