 | Written by Alex Stojanovic THE POISONED ASCENDANCY TOUR 2025 TRIVIUM / BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE w/ August Burns Red and Bleed From Within @ Great Canadian Casino Resort Toronto, ON, Canada May 4, 2025 If you wanna talk about feeling old, just know that 2005 was 20 years ago. At that time, metalcore was the dominant new force in metal that was trending, and a ton of killer bands of that scene were just starting out and releasing their signature albums. Of all those bands, many have gone on to great heights, but at the time, two bands and albums in particular stood out, and those were Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine when in 2005, they released their juggernauts with Ascendancy and The Poison. Both albums have joined the ranks of Master Of Puppets, Rust In Peace, Reign In Blood, Number Of The Beast, British Steel and so on, as classic albums that have inspired many bands of the current generation coming up now. |
A year ago, the two bands captured the attention of the internet when they announced they would be joining forces in 2025 for a world tour dubbed The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour, where they will celebrate the milestone of these two iconic albums by playing them in their entireties. Now, Bullet are no strangers to playing an album in full, as they've played The Poison before, but Trivium are definitely newbies to the concept, but there's a first time for everything. Needless to say that this tour is a wet dream for many teens and adults of the 2000s who saw the releases of these albums and grew up with the two bands and got to see them explode on to the world with those albums and the ones that followed, but it also gives the new kids a chance to experience a glimpse of the early days by hearing some songs from those albums that the bands rarely play in a regular set. The celebratory tour began earlier this year in the U.K and Europe with Orbit Culture serving as special guests, and is now trekking across North America for an extensive trek, and it made a stop in Toronto at the Great Canadian Casino Resort on May 4 with August Burns Red and Bleed From Within serving as special guests. Fans of all ages packed the concert hall of the casino to witness this once-in-a-lifetime bill. Needless to say that 14-year-old me who saw both bands explode back in the day with those albums was excited beyond belief to hear all these songs. Alright, let's get into it.
Bleed From Within opened the night up with a quite short, but effective 25-minute set of modern Scottish metal. Right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed during their set was that the sound was very crisp. The floor area was also very much packed to capacity by the time they hit the stage. I mean, it was Sunday, so plenty of people must've had the day off work to arrive early. The crowd was already full of energy by the time they hit the stage, to the point where vocalist Scott Kennedy announced that Toronto was on track to becoming the best crowd of the whole tour, as they tore through songs like "God Complex", "Levitate", "I Am Damnation", "The End Of All We Know" and "In Place Of Your Halo". It was also during their set that I noticed how crisp the sound was. Overall, Bleed From Within gave a great start for what was sure to be a fantastic night of metal.
August Burns Red continued the festivities right after. Kicking things off with their cover of System Of A Down's "Chop Suey", they launched into a selection of songs like "Paramount", "Exhumed", "Vengeance", "Marianas Trench" and "White Washed". They are also celebrating 20 years since the release of their debut album Thrill Seeker, however no songs were played from it. While we're on the subjects of celebrations, they even took the time to celebrate a double birthday between bassist Dustin Davidson and their guitar tech. At one point, vocalist Jake Luhrs noticed that the security guards up front were pretty chill, so he encouraged the fans to start crowdsurfing to "put the security to work", and boy did they ever.
Coming to the headlining rounds, Bullet For My Valentine were first up to celebrate The Poison, and who are making their first return to Toronto since 2017. Seeing Bullet is always pretty special for me because as I've mentioned many times, they were my first-ever metal show back in 2008 on the Scream Aim Fire Tour when I was 16. Getting into their show, a video montage of Bullet from back in the Poison days played on the rear-view screens, setting the nostalgia element for their set before the Poison intro played and the band fired off into "Her Voice Resides". Adding to the nostalgia factor was seeing Matt Tuck playing the old Jackson guitars that he used to play back in the day, which Michael "Padge" Paget stuck to his traditional ESP V guitars. A funny moment was during his intro speech, Matt Tuck thanked the crowd for not forgetting about them, and that the band have not forgotten about us, to which my first thought was: "Then how come you stayed away from Toronto for eight years?!"
With The Poison played in full, we got the signature anthems like "4 Words To Choke Upon", "All These Things I Hate", "Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow", and of course that little song called "Tears Don't Fall" (you can't have a Bullet show without that song), and deep cuts like "Hit The Floor", "Room 409", "10 Years Today", "Cries In Vain" and "The Poison". Much like "Drowned & Torn Asunder" was my introduction to Trivium, "Hit The Floor" was my introduction to Bullet, so getting to hear those two songs in the same show was a nostalgia overload for me. Now, although were playing the Poison in full, the omission of "Spit You Out" was a head scratcher. Instead, they swapped it out for "Hand Of Blood". As The Poison portion of the set drew to a close with "The End", we come to the encore, where the show was closed out with a couple of non-Poison classics like: "Your Betrayal" *(which they haven't played on this whole tour) and the classic closer: "Waking The Demon" (my favourite Bullet song ever).
Finally, it was now time for Trivium to close the night off with the Ascendancy celebration. As "The End Of Everything" set the atmosphere, the band entered the stage and whipped the crowd into an electrifying frenzy with "Rain". The album was presented in its original running order with the signature anthems "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr", "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation", "Like Light To The Flies" and "Dying In Your Arms", and deep cuts like "Ascendancy", "The Deceived", "Suffocating Sight", "Departure" and "Declaration". It was particularly nostalgic and special to hear "Drowned & Torn Asunder" played live because that was my first-ever exposure to Trivium in 2006, and the only other time I heard them play it was in 2009 when I first saw them live. A heavy moment was before "Departure", Matt Heafy mentioned how he had a rough year in 2024, and was still thinking some of the negative things that were penned down in the Ascendancy songs, and how he was in a much better place now than before.
Before this tour even began, Matt has been saying that he's been training his screaming voice to get back to the style heard on Ascendancy, but with the much safer and proper technique he has been using for the past decade since his vocal scare in 2014, and it clearly shows. It feels like Matt stepped into his own time machine and brought back his 19-year-old self from 2005. Alex Bent demonstrated again why he's the perfect drummer for Trivium, because his performance made me feel like I was witnessing Trivium with Travis Smith. He played the parts note for note just like they were on the record. With this production, Trivium have clearly taken a leaf out of Iron Maiden's book because of the changing backdrops, and an inflatable Monte (the character on the Ascendancy cover), resembling the inflatable Eddie at Maiden shows. As "Declaration" closed out the main set, we now come to the end where we get the only non-Ascendancy song, and that was "In Waves". Having been the band's show closer for a number of years now, it was only fitting that they close with this one.
In conclusion, the Poisoned Ascendancy Tour proved to be a huge nostalgia trip for many of us 90s and 2000s kids, getting to see two bands that have defined the 2000s metal movement and play 2 albums that have defined the metalcore subgenre as well. It was very much akin to when I saw Megadeth and Slayer play Rust In Peace and Seasons In The Abyss in full 15 years earlier. Two bands, two iconic albums, two anniversaries, one giant celebration. What could be better?!
Bleed From Within opened the night up with a quite short, but effective 25-minute set of modern Scottish metal. Right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed during their set was that the sound was very crisp. The floor area was also very much packed to capacity by the time they hit the stage. I mean, it was Sunday, so plenty of people must've had the day off work to arrive early. The crowd was already full of energy by the time they hit the stage, to the point where vocalist Scott Kennedy announced that Toronto was on track to becoming the best crowd of the whole tour, as they tore through songs like "God Complex", "Levitate", "I Am Damnation", "The End Of All We Know" and "In Place Of Your Halo". It was also during their set that I noticed how crisp the sound was. Overall, Bleed From Within gave a great start for what was sure to be a fantastic night of metal.
August Burns Red continued the festivities right after. Kicking things off with their cover of System Of A Down's "Chop Suey", they launched into a selection of songs like "Paramount", "Exhumed", "Vengeance", "Marianas Trench" and "White Washed". They are also celebrating 20 years since the release of their debut album Thrill Seeker, however no songs were played from it. While we're on the subjects of celebrations, they even took the time to celebrate a double birthday between bassist Dustin Davidson and their guitar tech. At one point, vocalist Jake Luhrs noticed that the security guards up front were pretty chill, so he encouraged the fans to start crowdsurfing to "put the security to work", and boy did they ever.
Coming to the headlining rounds, Bullet For My Valentine were first up to celebrate The Poison, and who are making their first return to Toronto since 2017. Seeing Bullet is always pretty special for me because as I've mentioned many times, they were my first-ever metal show back in 2008 on the Scream Aim Fire Tour when I was 16. Getting into their show, a video montage of Bullet from back in the Poison days played on the rear-view screens, setting the nostalgia element for their set before the Poison intro played and the band fired off into "Her Voice Resides". Adding to the nostalgia factor was seeing Matt Tuck playing the old Jackson guitars that he used to play back in the day, which Michael "Padge" Paget stuck to his traditional ESP V guitars. A funny moment was during his intro speech, Matt Tuck thanked the crowd for not forgetting about them, and that the band have not forgotten about us, to which my first thought was: "Then how come you stayed away from Toronto for eight years?!"
With The Poison played in full, we got the signature anthems like "4 Words To Choke Upon", "All These Things I Hate", "Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow", and of course that little song called "Tears Don't Fall" (you can't have a Bullet show without that song), and deep cuts like "Hit The Floor", "Room 409", "10 Years Today", "Cries In Vain" and "The Poison". Much like "Drowned & Torn Asunder" was my introduction to Trivium, "Hit The Floor" was my introduction to Bullet, so getting to hear those two songs in the same show was a nostalgia overload for me. Now, although were playing the Poison in full, the omission of "Spit You Out" was a head scratcher. Instead, they swapped it out for "Hand Of Blood". As The Poison portion of the set drew to a close with "The End", we come to the encore, where the show was closed out with a couple of non-Poison classics like: "Your Betrayal" *(which they haven't played on this whole tour) and the classic closer: "Waking The Demon" (my favourite Bullet song ever).
Finally, it was now time for Trivium to close the night off with the Ascendancy celebration. As "The End Of Everything" set the atmosphere, the band entered the stage and whipped the crowd into an electrifying frenzy with "Rain". The album was presented in its original running order with the signature anthems "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr", "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation", "Like Light To The Flies" and "Dying In Your Arms", and deep cuts like "Ascendancy", "The Deceived", "Suffocating Sight", "Departure" and "Declaration". It was particularly nostalgic and special to hear "Drowned & Torn Asunder" played live because that was my first-ever exposure to Trivium in 2006, and the only other time I heard them play it was in 2009 when I first saw them live. A heavy moment was before "Departure", Matt Heafy mentioned how he had a rough year in 2024, and was still thinking some of the negative things that were penned down in the Ascendancy songs, and how he was in a much better place now than before.
Before this tour even began, Matt has been saying that he's been training his screaming voice to get back to the style heard on Ascendancy, but with the much safer and proper technique he has been using for the past decade since his vocal scare in 2014, and it clearly shows. It feels like Matt stepped into his own time machine and brought back his 19-year-old self from 2005. Alex Bent demonstrated again why he's the perfect drummer for Trivium, because his performance made me feel like I was witnessing Trivium with Travis Smith. He played the parts note for note just like they were on the record. With this production, Trivium have clearly taken a leaf out of Iron Maiden's book because of the changing backdrops, and an inflatable Monte (the character on the Ascendancy cover), resembling the inflatable Eddie at Maiden shows. As "Declaration" closed out the main set, we now come to the end where we get the only non-Ascendancy song, and that was "In Waves". Having been the band's show closer for a number of years now, it was only fitting that they close with this one.
In conclusion, the Poisoned Ascendancy Tour proved to be a huge nostalgia trip for many of us 90s and 2000s kids, getting to see two bands that have defined the 2000s metal movement and play 2 albums that have defined the metalcore subgenre as well. It was very much akin to when I saw Megadeth and Slayer play Rust In Peace and Seasons In The Abyss in full 15 years earlier. Two bands, two iconic albums, two anniversaries, one giant celebration. What could be better?!
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