On July 20th, 2025- The Summer Of Loud Tour unleashed chaos at Northwell at Jones Beach Amphitheater. This tour marks the first year of the Summer Of Loud tour and has a lineup consisting of Dark Divine, Alpha Wolf, The Amity Affliction, The Devil Wears Prada, Parkway Drive, Beartooth, I Prevail, and lastly Killswitch Engage. The Summer Of Loud Tour featured four headliners rotating each night (Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, I Prevail, Beartooth). Once the tour was announced, three different first acts brought chaos throughout the tour. The first part of the tour consisted of TX2, the second half was Kingdom of Giants, and lastly, the third part of the tour had Dark Divine as the opening band. I usually am not a beach type of person, but this tour was worth going to and seeing all of my favorite bands performing together.

The first band to kick the day off on a hot summer day in Long Island was an upcoming spooky metalcore band from Orlando, Florida, which is Dark Divine. Dark Divine currently comprises members Anthony Martinez (vocals), Robby Lynch (guitars), Cory “Scissorhands” (bass), and lastly, drummer Triston Blaize (drums). At first glance of the band, the main things that stand out with this band is the fact that they wear scary face paint, and it sort of feels like Halloween is all year round because of their aesthetic. The band is currently signed to Thriller Records and has just unveiled their latest single, titled “Better Start Digging,” and their previous single “Make Me Disappear”. “Better Start Digging” was one of their debut songs to perform live since joining the Summer Of Loud tour. I am somebody who does not enjoy going in mosh pits, but once I heard Martinez do his guttural screams, you already know I had to go in there. If you have not yet checked this band out, I highly recommend doing so.

Next to take the stage was Australian metalcore powerhouse Alpha Wolf, and let's just say this band wasted no time bringing the chaos to Jones Beach. The band currently comprises Lochie Keogh (vocals), Scottie Simpson (lead guitar), Sabian Lynch (rhythm guitar), John Arnold (bass/backing vocals), and lastly Mitch Fogarty (drums). The band kicked off their set with “Mangekyō”, a track from their latest album ‘Half Living Things’. Every time Alpha Wolf comes to New York, fans in the crowd already know what to do, and the crowd matches the band’s energy every single time. The band performed hit tracks from their latest album, which includes “Pretty Boy”, “Haunter”, and “Sucks 2 Suck”. One of the most memorable things that occurred during their performance was when they performed “Sub-Zero”, which was released in 2019 from their EP ‘Fault’. During that song, Keogh had told everybody in the crowd to split the pit down the middle for a wall of death. I have not moved away from the pit so fast in my life because there have been so many times I’ve accidentally walked into the wall of death for that track. Alpha Wolf closed off their set with one of their top tracks, “Akudama,” and overall, this band is one of my favorite bands to see live.

Once Alpha Wolf finished their set, it was time for Australian metal band The Amity Affliction. The band currently comprises Joel Birch (vocals), Dan Brown (guitar), Jonathan Reeves (bass/backing vocals), and Joe Longobardi (drums). From what it appeared, fans were going through an emotional rollercoaster once they kicked their set off with “Pittsburgh (No Intro)”. Birch greets the crowd and hits fans with his raw vocals, followed by Reeves’ powerful cleans. Earlier in the tour, Birch had broken his toe during one of their performances, and he was still moving around and hyping the crowd up while being in his boot. In May of this year, the band released their latest single “All That I Remember” via Pure Noise Records, and fans went feral once the song kicked off. The band has performed memorable and fan favorite tracks such as “Drag The Lake”, “All My Friends Are Dead”, and closed off their set with “Soak Me In Bleach”. The Devil Wears Prada is next to take the stage. The Devil Wears Prada is a metalcore band originating in Dayton, Ohio, and is currently signed to Solid State Records. The band currently consists of vocalist Mike Hranica, clean vocalist and guitarist Jeremy DePoyester, guitarist Kyle Sipress, Jonathan Gangering on keyboards, bassist Mason Nagy, and drummer Giuseppe Capolupo. To kick off their set, the band performed “Watchtower”, which was released in 2022 from their album ‘Color Decay’. After the first song, the band performed “Danger,” and the song was dedicated to their former drummer, Daniel Williams, and co-founder of Sound Talent Group, Dave Shapiro, who has recently passed away. Earlier this year, in April, the band released their latest single “For You,” and DePoyester called for all the couples and females in the crowd to get in the pit and start dancing. If I weren’t feeling the burn from the sun, I absolutely would have gone in, but unfortunately, that was not the case. To close things off, the band concluded their set with their popular tracks “Chemical” and “Sacrifice”.

It was time for one of our four headliners to take the stage; coming from South Wales, Australia, Parkway Drive took the stage and set the beach ablaze with their fiery performance. Parkway Drive, formed in 2003, currently comprises members Winston McCall (vocals), Jeff Ling (lead guitar), Luke Kilpatrick (rhythm guitar), Jia O’Connor (bass), and lastly Ben Gordon (drums). The band opened their set with “Glitch”, which was from their 2022 album ‘Darker Still, ’ and it set the tone for what the night was going to be like. As soon as they went on stage, circle pits were immediately formed, and it was just pure intense movement. The crowd felt like I was swimming in a wave of people with the amount of crowd surfers and moshers there were, especially when the band performed tracks such as “Prey”, “Vice Grip”, and “Wild Eyes”. The production in comparison to the last time I’ve seen Parkway Drive was incredible, especially with the pyro that was used in the performance. One of the massive highlights from their performance was when they closed off their set with “Crushed”. Fans were blown away because Gordon was hooked onto his drum kit and was on a harness because his drum setup was able to spin. After his remarkable drum solo, Winston screams for the final breakdown, and you see the drum kit light up with fire and spinning and turning upside down.

Next was our second headliner for the night, coming from Columbus, Ohio, are metalcore heavyweights Beartooth. Beartooth currently comprises frontman Caleb Shomo, Will Deely (rhythm guitar), Zach Huston (lead guitar), Oshie Bichar (bassist), and lastly Connor Denis (drums). They kicked things off with “The Lines”, which was from their debut album ‘Disgusting’, which was released in 2014, and the crowd began screaming the lyrics and roared through the room with their voices. The next song they performed was “The Past Is Dead”, which was from their 2021 album ‘Below’ via Redbull Records. Crowd surfers kept emerging, and honestly, I thought I was about to get tackled by all of them, but luckily, I was able to move out of the way quickly. The third song of the evening was “Sunshine!”, which is a track from their 2023 album ‘The Surface’, and I honestly was having the time of my life during that track. At the festival, I was wearing my yellow flower sunglasses from the Terrifier film, as well as a Hawaiian shirt. Shomo was having the audience clap before the pre-breakdown, and next thing, he pointed out my peer and me clapping together and giggled at us and was laughing at my sunglasses. That made the night memorable for me, and it was the most pleasant experience I’ve had at a concert. Beartooth mainly performed tracks from ‘The Surface’, which includes tracks such as “Riptide”, “I Was Alive”, “Might Love Myself”, and the crowd was very supportive of the band. To close their set, they performed their song “In Between”, which is considered to be an anthem from ‘Disgusting’.

The third headliner to take the stage is post-hardcore titans from Michigan, known as I Prevail. I Prevail has been one of my favorite bands since they formed, and the members currently consist of Eric Vanlerberghe (vocals), Dylan Bowman (guitar/backing vocals), Steve Menoian (guitar), Jon Eberhard

(keys/bass), and lastly, Gabe Helguera (drums). Since the departure of former frontman Brian Burkheiser, this was my first time watching Eric take full roles as frontman of the band. Since the departure of Burkheiser, the band has unleashed three powerful tracks, which include “Violent Nature”, “Into Hell”, and “Rain”, and will have their upcoming album ‘Violent Nature’, which is set to be released later in the year. To kick things off, the band blew fans away with their powerful opener “Bow Down”, and you cannot believe how many crowd surfers were being lifted. It was incredible. I Prevail performed powerful tracks such as “There’s Fear In Letting Go”, “Self Destruction”, and of course, you cannot forget their Taylor Swift cover of “Blank Space”. Vanlerberghe had stopped their show during “Blank Space,” and he told the crowd, “Hold up… Taylor Swift can only get so heavy,” and proceeded to make a brutal breakdown in the cover, and I was not expecting so many people to crowd kill. During the show, the band also performed “ Nature” and “Into Hell”, and the crowd reaction was insane, and so many voices were screaming the violent lyrics. Things took an emotional turn when they performed “Hurricane” in dedication to Dave Shapiro from Sound Talent Group. To close off their set with “Gasoline,” and I was left speechless from all the talent this band has to provide.

To close off the night, we have finally made it to our last headliner. It was time for metalcore legends Killswitch Engage to take the stage and close off Summer Of Loud for the night. Forming in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1999, the band consists of Jesse Leach (vocals), Adam Dutkiewicz (guitar), Joel Stroetzel (guitar), Mike D’Antonio (bass), and Justin Foley (drums). In February 2025, the band released an album, ‘This Consequence’, via Metal Blade Records. The album features songs such as “I Believe”, “Where It Dies”, and many more. To start their set, the band played “Rose Of Sharyn” from their 2004 album ‘The End Of Heartache’, and if I am being honest, this was one of the most energetic bands of the night. I was laughing like crazy because of what guitarist Dutkiewicz was wearing. He was wearing a sweatband that said beer, and his shirt also read "I'm with stupid,” and on top of that, his guitar design was a pizza. The band also performed tracks such as “In Due Time”, “I Believe”, “My Curse”, and of course, you can’t forget their Dio cover of “Holy Diver” that they concluded their set with. This was the first time I caught Killswitch Engage live, and Leach’s vocals were incredible. Fans were cheering at the chaos and shenanigans that were taking place on the stage. Leach was also talking about when he was younger, he used to ride his bike throughout Jones Beach, and he was mentioning how he felt nostalgic and is grateful to be back and performing at a place he had always visited. I would say Summer Of Loud was a huge success, and I cannot wait to see what this festival has planned in the future. If you have not yet checked out these bands that performed on this lineup, you are missing out.