Lucky, were all the people that showed up to the little venue in Kansas to see INTO ETERNITY!!!! We were lucky enough to get INTO ETERNITY on an off-date from the DARK TRANQUILITY and THE HAUNTED's North American Tour. However my group friends were the most lucky people there since we get to IE, but we were also the most unlucky since every opening band sounded the same and it was total Metalcore craptrastrophe (like catrastrophe, but different).
Although their was one band that was worth watching from the local openers, and that band was WHORACLE. This particular played a Metalcore kind of sound, but it was different. Despite the name they didn?t sound like a carbon copy of IN FLAMES, but I think it was more like HEAVEN SHALL BURN less groove though. They had some interesting song structures as well as fantastic soloing by the lead guitar player.
The moment I had waiting for since I had heard about a little festival in Atlanta, GA called ProgPower in 2004 when INTO ETERNITY opened the fest unfortunately I found out about the fest about 3 weeks after it occurred. I believe this is one of the first tours with new vocalist Stu Block, though I might be wrong, but either way he decimated almost ever other metal singer I have seen at such close range. He was energetic and charismatic and just fricking metal. Not to mention the guitar players and the way the vocals were interchanging. I have seen very few performances that were as tight and awesome as INTO ETERNITY. Not to mention that they were doing a headlining gig which they I think they have only done a handful of in the U.S.
INTO ETERNITY played some of my favorite songs from Buried In Oblivion, which also happens to be one of favorite albums possibly ever, such as Splintered Visions, Years Of Desolation and Spiraling Into Depression. There were others from said album but I can't recall their names as well newer songs like Severe Emotional Distress and Endless Winter. They even threw out a really old track from Dead Or Dreaming entitled Distant Pale Future.
Overall, this band was beyond worth the wait it took to see them and all the crappy Metalcore bands I had to sit through.
