I Prevail ‘Violent Nature Tour’ @ Hordern Pavilion Sydney 23/06/2026.

From battling Bad Things in their career, including the departure of longtime clean vocalist Brian in 2025, to braving the Violent Nature of the Hurricane that is often the international touring scene. Along with the many other fierce struggles of navigating this crazy world at times. U.S. metalcore giants and leaders of the genre, I Prevail, make their thunderous return down under for their biggest headlining tour of Australia to date. The band’s return is to celebrate their September 2025 album ‘Violent Nature’. Along for the ride joining I Prevail are Swedish alternative metalcore rising stars Imenense, dubbed as Violin-core for their signature blend of aggressive metalcore and the use of soulful-classic violin. And to round off the Hurricane of a line-up, opening the show is Texas progressive metalcore favourites Invent Animate.

The recipe for tonight’s show screams the sentiment I Prevail through all the world’s struggles, and yet we are here to blast the roof off!

The crowd pours in in segments (not all at once thanks to good handling from security), and the standing floor around me fills up quickly in anticipation for tonight. Invent Animate start the night, and although the sound mix is bang-on perfect and balanced, it’s not my cup of tea personally. I am really enjoying being able to hear every word/scream clearly, and make out most of what he’s saying, plus even clearly hearing his inhalations and exhalations. The band’s blend of progressive elements and metalcore aggression is all balanced in the mix to complement each other and elevate the vocals, of enjoyable nonetheless!

After Invent Animate tried and I personally felt failed, at sparking the crowd to crowd surf and circle pit, Imminence are up to take the throne. I really love the use of violin mixed in with the ferocious energy of metalcore that lead singer and violinist Eddie brings. Although the sound mix is nicely balanced and even, I feel like Eddie’s blend of melodic falsettos and heartfelt passion, transitioning to guttural screams isn’t as loud and elevated as Invent Animate’s was. This does mean for patrons like myself who’re not closely familiar with the bands’ material, they struggle at times to make out the lyrics within the theatrical/enigmatic soundscape.

The venue is filled to capacity and the energy in the venue is electric and palpable as I Prevail emerge for their biggest headline Sydney show to date! Will the sound mix be perfect like Invent Animate, highlighting the vocals to crisp clarity while the rest of the musical layers complement each other, rising the vocals up on a pedestal? Or will the vocals be simply on-par with the rest of the mix and be a strain to decipher at times like Imminence? 

As soon as the thunderous screams from Eric after the surging bass pulses and stampeding drums of opening song ‘NWO’ burst forth, we have our answer. It’s definitely the former not the latter to my delight, bringing out a broad smile on my face and euphoric goose-flesh on my skin! This exquisite sound mix is emphasised throughout the entire set, proudly putting on display the sound layers including lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, keyboard/synth, drums plus added percussion and of course, Eric’s vocals set atop it all. From songs with aggressive screaming vocals such as album title track ‘Violent Nature’, as well as ‘Bow Down’ to songs that demonstrate Eric’s ability to swiftly transition from screaming vocals to clean precision in tracks like the Taylor Swift cover ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Hurricane’ highlights Eric’s vocal diversity brilliantly.

To further add to the stadium rock vibe of tonight’s performance, the set is also filled with an abundance of pyrotechnics to help warm us up here at the front barrier. Plus, constant rapid light patterns in sync with the music and the addition of drummer Babe’s kit being set up on a platform raised a few metres off the stage, giving him a birds-eye perspective.

All the previously mentioned stadium-quality attributes added with fan interactions during and between songs, like prompting a call and response with the audience for ‘Violent Nature’, “when I say violent, you say nature, you ready?!@“. This, along with hearing all the I Prevail hits we’ve all come to know and love throughout their musical catalogue, plus an awesome cover of Metallica’s ‘Sad But True’, plus on-stage banter, is testament to why the crowd around me just keeps getting more and more excited and wild as the set powers on. Eric even reaches out to accept a gift from a fan in the audience, a Magic: The Gathering booster pack, the lucky bastard! (To be fair, I considered bringing one of the ones I bought today to give to him myself.)

This show wasn’t just good, didn’t just have a decent sound but slightly lacked in some parts, it was a rare treat, especially for a metalcore concert where so much is writing on the quality of the sound mix! Is there anything negative/critical of the bands’ set that I could say? They didn’t include my favourite song ‘Stuck In Your Head’ (possibly because the song features dual clean/unclean screaming vocals between Eric and previous clean vocalist Brian a great deal), and no one from the band came off the stage to get up all nice and personal with the front barrier fans? (Would’ve been likely unsafe/impractical given the use of pyrotechnics during the set as well as security needing to handle crowd surfers often). But no, this show, which closed with no “encore” with Eric telling us they’re not going to pretend to leave and wait for us to chant “encore, encore” over and over, they’ve just got two more songs (‘Hurricane’ and ‘Gasoline’) and that’s it, was absolutely ace and up there with my favourite gigs for this year along with Linkin Park, OneRepublic, Good Charlotte, and Pendulum!

Until next time, keep a Keen Eye Out 4 Concert!