Stray from the Path “Only Death Is Real” Album Release Show

Happy 8-day anniversary to the best album release show I have been to since God (there’s no God) but God knows when!

But yeah, it’s been 8 days and I’m still jamming these two albums that were celebrated in one great night which took place on September 8^th in Amityville at Revolution Bar and Music Hall: Stray from the Path’s “Only Death is Real” and END’s “From the Unforgiving Arms of God EP”. It was mainly Stray’s album since it was in their hometown but END was releasing their EP around that time too so it made sense for them to do a few dates together and bring some good music to the masses. As soon as the news came out months ago that a band made up of members of Counterparts, Fit for an Autopsy and Structures was going to be coming out with music, fans of those three bands couldn’t be more excited to see what was going to transpire. As the summer passed by, Stray was getting a lot of hate because of the controversial music video for the song “Goodnight Alt-Right” on YouTube while END announced the release date of the upcoming EP. Once tickets for the show were available online, I bought mine right away because I wasn’t missing this! We, the people, were in for an awesome show and we couldn’t be more hyped!

First band of the night was a local band called Sanction from Long Island. They were dope as fuck as their sound reminded me of a more modernized Disembodied/Martyr AD. Was a great set being that it was my first time seeing this band live and bought their EP at their merch table and I look forward to hearing more from these guys soon! Be sure to support them by buying their EP on Bandcamp at sanctionli.bandcamp.com. Next band to play was Champ, another band from Long Island, which were alright and I didn’t really get. They got a good reaction for the most part and had somewhat of a non-technical August Burns Red feel to them. Pretty tight set and had people anticipating what was to come after.

For those that don’t really know, END is a new band that is made up of members of Counterparts, Fit for an Autopsy and Structures (Brendan Murphy, Will Putney and Andrew McEnaney respectively) with Jay Pepito from Reign Supreme and Gregory Thomas who was in Misery Signals. Their EP came out the night before which was the 7^th of September so it was their release show before Stray’s. I have heard the album stream online and was hoping that the live performance would live up to the hype. Once the first note hit, everyone was hooked immediately! As the set went on, few people were up front singing the words back to Brendan and I may have seen a few people stagedive during the set. For me, it was a first time seeing Will Putney play live on stage because of him being a member of his main band that doesn’t really tour with them because of his work as a producer at Graphic Nature. After the set was done, there were one thing I got from the performance aside from everyone sounding good and the performance was tight with lots of movement: that being that Brendan Murphy looked happier and had more fun on stage with END. Not that he is thinking of ending Counterparts anytime soon because their new album is coming out in a couple of days and it sounds like it’s gonna be fucking sick! While I was conversing with him after the set, you can tell that he felt great after performing in a new band aside from his main band. I’ll say this now, 2017 is Brendan Murphy’s year! Two releases from his two bands in the same year? How could anyone not agree?

Setlist: Chewing Glass, Usurper, Love Let Me Die, From the Unforgiving Arms of God, Necessary Death, Survived by Nothing. (Basically their entire EP from front to back)

Up next were the hometown heroes in Stray from the Path. It was my 3^rd-4^th time seeing Stray live and they always kill it every time! I had become cool with their bassist Anthony Altamura before and it was always good times whenever we run into each other at their shows. With this release, I knew they were going to kill it again and that they did! One minor thing is their drummer Craig Reynolds was unable to play the shows due to work VISA issues since he lives in the UK so their ex-drummer Dan Bourke had to learn the new songs in a matter of hours and he did an awesome job playing the parts that Craig wrote! A set mixed of songs off “Only Death Is Real” and a couple of oldies really made the night what it was. During the set before they dove into their song “Goodnight Alt-Right”, frontman Drew York gives a speech about racism in the scene and how it wasn’t allowed at a Stray show and that people of all colors and races are always welcome at their shows. A tremendous amount of crowd participation, stage diving left and right, a tight performance: all you get when you’re at a Stray from the Path show. After they closed out the set with “First World Problem Child”, everyone was hanging out at the merch table after the show and was going home happy even though there was a fight at the right side of the stage after someone stage dove and landed on someone who didn’t like it. But whatever, stage diving is better than a wall of death. Just a personal opinion so but it was definitely a great night overall!

Setlist: Outbreak, Badge and a Ballet 2, A Day and a Night, Goodnight Alt-Right, D.I.E.P.I.G., Snap, Negative and Violent, Damien, Opening Move, Loudest in the Room, Badge and a Bullet, First World Problem Child.