Unprocessed ... live

[introclaus]

Last night I went to my first concert in what feels like forever.

Opener was a Canadian female-fronted metalcore band called RED HANDED DENIAL. I got some The Agonist vibes out of them (very versatile vocals, not too dissimilar from Alissa White Gluz), but also some more melodic elements, almost Evanescence, here and there. Their guitarist was really good, and along with the singer, he definitely was the focal point of the band. Lots of cool breakdowns. They did a great jump of warming up the audience, and I was quite impressed. I will check out their new album coming out in May.


This was UNPROCESSED's first headline tour in the States, and the show in Carrboro (Raleigh, NC) was sold out. In fact, it was their first ever sold out show!!! My assumption is that since Carrboro/Chapel Hill is a big college town, the band has gained quite a following among the young hipster and / or autonome left-wing kids - it definitely felt like I stood out like a sore thumb in there among all the purple, green, blue and pink haired kids. Oh well, I'm just thrilled that the band has managed to make themselves known and they deserve all the success they are getting right now. The set list was fairly short and to the point. 1 hour 20 minutes, and that was it. We got most of their last album "...And Everything In Between", 3 songs off of "Gold", 2 from "Artificial Void" and one or two older tunes. There was a nice mosh-pit going on, and the band even managed to convince people to stage dive. I myself was jumping up and down and headbanging for entire show and probably burned quite a lot of calories, lol. The band was incredibly tight - all 4 musicians were on a completely different level than most anything I've heard live throughout my entire life. That said, bassist David John Levy and singer/lead guitarist Manuel Gardner Fernandes are 95% of Unprocessed. Between those two, the show was super entertaining (David is a beast in terms of getting audience going crazy), and their chops are just insane. I have been to so many concerts throughout my 52 years ... between working as a music journalist, being a music manager, managing a concert venue, and just being a huge music fan in general, I've gone to literally thousands of shows ... but I can safely say that this was a top 5 live experience for me. I was entertained from start to finish, I was in awe about how great the band was, and I loved seeing the young audience getting into it. Unprocessed is growing fast, and in a few years they will well-deservedly become a leader within the progressive metal and technical metalcore/djent adjacent genre(s).

[Mardoch]

That's awesome! I wish this tour was coming within striking distance for me.

[giedrius]

Thanks for the review! I hope to see them live someday as well. It is amazing that newer tech/prog/djent bands get recognized and attract many people to their shows.

[LarryD]

I'm glad you got to see them .........