Fit For A King performs Metalcore Dropouts Second Semester in New Jersey – Starland Ballroom 1/28/24

Fit For A King and The Devil Wears Prada are currently on their second leg of the Metalcore Dropouts tour across the U.S. Joining them for the second semester are Canadian hardcore band Counterparts and Seattle alternative metal band AVOID. On Sunday, January 28th, Program Director Lara Ziccardi headed down to Starland Ballroom to catch the show!

AVOID is a hard rock five-piece hard rock band from Seattle, Washington. Comparing them to the others, they’re the youngest among the other three; but I think that’s what was so entertaining and refreshing about them. AVOID released their sophomore album, Cult Mentality in November of 2022. If you ask me, it seems that AVOID might be due for new music soon!

Counterparts is a melodic hardcore band from Ontario, Canada. The band has been around since 2007, and like AVOID hasn’t released new music since 2022. Counterparts released their seventh studio album, A Eulogy for Those Still Here in October of 2022. What I did find interesting about Counterparts is how they are melodic hardcore, which means that they have a strong center around their guitar work. Knowing this and listening to their music, you can hear how incredible their guitarists are.

The Devil Wears Prada is a metalcore band from Dayton, Ohio formed in 2005. According to Spotify, their most popular song is “Chemical” off of their seventh album The Act released in 2019. They’re also known for their cover of “Still Fly” by Big Tymers off of the compilation album Punk Goes Crunk; from Fearless Records’ Punk Goes… series. Their most recent LP release, Color Decay, came out September 2022. Their most recent release is the EP, Salt (feat. Dayseeker) which includes the song “Salt” from Color Decay along with two remixes and an acoustic version of the song.

From Tyler, Texas, Fit For A King is a metalcore band formed in 2007. Their most popular song, according to Spotify, is “When Everything Means Nothing” with 29,272,764 streams off their fifth album, Dark Skies (2018). On this tour, Fit For A King is the band with the most recent release! They released their single “Keeping Secrets” on January 12th of this year. As of right now, the single seems to be an off-cycle, with no new album announcement as of February 1st, 2024.

Both the headliners, King and Prada were incredible live. Not only do they sound amazing, they both have a great stage presence. I can confidently say the Metalcore Dropouts tour had the most crowd surfers I’ve seen at any show. One of my favorite things to photograph is crowd surfers: I love the energy and capturing a fan’s main character moment. Overall, I enjoyed covering and photographing the Metalcore Dropouts 2nd Semester tour!