Halestorm & I Prevail at Arizona Financial Theatre

Led by charismatic vocalist/guitarist Lzzy Hale, Pennsylvania-based post-grunge/metal quartet Halestorm are one of the most successful hard rock groups of the early 21st century. With an aggressive yet hook-heavy sound that has become a fixture of American rock radio, Halestorm have toured restlessly, playing hundreds of shows per year and sharing the stage with nearly all of the popular American hard rock acts of their era. In 2013, the band took home a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance for the single “Love Bites (So Do I),” which appeared on their sophomore studio effort, The Strange Case Of…. Subsequent efforts Into the Wild Life (2015), Vicious (2018), and Back from the Dead (2022) have shown the group to be equally adept at muscular hard rockers and piano-driven power ballads, and their sound has branched out to include elements of dance music and pop-country.

Siblings Elizabeth and Arejay Hale, the core members of Halestorm, formed the group in late 1997 near York, Pennsylvania, with Arejay on drums and Elizabeth on vocals and keyboard. Wanting to expand their sound, the duo invited their father, Roger, to play bass with the band. Shortly after their first professional gig in 1998 at the Blue Mountain Coffee House in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Halestorm added various guitar players and released an EP, 1999’s (Don’t Mess with The) Time Man. More lineup changes occurred, but Halestorm finally solidified with Elizabeth (who was by then going by Lzzy) on vocals and guitar, Josh Smith on bass, Arejay on drums, and Joe Hottinger on guitar. The band caught the attention of producer David Ivory as well as Atlantic Records — both were involved in the group’s major-label debut, 2006’s One and Done, a five-song EP recorded live at a show in Philadelphia. They would finally make their full-length studio debut in 2009 with the eponymous Halestorm, all the while maintaining a rigorous touring schedule that would see them playing upwards of 250 shows a year.

The following year, Halestorm released the concert recording Live in Philly 2010, and Reanimate: The Covers EP appeared in 2011, featuring the band’s takes on songs by Heart, Guns N’ Roses, and Lady Gaga. Their sophomore album, The Strange Case Of…, followed in 2012, and the single “Love Bites (So Do I)” earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance. Reanimate 2.0 was released in 2013, this time finding the band tackling Fleetwood Mac, Daft Punk, and Marilyn Manson. Halestorm’s eclectic third studio long-player, the Jay Joyce-produced Into the Wild Life, was released in April 2015, and was preceded by the single “Apocalyptic.” The live EP Into the Wild Live: Chicago arrived in 2016, followed in early 2017 by their third covers set, Reanimate 3.0, which featured songs by Whitesnake, Metallica, and Soundgarden. Vicious, the band’s fourth studio long-player, followed in July 2018 and earned the group a Best Rock Performance Grammy nomination for the single “Uncomfortable.” 2020 saw Halestorm issue Reimagined, a six-song EP that featured stripped-down versions of five fan favorites and a cover of “I Will Always Love You.”

Two years later, they unveiled their fifth long-player, Back from the Dead. Produced by Nick Raskulinecz with co-production by Scott Stevens, the 11-song set included “The Steeple” and “Back from the Dead,” the latter of which became Halestorm’s sixth single to reach number one on the Active Rock charts. A deluxe edition of the album with seven new tracks arrived later that December. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi

An explosive American post-hardcore quintet with cross-genre tendencies, I Prevail emerged in the early 2010s and found success the following year with a metallic rendering of Taylor Swift‘s “Blank Space.” The band earned a pair of Grammy nominations in 2019 with their chart-topping sophomore full-length Trauma. They returned in 2022 with True Power, which injected electronic, pop, and hip-hop elements to their attack.

Based out of Southfield, Michigan, I Prevail formed in 2013 around the talents of Brian Burkheiser (vocals), Eric Vanlerberghe (vocals), Steve Menoian (guitar), Jordan Berger (guitar), and Lee Runestad (drums). Employing a blistering blend of metalcore, pop-punk, and post-hardcore that invokes names like Bring Me the Horizon, We Came as Romans, and A Day to Remember, the band issued their debut EP Heart vs. Mind through Fearless Records in December 2014. A hard-hitting cover of Taylor Swift‘s “Blank Space,” which elicited over two million views on YouTube, helped further establish the band as a rising force within the hardcore scene. They later proved their original songwriting capability with the release of their 2016 debut album, Lifelines. Featuring a re-tooled lineup that consisted of Burkheiser, Vanlerberghe, Menoian, and new guitarist Dylan Bowman, the LP debuted at number one on the Billboard alternative, hard music, and rock charts. The following year, the group parted ways with Runestad and bassist Tony Camposeo, recruiting replacements Gabe Helguera and Eli Clark. They got to work on their follow-up album while touring with the Word Alive, We Came as Romans, and Escape the Fate.

In 2019, the band returned with sophomore effort Trauma, which included the singles “Bow Down” and “Breaking Down.” At the end of the year, they received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album and “Bow Down” entered the fray, competing for Best Metal Performance. The following year saw the band release a stripped-down acoustic version of the moody Trauma single “Hurricane.” After “DOA,” a collaborative single with rapper Joyner Lucas, I Prevail issued a live version of their previous album under the title Post Traumatic, recorded around the world in 2019 and 2020. In 2022, they released their third LP, True Power, which continued to push their genre experimentation in fresh directions, incorporating cinematic electronic production, rap verses, and even shimmering pop ballads.

Hollywood Undead hail from the streets of Hollywood, California, mixing brash hip-hop, rock, and minor metalcore touches with cocky posturing. With their colorful pseudonyms and unique hockey goal tender-inspired masks, the band debuted in 2008 with Swan Songs, but didn’t hit their commercial stride until the release of their 2011 sophomore effort, American Tragedy, which cracked the Top Ten on the Billboard 200 chart. Subsequent outings like Notes from the Underground (2013), Five (2017), the two-volume New Empire (2020), and Hotel Kalifornia, performed just as well, if not better, cementing the group’s reputation as one of rapcore’s leading lights.

Owing much of their popularity and exposure to the social networking website MySpace, the group started as the musical project of J-Dog and Tha Producer in June 2005. They uploaded some new music to their profile and very quickly started amassing song plays and online friends with tracks about drinking, sex, and emo kids. “The gang,” as the guys liked to refer to themselves, grew to include six members: J-Dog and Tha Producer alongside Charlie Scene, Johnny 3 Tears (formerly called the Server), Funny Man, and Da Kurlzz. As the band’s online profile steadily increased, MySpace head honcho Tom Anderson wasn’t immune and wound up featuring Hollywood Undead’s song “No. 5” on MySpace’s first compilation album, in addition to giving them the distinction of being the first act signed to the site’s new record label (distributed by Interscope) in 2005.

Swan Songs finally appeared in 2008 on A&M/Octone Records. A year later, that label released an album of B-sides, live tracks, and covers titled Desperate Measures. In 2010, vocalist Aron “Deuce” Erlichman left the group; he was replaced by Daniel “Danny” Murillo, a former contestant on American Idol and lead singer of Lorene Drive. After shows with Avenged Sevenfold on The Nightmare After Christmas Tour, Hollywood Undead released their sophomore album, American Tragedy, in April of 2011, and the album debuted in the Top Five of Billboard’s Top 200. The following November, A&M/Octone Records released a remix version of the record called American Tragedy Redux, which featured mixes by Andrew W.K., Borgore, and KMFDM, among others.

In January of 2013, after embarking on The Underground Tour, Hollywood Undead released their third studio album, Notes from the Underground, which proved to be their highest-charting outing to date, landing at the number two spot on the Billboard Top 200 and soaring to number one on the Canadian albums chart. Their hotly anticipated fourth studio album, Day of the Dead, arrived in March 2015, and was preceded by the singles “Usual Suspects,” “Gravity,” “How We Roll,” and the explosive title cut. The band returned to the studio in late 2016 to record its fifth studio album, Five. With their contract with Interscope finished, Hollywood Undead set up their own label, Dove & Grenade Media, in collaboration with BMG to release the album. The first single, “California Dreaming” — a scathing look at the inequalities between the two sides of Los Angeles culture — was released in mid-2017, with the full-length Five arriving later that October. In 2018 the Undead released the standalone single “Gotta Let Go,” a summery blast of feel-good nostalgia about letting go of pain. The EP Psalms also arrived that year. Two years later, the band released their sixth album, New Empire, Vol. 1. A deliberate attempt to change their sound, it was heavier than before, with more electronic elements. The like-minded sequel, New Empire, Vol. 2., arrived in 2020. In 2022, the band issued their eighth full-length effort, the confident and earworm-friendly Hotel Kalifornia.

Trauma and tragedy transfer from one generation to the next. As difficult as it may be, we still possess the power to break the cycle and start anew. Fit For A King ponder the pain of these cycles and the possibility to end them on their seventh full-length offering, The Hell We Create [Solid State]. The Texas quintet—Ryan Kirby [vocals], Bobby Lynge [guitar], Daniel Gailey [guitar], Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary [bass], and Trey Celaya [drums]—explore this ebb and flow with a deft, yet delicate balance of sharp metallic intensity and soaring melodic energy. “The album is a reflection of the events that happened throughout the pandemic,” recalls Ryan. “In short, my wife and I adopted children and had to homeschool them. She almost died from a stroke. The Hell We Create is by far the deepest and most personal record we’ve ever written.” In 2011, Fit For A King emerged out of Texas with a searing signature style rooted in metal and hardcore and uplifted by hypnotic hooks. Following the breakout LP Creation/Destruction [2013], they earned four consecutive Top 5 debuts on both the Billboard Top Christian Albums Chart and the Top Hard Rock Albums Chart with Slave to Nothing [2014], Deathgrip [2016], Dark Skies [2018], and The Path [2020]. The latter marked their first #1 on the Top Christian Albums Chart and Top 10 on the Billboard Top Album Sales Chart. Plus, the band collaborated with fellow heavy-hitters such as August Burns Red and We Came As Romans.