I Prevail is by far one of the hottest new metal bands today. Their debut- Lifelines released just two months ago and it’s already one of the top records of the year and they stopped by Fort Wayne, Ind.’s Hub Entertainment Center recently for 98.9 The Bear’s annual Electric Christmas show with Citizen Zero, Sick Puppies and Pop Evil.
They made waves earlier this year with their metal cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” but there is so much more to the band than just a Taylor Swift cover band and they proved this with Lifelines and prove it even more whenever they take the stage and did just that in Fort Wayne, taking over just after Citizen Zero rocked the crowd.
With the dual-singer attack of Brian Burkeiser and Eric Vanlerberghe balancing clean and unclean vocals things heated up fast and it wasn’t long before The Hub was a madhouse. With the venue recently becoming all-ages, many people are still getting used to seeing kids at the venue formerly known as Pieres, but with a band like I Prevail, it played to the crowd’s favor.
They started off early with “Come and Get It” and crunched as many gut-punches into their short set as possible. “Scars,” “Stuck In Your Head” and, yes, even “Blank Space” decapitated the crowd and showed them exactly what I Prevail is capable of.
At one point they asked the crowd how many people were seeing them for the first time, which was a good chunk of the capacity-crowd. No worries, though, I Prevail took it as a challenge to win over every single person in the crowd and they did more than just that. They made disciples of everyone there.
Even with a short opening set like they had, they balanced the setlist perfectly, slowing it down with the title track from “Lifelines” right in the middle, showing off their versatility before cranking it back up and finishing off their set with an explosion of an ending.
By the end of the set, they showed everyone why they aren’t just one of the best new bands in metal today- they stole the show and proved that they are one of the frontrunners to become the future of rock and metal before veterans Sick Puppies and Pop Evil finished the evening with equally impressive sets.
-Reggie Edwards
Pre-show interview with I Prevail: