
Supporting Atreyu on their twenty year anniversary tour, Whitechapel made an appearance at Mr. Smalls for the first time since their sophomore album (This is Exile) came out. So yes… it has been quite some time since Millvale has had the luxury of hosting the metal band from Knoxville! With a little bit of a “lighter” lineup than I am used to seeing Whitechapel play with, it was a nice change of pace since it gave everyone the chance to see Phil Bozeman sing clean vocals for three different songs that night.
Whitechapel’s latest album, “the Valley,” showed off a different side of Bozeman’s usual vocal style with the addition of clean vocals, which impressed more people than not. Seeing it live though gave an entirely new experience for long time fans attending that night. That being said, it did not take away from the vigorous set Whitechapel is known for playing. Blistering through the first few songs of their set, there was no wasted time as they jumped right into “Forgiveness is Weakness” followed up by “Brimstone” and then one of their more groovy metal tracks, “Black Bear.”
When Whitechapel started playing another song off of their newest record, I was surprised to hear them play “Third Depth” and then later on, “Hickory Creek.” Once again, the change of pace gave us a new outlook for them, and I had not a single complaint with the maturity and diversity that this band has started to apply to their song writing capabilities with every record and performance they’ve done. No need to worry though, because they didn’t forget to play a few older songs Monday night (setlist below). So the intensity from their more deathcore style songs wasn’t for a second lost in translation with the new material being played on top of everything.
With the relentless touring Whitechapel has been doing over the past year or so, they just seem to keep trucking along without any signs of stopping it seems. If they aren’t headlining, they’re the direct support, and either way the professionalism of this band has always shown why they are always in one of those top two spots. This tour with Atreyu has once again shown that. As Whitechapel continues to tour and support their latest record, one can only imagine what else is in store for them. It is more than safe to say that since Pittsburgh happened to get three separate visits from them since some time last year that we might be waiting awhile until we get to see anymore Whitechapel stage time in the area without traveling outside of the city. Needless to say, I wouldn’t miss the next show for anything!
Setlist: