Hatebreed and Devil You Know: Live At Gas Monkey Bar N’Grill!! – Dallas, TX

Summer is approaching, and the big season of shows is upon us, but there’s a tour that features the huge return of a band that hadn’t headlined here for four years and it kind of makes an official start in terms of big and worthy shows: HATEBREED supporting their new album The Concrete Confessional (Nuclear Blast), along with DEVIL YOU KNOW. With this lineup coming to Dallas on May 27 at the Gas Monkey Bar N’Grill, the city was about to be destroyed with a sold out show and multiple souls being treated for good through the universal language.

DEVIL YOU KNOW has been active for a relativelyshort period of time, and after multiple failed attempts on my end to see them, I finally had the chance to be on time for their first riff this night.

With just two albums released so far, DEVIL YOU KNOW were an instant favorite band to the Dallas crowd, and they brought us a solid set list composed of very joyful songs that perfectly warmed up an excited group of people that attended the venue. I wasn’t very familiar with most of this bands’ tunes but I made sure I allowed myself to enjoy their great stuff and watch their chemistry as a band.

Ryan Wombacher (bass) former member of BLEEDING THROUGH, Nick Augusto (drums) former member of TRIVIUM, Francesco Artusato (guitar) from ALL SHALL PERISH and Howard Jones (vocals) previous vocalist from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE proved how they’re truly a super group that’s here to stay for good.


The tracks played on such a night included: “Consume the Damned”, which made an excellent song to start the evening along with a solid circle pit. “Embracing the Torture” and “Seven Years Alone” were the following two tracks that got the crowd moving. Other songs that made DEVIL YOU KNOW stand as a great opener for this tour were “A New Beginning” and “Stay of Execution”.

“The Way We Die” is a song that I’m familiar with, and released with a very particular video (the one with the “Hookers”, as Howard describes it) it was very joyful to hear the song live. Finally, to close the set, “Shut it Down” left DEVIL YOU KNOW with the horns up high to an open crowd in Dallas for the next time they come back and jam again with us.

After this ended, I could only be excited for the huge performance from the headliner: HATEBREED. After a relatively long time (which was useful to recover). The lights went off to receive a strong return from the hardcore legends, who have just hit a career achievement on Billboard’s top albums chart with their new release.

The Concrete Confessional was defined by the A&GS staff as the substitute for the yoga classes you don’t need, and once we go over this band from Connecticut, you’ll know what I’m talking about. After starting with “Destroy Everything”, Jamey Jasta introduced us to their second single from the new record “Looking Down the Barrel of Today”, which tore the place up completely.


A standout feature from this night’s show was Jasta saying the band would play at least one song from every single album. The sold-out crowd was delighted to hear HATEBREED’s songs back and for to keep having a good time. From their first record in 1997, to their seventh record release in 2016. HATEBREED brought us over twenty songs to sweat and rise above ourselves.

The first half of the show was more of a throwback to the classic tunes, with songs like: “Honor Never Dies”, “Empty Promises” and “Before Dishonor”, I never imagined I would see such chaos during a HATEBREED show! During that first half we also got to hear some more classics that every die-hard knows: “Live For This”, “This Is Now” and “To the Threshold”.

Going through the second half of the set, things got a little uglier in a way that more and more people started to join the pit and move around, until it looked like everybody was part of this massive phenomenon. The show was complete madness and Jasta hardly gave the fans any time to rest, but always made sure that we were OK.


Taken from different albums, other songs that also made everyone lose their mind were: “Perseverance”, “Everyone Bleeds Now”, “In Ashes They Shall Reap” and “Proven”. “A.D.” also joined a special place among these songs for being the best song from the new album and for being a piece of gold when played live.


By this time, it looked like all the fans got their money’s worth. Such a wonderful packet of bands performing in front of a loyal crowd, on a fresh day, just before the memorial weekend, the night couldn’t be better at this point. Lastly, and unfortunately, the time was up for the headliners, and they finished their incredible performance with one of my favorite songs “I Will Be Heard”, which holds a powerful message that cleans the soul up and lets me go home to liberate myself again.

I’m pretty sure that after everything that I saw I have fair reasons to put this show as one of my top ones from this year. As I stated again: one band coming from an inactive period that I hadn’t seen in a really long time, plus a super band that perfectly describes such name in every sense of the word.

It was a very complete musical experience and I’m glad it happened during the year that also the greatest shows I’ve witnessed are happening. Lastly, and very important, there were zero douchebags in the pit, which is the whole point of showing up to a good show. Congratulations to both bands for their success and please take note that I’ll be waiting for them to come back with more killer headlining tours.

LIVE IMAGES: SCENES OF MADNESS PHOTOGRAPHY

LIVE WORDS: THE ALCALDE