The Word Alive at the Gramercy Theatre

Telle of the Word Alive

The Word Alive formed as a metalcore band in 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. Originally fronted by co-founder Craig Mabbitt of Escape the Fate, the band early on replaced him with Tyler "Telle" Smith, who was formerly one of the vocalists for In Fear and Faith and bassist for Greeley Estates.  The band currently consists of Smith, Zack Hansen on lead guitar, Tony Pizzuti on rhythm guitar, Daniel Shapiro on bass, and Luke Holland on drums. The band’s second and most recent album, Life Cycles, was released in 2012.

At the Gramercy Theater tonight, the Word Alive showed what a hard-touring metalcore band can do. The band showed as much range as one can find in the genre, balancing smooth melodies with harsh breakdowns, clean vocals with growls and screams, speedy guitar blasts and a power-pumping rhythm section, and giving an attention-deficit audience plenty of accolades and attention. While the performance was tight and executed well, the band sounded fairly standard for a metalcore band. That is not necessarily the fault of the band; there just does not seem to be a band that is breaking new ground in this genre anymore. The band speaks the language of youth, however, and will continue to do well with the Warped Tour generation.

Visit the Word Alive at www.wearethewordalive.com.