The 2025 Summer of Loud tour made a stop at The Great Park in Irvine, CA on Saturday July 5, 2025 and delivered a blistering, marathon, all-day experience for metalcore fanatics featuring “The Big Four” of metalcore: Killswitch Engage, Parkway Drive, Beartooth and I Prevail, along with support from The Amity Affliction, Alpha Wolf and Kingdom of Giants (The Devil Wears Prada is also on this tour but due to medical issues the band did not play on this date). Nothing beats an all-day festival in the summertime, and this one was destined for greatness as the doors to the venue opened at 2:30 pm, and fans ran to be the first to the front of the barricade. The weather was 85 degrees, blue skies with a slight breeze and the forecast for the remainder of the day was six hours of hardcore metal greatness.
Opening the show was Sacramento’s Kingdom of Giants, and they brought the heavy early in the day with a super high-energy set, and the fans definitely knew who these guys were as vocalist Dana Willax set the bar very high to start the day. A familiar face was on bass/vocals as Jonny Reeves from The Amity Affliction is also a member of Kingdom of Giants. The entire 25-minute set was a banger and got the crowd surfing going early.
Kingdom of Giants
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
From Tasmania, Australia, Alpha Wolf hit the stage with some powerful beatdown hardcore metal. The “youngest” band on the tour, this band from “Down Under, brought the Thunder”. Vocalist Lochie Keogh paced back and forth on the front riser like a caged panther and had the crowd jumping and moshing in the heat of the day. A few of the security guards got banged up a bit from catching all the crowd surfers. These guys were great onstage, was nice to see them on this tour.
Alpha Wolf
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
I see a pattern here, another band from Australia, The Amity Affliction tore up the stage for 40 minutes as Joel Birch belted out the songs, many with very personal lyrics telling stories of his personal struggles. Bands like this really hit home with the combination of lyrics and heaviness; it’s the perfect therapy for any metalhead going through tough times. And bassist Jonny Reeves was at it again, pulling double duty for the day.
The Amity Affliction
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Now the stage was set for a Co-headliner showcase as all four of the next bands are rotating time-slots on each stop of the tour. Up first on this day at 5:20 pm was Killswitch Engage, and they took the intensity up ten notches as they opened their 50 minutes onstage with “Rose of Sharyn” followed by “In Due Time” and “This Fire”. Guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz addressed the crowd, stating he had been drinking since 9:00 am and was ready to party as the band kicked into “I Believe” off their February 2025 release, This Consequence.
Vocalist Jesse Leach was ready for summer in his white shirt and pants and his voice sounded strong and steady as he pranced around the stage and jumped down into the crowd at one point to sing with the fans. The set included heavy bangers “The Signal Fire” and “Hate by Design” and the set ended with their tribute to Ronnie James Dio with a cover of “Holy Diver”. Based on the amount of crowd surfing and moshing, this was just the beginning of a crazy evening.
Killswitch Engage
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Parkway Drive appeared onstage and kicked off with “Glitch,” and vocalist Winston McCall had the crowd in the palm of his hands as he passionately barked out his lyrics. All the way from Australia (another band from down under), Parkway Drive demonstrated metalcore’s global dominance with their ferocious set as every fan sang every word of every song. Somehow, the crowd maintained their energy, and crowd surfers, one after another, continued to make their way to the pit during the entire set. “Wild Eyes” closed out the madness of Parkway Drive, two down and two to go, the night was just getting started.
Parkway Drive
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
With co-vocalist Brian Burkheiser leaving I Prevail back in May, it was now up to Eric Vanlerberghe to fully lead the band onstage, and that he did, and did it with conviction. With vocal assistance from guitarist Dylan Bowman, Vanlerberghe picked up right where Parkway Drive left off. Starting the night with “Bow Down’ and “Body Bag”, somehow the fans, now fully rejuvenated, again had the crowd surfing going nonstop, keeping security super busy.
In the middle of the set, the band covered Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” and Vanlerberghe also dedicated their set to the late music executive Dave Shapiro, who tragically passed away in a plane crash in San Diego back in May 2025. The band concluded their night with the ferocious “Gasoline” that layed total waste to the Irvine crowd.
I Prevail
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
The peak of the energy on this day was about to happen. Beartooth is one of the most energetic bands on the planet, as vocalist Caleb Shomo never, ever stops moving. Paying tribute to Black Sabbath with his t-shirt (on the same day Sabbath and Ozzy played their last live performance in England), Shomo bounced, jumped, and never slowed down during Beartooth’s set. “The Lines”, “The Past IS Dead”, “Sunshine!” started the show, and the crowd somehow pulled out a second wind and gave as much energy as the band did onstage.
These four bands are incredible on their own tour, but seeing them together, one after another, was a metalcore dream come true. Kudos to the person(s) responsible for putting this package together – the metal community THANKS YOU!
While all the bands delivered insanely kick-ass performances, the production on this stop of the tour was non-existent. Other stops of the tour had full pyrotechnics throughout the four co-headline sets, but for some reason on this night, there was no pyro at all. Maybe the venue had no fire permits, or the fire risk in SoCal with the wind was too high? The video screens seemed to stop and start throughout each set, but the worst part was the fog machines running nonstop in bright sunlight, making it nearly impossible to see the bands onstage. Also the stage lights after dark seemed non-existent, we want to see the bands so we can connect with them. While the performances are the most important thing here, it just seemed this show was an afterthought compared to other stops on the tour.
Regardless metal was played, fans rocked out and the Summer of Loud gave Irvine a metalcore beatdown.
Beartooth
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
