KSE & BX 5/1/14

Another article, more Battlecross. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I ventured out with my good friend David Zeck to shoot the first interview for my new Youtube show “Bloodlines” at the request of Hiran D, who encouraged me to begin working on interviewing musicians and opening a world to the perspective of questions I create. I took his challenge with open arms, and then expanded upon it. As of right now, the show is in production and is scheduling a June first release date. It will encompass concert reviews, album reviews and will have a featured segment once a month on a local band in NYC and most likely beyond. Three different types of show for this behemoth I am creating.  Not only was I able to conduct this interview, but compile a nice little review from the show itself.

With bands like My Ticket Home and Into Another also on the bill, this night and review is completely focused on Battlecross and Killswitch Engage alone. As Battlecross began to hit the stage, I found myself confronting everyone on stage. Band members and fans were not safe. Of course as always, its all in good humor. It was time where my elation for this show continuously began to increase knowing my good friends were about to dominate The Paramount. Shooting this show was more difficult than I expected, especially when friends of mine told me the lighting system was really good. As usual there’s always something bad to go with my good times. The shallow front of the stage allowed no frontal lighting to get rid of shadows, so a high ISO levels were necessary for this. Going from 6,400 to even a harsh 12,800, the camera antics were present making shooting photos tough. Not to mention, purple and green lighting throughout just didn’t bring the POP from some of the photos as I anticipated. Never-the-less, I was satisfied with my work. But this was NOT my favorite shooting set of them. Frantic moshing and circle pits were prevalent but no crowd-surfing. It is going on a year since I have these worked with these fine gentlemen and the party is forever continuous. They come back to the merchandise table and greet fans with such infectious positivity as they usually do and make us realize that musicians are human to and that they appreciate the care from fans and do there best to reciprocate the emotional responses in kind. Beyond this, the interview went well with Hiran. Me and David managed to shoot it backstage outside the venue and for the first time interviewing someone, I felt very comfortable. We had our jarring moments where my nerves were ruining his and did have some hiccups, but I expected that as it was myself being in front of a camera for the first time in five years. I hope this will continue on, the comfort level not the nervousness. Having a musician encourage somebody to do more than just what the status quo believes is quite something. The first push is always the hardest and Hiran used a lot of force in his push onto me. I am grateful for this influence. The fans ate up Battlecross’ set-list as did I. Check out the set-list and the photos below.

1. Force Fed Lies
2. My Vaccine
3. Beast
4. Never Coming Back
5. Flesh & Bone
6 .Kaleb
Pursuit of Honor (Intro)
7. Push Pull Destroy

Roadrunner’s own Killswitch Engage was up after the band “Into Another” finished their set. The entire venue began to prepare itself for an hour and a half of the best tour package to quite possibly hit Long Island. The set environment was reminiscent to the first time I shot KSE at Manhattan’s Best Buy Theater with tour package Miss May I, Affiance and Darkest Hour. The backdrop was still the same but I knew the lighting would be top notch. The band opened up with crowd-surfers as A Bid Farewell was played. The frantic movements between the increased security and other photographers added to the frustration from the narrow sized photo pit floor. The third song went right into the 2013 album “Disarm the Descent” with “New Awakening” bringing an increased volume of surfers and a heavy one sided mosh pit that pushed the barricades to its limits. Six songs were played off the current album with continuous excitement and other classics that were written in the Howard Jones era (2002 – 2012). Jesse Leach, the bands original lead singer, took the songs of the bands legacy and created such unique interpretations to his own talent. Those songs felt like those were his own and I can honestly say that I have not seen a singer do that as long as I been working as a music-journalist with any band I have covered. Killswitch has always been a band I have desired to shoot. But since having my way last Summer, I feel spoiled every time I experience a concert of their own. Adam D’s dirty humorism’s and ability to be a total goof on stage give me a unique perspective of a founding member in comparison to his counterpart Joel Stroetzel, who is the complete opposite of Adam. he stands still and hardly engages fans or photographers. But when he does, the moment is so spot on with impeccable timing. He also likes to hang alongside bassist Mike D’Antonio, the second founding member, who is significantly noticeable by his custom Ibanez bass guitar. I got some direct perspectives of these gentlemen. Portrait photos that were ten times better than what I shot before. Landscapes that covered members in various degrees of composition. It was all win-win for everyone involved in this night. I will always love shooting Killswitch Engage, bottom line. The unrelenting energy that surges from these individuals onto the fans and even the security guards that protect everyone is ongoing throughout the show. I am grateful to be such a lover of music and I hope you see the set-list and photos below of this unbelievable night. It didn’t end there though…

1. A Bid Farewell
2. This Is Absolution
3. New Awakening
4. The Arms of Sorrow
5. This Fire Burns
6. Self Revolution
7. Beyond the Flames
8. Rose of Sharyn
9. Life to Lifeless
10. Take This Oath
11. No End in Sight
12. You Don’t Bleed for Me
13. Always
14. My Last Serenade
15. All We Have
16. Fixation on the Darkness
17. In Due Time
18. The End of Heartache
19. My Curse

At the end of the show, Hiran of Battlecross escorted myself and my cameraman David to the backstage to meet the band. With the KSE crew in tow, we got to meet Joel, Adam D and Jesse himself. We all snapped photos while both Jesse & Adam signed autographs of the photos I shot the very first time. It was a very big memory for me as I have been listening to this band since I was an early teenager. Jesse’s appearance, while albeit the second time meeting him, felt like it was the first time all over again. I was starstruck, not going to lie. We called him out and complimented his talent as he walked on past us. He said he was going to put his stuff in the bus and come back out. He kept true to his promise, walked over to us  and said “whats going on fellas?” I was floored as my friends asked for their photos to be taken with him while he ate his celebratory pizza meal. He signed my photo I presented to him, to which he complimented my photography skills. There was a level of humbleness in Jesse that I got to experience first hand and it was uplifting to be part of that. We thanked him for his contribution to music and his lyrical skills to which he replied back to us “Thanks for caring.”

This was a night of firsts in my career and experiences. I want to thank my family in Battlecross for allowing me to push myself to be a better journalist every time and Hiran for the great interview and the backstage antics I was bestowed onto. We have to boost each-other in a genre where brotherhood and family unity is the main outlet of our celebration of what this kind of music does to us on a positive level. Until then, I will catch you fine people on the flip side.

—Derek Soto—

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Check out the First Episode of Bloodlines with Hiran of Battlecross NOW!