Hatebreed

Live at Ozzfest

San Bernardino, CA

September 24th, 2016

Review and photos by Travis Baumann

Hatebreed are a Metalcore band out of Connecticut. They recently put out their seventh studio album, "The Concrete Confessional" via Nuclear Blast records and are a featured band at this year's Metal extravaganza, Ozzfest.

I have only recently started listening to the band at the suggestion of some friends and while they are significantly more "hardcore" than the majority of the Metal I listen to, I definitely found the draw they have with their vast fan base.

Hatebreed on stage and in the studio are Jamey Jasta front and center, delivering their message to the masses, Frank Novinec and Wayne Lozinak on guitars, Chris Beattie playing bass guitar, and Matt Byrne on drums.

Lyrically, the songs are charged with angst but not undirected. Jamey's expression is based on the world around us and what is happening due to individual focus and the lack of incite in how we are actually all connected.

Our attention is not only short in span, but looking at the wrong things in life he surmises. We are focusing on immaterial things in an increasingly detached technological age and it isn't helping the state of affairs globally, or even in our own social circles. Hatebreed provide an outlet of focus and a coping device for that anger and frustration.

Kicking off the set with "To the Threshold" ignited the assembled crowd with an immediate release of energy, dust clouds churning from the dry earth as the center of the crowd rotated around each other in a frenzy of movement.

They played a song from their latest release which is one of the songs I initially gravitated towards, "Looking Down the Barrel of Today". Jasta's delivery is something akin to an aggressive rap at times, with a buoyancy that makes you want to jump up and down in time with his hand motions.

Continuing with material from "The Concrete Confessional" they did "A.D." and followed that up with "Everyone Bleeds Now". Jamie would shout words of encouragement to those in the pit between songs and kept the energy at peak level.

Their set flowed through at least one track from all of their albums with "In Ashes They Shall Reap", "Proven", and "Last Breath" moving on to the last third of their set time with "As Diehard as They Come".

"Honor Never Dies", "This Is Now", and "I Will Be Heard" lead into the final battle cry of the afternoon, "Destroy Everything" which the audience made good intentions on accomplishing.  

It was a high energy show and I can see why huge bands like Slayer and Slipknot have had these guys as direct support on major tours as they really get the crowd going.

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