It's my first ever music show! I've been to a few orchestra concerts over the years but never a show by any musical artist or band, and it was only after the Coldplay and Taylor Swift craze in Singapore recently that the thought finally came to my mind: why don't I go and see bands live? And coincidentally, Alpha Wolf announced their Asia tour with Singapore as the first stop, and I grabbed the early bird ticket before I could regret it.
It was a bit wild to think about at first, having my first show be deep in the heavy side of modern metal, and of course I wasn't sure what to do about moshing and all, but after a while I just decided I'll go there and find out, even if I get a little bumped around.
The line-up featured three local acts, two of which I managed to find time to listen to a bit before the show itself. I thought it was super cool that Alpha Wolf would have so many local acts play with them, and I was surprised in general that our Singaporean heavy scene was so much stronger than I expected. These weren't just your run of the mill let's-start-a-band kind of band, they had skill and talent and have been around for a long while.
Reaching the venue 20 minutes late, I found out we still had to wait another 20 more minutes before anything happened. I took the time to just take it in, being back at Aliwal Arts Centre after 5 years, and also (without looking too creepy) take a look at what the rest of the showgoers look liked. I was a bit surprised to see a few NS boys, one even freshly shaved, but the majority of the crowd kind of met my expectations: heavy band merch, some tattoos, emo and goth adjacent fashion and makeup. I guess I was just surprised at all that there were in fact other heavy metal listeners in Singapore, I've gotten so used to the idea that nobody I know listens to metal so it must be really rare (To be fair it is still a small crowd of less than 200 people).
When we were finally let in, I was lucky to be in the front of the line. I didn't realise how much it mattered because I just beelined for the merch booth, but when I looked back at it half a set later, all of Alpha Wolf's shirts had sold out. I'm glad I bought mine first instead of going to watch the band play (no offense ARC), gotta get merch at shows yaknow? Anyways, I'll talk about the bands in order of appearance.
Aggressive Raisin Cat! This band shocked me quite a bit, I'll be honest. They're strongly rooted in progressive metalcore, and their influences are pretty obvious, but they honestly pull it off quite well. Their discography was quite short when I first looked at it weeks before the show, so I thought maybe they weren't particularly experienced, but they put on a damn good show. The instrumentals are insanely tight, I love the drumwork and hearing fast double kicks live hits different, and the guitarwork was pretty damn technical but they killed it. The vocalist had a respectable harsh vocal range and although he seemed a bit out of breath here and there, he threw down otherwise. His stage presence is particularly vibrant, I must say, he talks in Singlish like it's nobody's business and sounds extremely Gen Z (although he might be a millenial? I'm not counting), entertaining guy indeed.
Tariot came next, I think they're the oldest local act on the list. They had some technical issues starting out and it was kinda cool to know that 1. these things happen, 2. people don't really remember it once the music starts (unless it's really bad I suppose). Their music was mainly hardcore or hardcore adjacent, in stark contrast to the previous band, but I could definitely notice a lot more moshing. They even got a wall of death in, which I was surprised that it happened with the number of people moshing at the time. Their set had a lot more things going on, I think another vocalist from a different band ran on stage to scream for a bit, and on their last song their guitarist ran down to the floor and played there. Solid hardcore stuff honestly, but I think the energy outweighed the actual quality of music by a lot (not to say it was bad music, it's just that I wasn't focusing on the music as long as I could headbang).
Tell Lie Vision was the last local act, and the least heavy too, but not by much. In fact, I think they picked the heavier songs from their catalogue just to match the energy. They did have a lot more clean singing in comparison to the rest of the bands, but I have to say that his screams sounded the clearest by far, and it was honestly pretty impressive. They had that post-hardcore vibe especially with all the pop sensibilities and electronic infusions, but they had a great set overall.
Alpha Wolf! The main act everyone was here for. They had us leave the venue for a bit so that they could set up without ruining the surprise, so the anticipation was reignited. When we went back in, the banner had changed, and a lot more people crowded to the front (me included) and it already felt more lively. The Alpha Wolf boys came in and started the set with 60cm Of Steel, and the energy in the room shot up tenfold. Their playing was immaculate, drums were hard hitting, guitars were heavy and pissed, and vocals were monstrous. His screams came through the speakers so clearly and loud, and the difference compared to the studio version was minor. They sounded amazing live, is what I'm trying to say. As their set went on, the energy only continued to rise, and a lot more people were moving around and moshing. They got a circle pit going during Hotel Underground and Rot In Pieces, they had a wall of death for Restricted (R18+) and by the end of the set they had people diving off the stage left and right. Part of their set included older material like Black Mamba and Sub-Zero which I honestly wasn't too familiar with, but the rest of the set was all exclusively from A Quiet Place to Die and their half of The Lost & The Longing. I liked that they included bleed 4 you and don't ask..., I wasn't expecting the more emotional songs to get on their setlist but they killed it, and having the audience sing for bleed 4 you felt really nice. Getting to see the Acid Romance breakdown live was amazing, it was such a banger, and Ultra-Violet Violence live sounded insane too. And of course, their most popular song Akudama closed out the set, and the whole place was going crazy. People were climbing on stage and diving off, it was getting rowdy, the Aggressive Raisin Cat vocalist screamed part of the song, and by the end of the song there were like 20 people on stage doing god knows what (and they popped a bottle and sprayed it at the crowd too). The guitarist also did some stage dives which was cool, and it was just a super fun vibe to experience.
I have absolutely no regrets on going to this show, especially with the $40 price tag. I was pleasantly surprised by how lively the local heavy scene was, and it honestly felt like it was a place where everyone was enjoying themselves. People going ham with the moshing, even a little bit of lowkey crowdkilling during the Tariot set, it was definitely an eye-opening experience. I also learned a few good things, like how great earplugs are, how important being in front is if you want merch, and that holding your phone up to record even one song gets tiring real quick. Better build up that arm strength.
(Asia 2023 tour graphic)