GALLOWS North America Tour: Blessthefall Feat. Miss May I, Dark Divine, Colorblind

Phantom Light Media
Sep 13, 2025
6 min read

I’ve heard many people recently comment on the 2000s renaissance that has been taking place over the past two to three years. Now with the return of Warped Tour, it seems as though that resurgence is being felt stronger than ever in the metal scene, as many legacy acts are shaking off the dust and returning to stages to the delight of fans new and old. One of the latest to join that group is Phoenix metalcore mainstays Blessthefall, and they came back swinging with an entire new album (Gallows) that was just released on September 5th. Luckily, Portland was stop number 2 on the accompanying headline tour. I’d seen Blessthefall most recently in 2023 when they celebrated 10 years of their landmark album Hollow Bodies and was absolutely blown away by their live energy, so I knew this was a show I would not want to miss - and boy, how right I was.

Kicking things off tonight was Colorblind, an Austin post-hardcore crew that specializes in smashing 2010s-level soaring choruses together with Dayseeker-styled ambiance for a seriously solid live sound. This show was Colorblind’s second time playing in Portland after their tour with Capstan, and singer Travis Moseley was clearly quite happy to see some returners in the crowd, evidenced by a surprisingly strong crowd singalong to opening track “Motionless.” I imagine it’s pretty tough for a newer band to win over legacy fans as the first act of the night, especially so early into the tour, but if nerves were present, you definitely couldn’t tell. Their set was kept fairly short at seven songs, but they made the most of it - synchronized spinning from guitar and bass players, mic cords in the singer’s mouth during a breakdown or two, and even tracks off their new EP that was released just yesterday (two days after the show). I’ll take the liberty here of letting you know personally that it slaps both on-record and on-stage, as demonstrated by “Car Crash”, “Needle Eye”, and “God Complex”. Colorblind are fairly young in their career (being formed sometime in late 2017) but they’ve really been working the grindstone lately and it shows in their live efforts. I expect they’ll end up on a lot more of these kinds of tours going forward, and I’m super here for it.

Moving things right along was our second band of the evening, fresh metalcore blood in the form of Orlando-based quartet Dark Divine. Their last major outing was as an opening act on the last leg of the absolutely stacked Summer of Loud 2025, a younger cousin to Warped Tour coheadlined by the likes of Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage, Beartooth, and I Prevail. I’d consider that a pretty solid opening slot for a band formed in 2021, and I was very curious to see what they’d bring to these smaller stages that had netted them that incredible opportunity. Singer Anthony Martinez was quick to let us know that this was their first time playing here in Portland, but you could have fooled me into thinking this was a hometown show for them based on the crowd reaction. By the halfway point of the first track (“The Reaper”), a sizable mosh pit had already formed near the stage (with no barrier at tonight’s show, for what it’s worth) to the band’s obvious delight. To be very transparent, “horrorcore” isn’t really something I’m into lyrically and I don’t often seek it out in my daily listening. But I can’t deny the stage presence and theatrics that so often come with bands like Motionless in White, Ice Nine Kills, and now Dark Divine, who have cited both of those as strong influences on their performances. Their presence has a certain grandeur that I would liken to that of INK and Swedish groove darlings Avatar, wherein you know that this is a performance just as much as a concert. But the crowd loved it, and I was beyond impressed with Martinez’s vocal stylings. That man could hold his own in a blegh-off with Chris Motionless.

As the changeover finished up, the crowd swelled noticeably in time for the arrival of Ohio-based quintet Miss May I, fresh off a blistering 15-year anniversary tour for Apologies Are For The Weak. I was unable to make it to the Portland date on that particular tour, so I was very excited to witness this historic band lay waste to the Wonder Ballroom. And lay waste they did, with a nine song set touching every full-length they’ve ever released plus their newest sampling, August’s “Pray for Silence.” This was where the night’s energy really swelled as the pit grew even bigger and began to spin a lot more, exhorted onwards by mainstay frontman Levi Benton and the relentless double-bass thunder from Jerod Boyd. Fast, aggressive, and full of fist-pumping moments - the key elements of any good metalcore set were all present and accounted for during those 45 minutes, as well as the first few crowd surfers of the night. Remember how I mentioned that conspicuous lack of barricade earlier? Fans found that incredibly amusing, and we soon got some nice stage dives going as well as the band blazed through the aptly-titled “Relentless Chaos” from 2010’s absolutely stellar Monument. Levi was also clearly delighted to let us know that new music is in the works from them, which will likely lead to their first substantial release since 2022’s Curse of Existence, represented on this setlist with the blistering and bouncy “Unconquered” (a personal favorite of mine, and my introduction to Miss May I’s discography). But closing their set with “Hey Mister” was when things really got nuts, courtesy of a rather large wall of death that then formed into a fast-moving circle pit. Clearly any reservations about saving energy for the main event went out the window once that unmistakable kick drum and tremolo riff started up, and I don’t blame people whatsoever.

But at last, it was time for Blessthefall to take the stage - and take it, they certainly did. In their usual tongue-in-cheek fashion, the Phoenix crew began their set with “mallxcore,” the music video for which features the band all “coming out of retirement” at various everyday jobs in order to play a house party that they get invited to on the sole condition of not being “buttrock or Octanecore.” This resurgent album is anything but buttrock, though - Blessthefall have arguably released some of their best material with Gallows. The room then went absolutely berserk as they smashed through several fan-favorite cuts that included “Cutthroat”, “Wishful Sinking,” and the true 2010s metalcore anthem that is “Hollow Bodies.” It made me so happy to see singer Beau Bokan blast a huge cloud of water mist over the crowd during the song’s first slamming breakdown like it hadn’t been over a decade since that album was released. Even with a discography as extensive as Blessthefall has, they made sure to have a little bit of everything represented in their 16-song set. There was even a cut pulled from their very first album, 2006’s His Last Walk (“Guys Like You Make Us Look Bad”) that got a spectacular reception from the crowd. One of the aspects of Blessthefall’s music that first drew me to them is their ability to craft meaningful lyrical passages in a way that touches the heart as well as the ears. That was demonstrated most aptly in the night by “Fell So Hard, Felt So Right”, which saw the room bathed in cell phone lights as Bokan conducted the crowd from his risers. But the time for balladry was soon cut short as the final songs of the night returned to pure Warpedcore, driven largely by the excellent riffwork from guitarists Elliott Gruenberg and Eric Lambert. “Youngbloods” saw the return of the mosh pit from earlier in the set; revival single “Wake The Dead” transformed it into a high-tempo circle pit, and set closer “Hey Baby, Here’s That Song You Wanted” brought it to a thunderous close as stage divers swarmed Beau’s mic to belt out that iconic, massive chorus one last time. The whole night had me feeling like the “mallxcore” chorus was written for us as fans specifically - “Sorry it took me so long.” Well, no more need to be sorry - Blessthefall are back in force.