HALESTORM Hits Toyota Music Factory

Written by Mark McWhite

Photos by Javier Vicencio

The venue was full of metal heads when the band HALESTORM rolled in for their Summer 2024 North American Tour with support from I PREVAIL, HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD and FIT FOR A KING. Sunday August 11^th brother and sister Arejay and Lzzy and Hale brought their thunderous heavy metal and rock hits to a packed house in Irving. A large fan base was present for every act and everyone was rocking out to HALESTORM’S opener “I Miss the Misery” followed up by “Love Bites”, “I Get Off” and “Freak Like Me”.

One of the most powerful lead singers in Rock and Roll Lzzy Hale can belt out hit after hit with her commanding vocals and captivating stage presence. By the third song she was pouring sweat and removed her shirt to reveal a tube top that she sported for the remainder of the show.

Of course brother Arejay is always a show of his own. He’s a beast on the drums driving thick beats and adding fill to make your body feel the music and he’s very entertaining to watch with his Beetlejuice attire, green hair and stick tricks. During his solo he plays the drums with his TEXAS SIZED giant drums stick while the Dallas crowd cheered him onward. Then huge kettle drums were rolled out on stage and each band mate had their own drum part. It was very entertaining. The fans loved the beats.

Late in the show lzzy introduced a new collaboration between HALESTORM and I PREVAIL called “Can  You See Me In The Dark” She then introduced Eric Vanlerberghe from I PREVAIL to join her preforming the song. These were two great rock voices.

I PREVAIL performed prior to HALESTORM to a very eager fan base. The fans were ramped up to hear Brian Burtheiser and Eric Vanlerberghel crank out their metalcore, pop punk style of rap metal.

I PREVAIL has been around since 2013 and has been nominated for two Grammy awards. Fans raised their fists and head banged to “Breaking Down”, “Hurricane” and “Bow Down” (Grammy nominated for best metal performance). A fan favorite was I PREVAIL’S performance of a TAYLOR SWIFT song called “Blank Space” (78 Million views on youtube). The crowd loved it.

HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD treated their fans to a burst of energy by a band that has been around since 2005 and is constantly reinventing their look and bringing their style of in your face rap metal to your seat. The UNDEAD preformed many hits from their 8 studio albums including “Everywhere I Go”, ”Undead”, and the popular “RIOT”.

Opening the show was a metal band from Tyler, Tx called FIT FOR A KING. They played cuts from their 6 studio albums and had a big crowd of their own fans at the venue.

Each band on stage and their fans added to the experience to help put out a great metal/rock show.

HALESTORM

IPrevail