10 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Live Bands Of 2017
“As we perform here, upon the stage…”
To succeed in rock n’ roll, you have to be a great live band. It’s practically a prerequisite. This is a rule that applies not only to the heaviest of acts within the metal-sphere, but any group that wants to make a big impact with loud guitars and sharp percussion.
Ergo, it only seems right to list out the ten best heavy live acts of 2017: not only because we did it last year, but also to, hopefully, give some of this generation’s best performers who haven’t hit their peak popularity yet the kudos that they sorely deserve.
So, for this list, big and infamously brilliant names like Metallica, Rammstein and Slipknot are banned, purely because everybody knows how great those bands are already. Any group that managed to make the cut into our recent “Best Metal Live Performances of 2016” or “10 Best Live Acts in Metal Today” lists are also barred, purely because repetition is boring. If there’s a band that doesn’t make this list that you think should, you can probably find them in at least one of those articles.
Now that that’s all cleared up, let’s take a look at the rockers and metallers that totally blew our socks off in 2017!
10. Alter Bridge
Alter Bridge clock in low on this list because we at WhatCulture talk about these hard-rocking mavens an awful lot. However, simultaneously, they did play to a sold-out Royal Albert Hall with a 52-piece orchestra, so to not include them here would be a crime.
While the motley crew of Myles Kennedy, Scott Phillips, Mark Tremonti and Brian Marshall are undeniably an engaging arena rock outfit in their own right (check out their hair-raising Live at Wembley (2012) DVD if you disagree), the quartet’s two Albert Hall shows back in October really saw them hit another level.
Whether it was with teary ballads like “Watch Over You” and “Blackbird” or heavy-hitting anthems such as “Open Your Eyes”, the Parallax Orchestra let Alter Bridge raise their game, eliciting powerful emotions through sheer grandeur and musical weight. Truly, it was an experience unlike any other.
Sure, bands from Metallica to Dimmu Borgir have done shows with similar symphonics plenty of times before, but few groups that have attempted such feats have the universal accessibility, technical chops and tonal diversity of Alter Bridge. Truly, 2017 has seen this amazing group cement their status as the future of crowd-popping rock n’ roll.