Ranking and Grading Every Performance From the Mitch Lucker Memorial Show
Sadly one of the most interesting and fun to watch professionally filmed concerts in the history of heavy music came about due to the death of one of the greatest metal vocalists of an era, Suicide Silence's Mitch Lucker. After releasing three game changing deathcore records, Lucker sadly lost his life in a motorcycle accident leaving behind a wife and young daughter. To help the family financially the band put on a memorial show, which was also recorded for a DVD. This set is packed with talented and star power possessing vocalist with a set-list encompassing the bands entire history with Mitch. Here we'll be ranking and assigning a grade to each one, although we won't be very harsh on poor performances because this was for a good cause.
1) Phil Bozeman (Whitechapel) - Unanswered - This performance is iconic with multiple millions views on YouTube. The guttural vocals are utterly inhuman.
Grade: A+
2) Austin Carlile (ex-Of Mice & Men) - O.C.D. - What really makes this stand out is unlike most of the other vocalist on this show, Carlile is not a deathcore vocalist but brings the same raw energy that made Mitch iconic. A fitting tribute done by one of the only vocalist with near the same level as stage presence as Mitch. Grade: A+
3) Myke Terry (Volumes, ex-Bury Your Dead) - Girl of Glass - A surprising standout performance. Amazing lively and chaotic energy. It's clear to see that Terry was giving it everything he had just as Mitch did every single time he took the stage.
Grade: A
4) Greg Wilburn (The Devastated, ex- Fit For an Autopsy) - Di sorted Thought of Addiction - To be honest I was not very aware of Wilburn's previous work, I'm a huge fan of Fit For an Autopsy but mostly their newer material. This exceeded my expectations with crushingly low gutturals and shrieking high's.
Grade: A
5) Jonny Davy (Job For a Cowboy)) - Destruction of a Statue - One of my very favorite Suicide Silence songs performed excellently by Davy with his unique vocal technique's giving the song his own spin while still staying close to the source material.
Grade: A
6) Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) - The Price of Beauty - This was Worsnop's first live performance in awhile and his freshness showed with his glass -shattering high pitched vocals and his brutal growls shocking many detractors of Asking Alexandria.
Grade: A-
7) Tim Lambesis (As I Lay Dying) - Wake Up - Lambesis' vocals were begging to take a pretty drastic change here and they lent very well to this track with deep death metal style vocals and very solid high screams.
Grade: A-
8) Randy Blythe (Lamb of God) - You Only Live Once - The enthusiasm and crowd participation ability of Blythe is what really turned a good performance to a great one from the Lamb of God frontman. He have every fiber of his ability to entertain and put on a memorable performance .
Grade: B+
9) Anthony Notamoso (After the Burial) - Smoke - A very serviceable and solid effort sticking very close to the same patterns and volume used by Mitch on this track. It shows how stacked this show was that such a great vocalist ranks here.
Grade: B+
10) Brooke Reeves (Impending Doom) - Ending is the Begging - A bit odd to see the singer of a devout christian band performing Suicide Silence songs but a nice effort from Reeves showing off some higher screams that he very rarely utilizes with his band Impending Doom.
Grade: B
11) Eddie Hermida (Suicide Silence, All Shall Perish) - Slaves to Substance - The first time Hermida performed with what would be his future band. Sadly this is a thousand times better than his current work with the band.
Grade: B
12) Burke VanRaalte (ex-With Dead Hands Rising) - No Time to Bleed - Coming from a smaller deathcore band many fans weren't very aware of who VanRaalte was when he took the stage, he did however go on to put in a very strong effort despite lacking Mitch's vocal range
Grade: B-
13) Johnny Plague (Winds of Plague) - No Pity for a Coward - While I'd consider myself a massive fan of Winds of Plague, Johnny Plague's vocal style is not very suited to the style of Suicide Silence, especially high-pitched screaming. Plague still gave everything he had and turned in a respectable homage.
Grade: C+
14) Cameron Argon (ex-Burning the Masses, ex-Disfiguring the Goddess) - Disengage - Much like Plague, Argon gives a top flight effort but his pension for doing mostly all brutally deep gutturals can tend to take part of the charm about Suicide Silence's music away. Still not a bad job by any means.
Grade: C+
15) Chad Gray (Mudvayne, Hellyeah) - F**k Everything - While it isn't anything special I don't have anything bad to say about this performance because this genre is a bit out of Gray's wheelhouse yet he still wanted to perform and give the event some more star power and he deserves much credit for that alone.
Grade: C
16) Ricky Hoover (ex-Suffokate) - Bludgeoned to Death - While Hoover was very Inspired by Mitch, I've always felt something was a bit lacking about his vocals especially in the higher pitched area. Credit to him for appearing though.
Grade: C-