(Live Review) LEGIONS OF METAL FESTIVAL - Day 2, Chicago IL (5/3/25)
- Mark McQueen
- 24 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Welcome back friends, fans & followers as your ever reviewing duo continues the War & Peace like novel that is our Legions of Metal 2025 review. Today, for part two, we are covering another nine bands making sixteen of twenty-three at this Chicago festival.
Right away, I will say that all day yesterday (for night one), the trains all ran on time. What does that mean? Simply that all the bands started and ended on time. Something apparently the much larger and bigger funded Milwaukee Metal Fest couldn’t manage last year. Kudos to both the staff at Reggie’s, and promoter Bob Byrne (and his personal army) for running a tight ship. The Beard is looking forward to the same thing today. Little Johnny is looking forward to a Founders All Day IPA.
Once again, a smooth entry with no issues. We took a quick look at the new merchandise. Yesterday for night one, the Beard absolutely supported the great set from Seven Spires with a shirt purchase, while Little Johnny had grabbed an Eagle Wing CD, and a Toxic Holocaust patch, (on my credit card of course.) Now, it was time for a whole new day of metal.
Legions of Metal Festival - Day 2
AFTER TIME
After Time was a newer symphonic band from Minnesota that had released two albums since 2020. The latest was Arcane Horizons (2024).
I was initially concerned about this one as with an opening band, the sound guys usually need a little time to balance the room and symphonic is the hardest style to do quickly given the larger vocal range and more intricate music. I admit, I was afraid this one would not sound good.
Happily, I was proven very wrong. This five-piece act was definitely symphonic. Vocalist Narcissa had a voice that would be equally at home performing a metal concert, a Broadway play, or a Wagner opera.
Clad in a beautiful black gown Narcissa presented well as an eye-catching focal point. The music was traditional for the style. Think Nightwish or Epica. Normally I am not thinking “visit the merch table” right away on band number one, but After Time was great and they enjoyed an immediate strong crowd response which is impressive when you are opening the festivities.
After Time reminded me of 2023, when promoter Bob Byrne opened day two with Shield of Wings who also presented a similar symphonic kick off to the day and received a high Beard review score. After Time was both a good set and a style I enjoy anyway, so I am going 88/100 out the gate.
Johnny? “Little too arty for me Beard. Obviously, you will swoon for the hot chick, but I am looking forward to the next band.” As I headed to the merch table to meet Narcissa, I thought "Little troglodyte".
CROSSSPITTER
As Johnny prepared to get up close for this East coast blackened death metal act, he said, “Ok Beard, it’s time to man up and get ready to circle.” “No problem little dude, I am going to circle over to that bench right there and watch.” He shook his head at me and walked away muttering something about his sincere hope that I reincarnate as a cat since I was already a…. and then he was out of earshot. Yep, it’s gonna be a long day.
With a name like Crossspitter, I assumed these guys weren’t going to be playing the Church Social & Bake Sale anytime soon. This three-piece black metal band with lyrics from bassist Norman Haightchristian, which is either a nom de plume or the most on-the-nose name ever for a band like this, killer speed rifts from guitarist Donna Violence, (who sported a mesh top with electrical tape in the shape of upside down crosses over her nipples) and insane drumming from Ricky Spitter, (which I guess sounds better than Ricky Swallower), this band wasn’t exactly hiding their style.
Crossspitter came at it full bore. Johnny started headbanging and hardly ever slowed down. Even the talking between the songs all came from a voice resembling Satan ordering pizza from a Dominoes in Mordor. Extra jalapenos!!!
This was hard black death and for that style it was completely accurate. I will go 84/100 for their full commitment to the cause. I will also have to keep Little Johnny away from Donna Violence because that woman looked like she might eat his entrails for lunch.
It was now time to slip over to Reggie’s small room and check out a few of the up and comers beginning with ...
PSYCHO PRISM
This prog metal act was fast paced with a good sound, but they were also just five ordinary looking guys.
They presented no real show to speak of. This is where “slotting” can help or hurt a bands grade. If these were the first guys I had seen today, I might have ranked them a bit higher, but they followed both a good symphonic act and an over-the-top black metal band. By comparison, looking at Psycho Prism, my mind screamed bar/garage band. 75/100.
There is no rating from Johnny as he didn’t join me in the small room. I may have to go pry him away from Donna Violence.
ORACLE
Four-piece St. Louis prog act Oracle was full progressive metal right out of the gate. There were no vocals this set, (due to the singer having quit recently.)
Additionally, Oracle had early technical difficulties with their backing tracks. As a result, this was a forty-minute instrumental pallet cleanser and is being graded as such, although I will say the musicians were each individually good. Still, this one was almost given an incomplete for a grade. 75/100.
As I “still” hadn’t seen Little Johnny, I figured perhaps I ought to go find him and headed back over to Reggie’s main room. Sure enough, the little guy greeted me with a can of Founders All Day IPA, (which I thought was damn nice of him until he told me that he had gotten it from Crossspitter when he told them he was here at the show with his senile grandpa.) That made me far less appreciative, (although I did take and drink the beer after all I’m not a heathen.)
Since we were there anyway, we figured why not check out ...
INTRANCED
Trad metal act from LA.
I have to say for a band with only one release, (2024’s Muerto y Metal), Intranced was damn good. The singer James Luna might look a bit like Alice Cooper and Stephen Percy had a baby, and I did think that his cape was a bit much, but really this band was surprisingly good and enjoyed nice crowd support. If anything, they may have been a bit overly theatrical, but I am ranking them a guilty pleasure as I enjoyed the set. 86/100
At this point, given the quickly increasing Saturday crowds and the fact I had just stumbled into a real seat in the big room, it was now audible time, and since I knew I was catching the last three bands in this room anyway, I traded seeing Valkyries Fire (which I hope to rectify in the future), and just held my spot taking in Chicago’s own power prog act ...
SLAUGHTER XSTROYES
Slaughter Xstroyes was a band that had been around a long time (since at least the early 1980’s) and the band members looked it. Slaughter Xstroyes were not going to benefit from close-ups. Some comments on my TikTok site from posted videos included “Why is Vince Neil playing Bass?” and “Woah, what the hell happened to Sebastian Bach?”
What does still work, however, was Steven Relmer’s high piercing vocals, along with the experimental music they perform. Slaughter Xstroyes songs are of a nontraditional format and that made them unique. A set from these guys was rather like staring into a Lava Lamp. You were never sure when a solo would break loose or a song would take a hard left turn when you didn’t expect it. I think the idea back in the 1980’s may have been “Hey, what would it sound like if YES were a metal band?”, and while I don’t think I need anything from their merch table, they did keep my attention. (Which after all is a large part of playing a live set of music.) I will go 82/100.
HIGH SPIRITS
Another local Chicago band, and one I had never seen before, was High Spirits. Now, initially when they all came out in matching pants and shirts, I thought uh oh it’s the Glee Club band, but in fact it was clean hard rock with simple catchy hook laden songs and after the art project that was Slaughter Xstroyes, this was what I needed for this set.
High Spirits was a sing along style band that enjoyed hometown fan support.They weren’t reinventing the wheel of hard rock, but a High Spirits set does allow the listener to just ride the wave with them and sometimes that’s plenty.
I am deducting a couple points for vocalist Chris Black’s stage rap. While I actually believe he meant well, it was like the camp counselor was the lead singer. When he was singing, he was a good vocalist but then every time between songs, he’s the camp counselor again reminding us to remember to make our beds and leave the forest the same way we found it.
I am still going 85/100 because I enjoyed the songs and the band clearly had fun playing.
(Ed: I suggest folks check out High Spirit's 2011 Another Night and 2014's You Are Here for some superb melodic metal/hard rock. Both 10 out of 10s on my scorecard!)
SEVEN KINGDOMS
Seven Kingdoms are Florida power thrash. A four piece with a female lead. Pretty clean vocals. Not as stratospherically symphonic as others today, but Sabrina Valentine certainly doesn’t lack vocal power. Camden Cruz & Kevin Byrd did a nice twin guitar thing, (Camden was as expressive a guitarist as I had seen today) and the other sibling (Keith Byrd) kept a steady beat on drums.
Seven Kingdom songs are epic, but not grandiose. This was more the “working man’s” symphonic. It had all the high screams you expect, but not just to have them. Valentine’s high notes were purposeful and therefore hit harder because they weren’t going on all the time in every song.
Seven Kingdoms also knew it was a show visually as well as musically, and everyone did well at playing to the crowd. Ultimately, Seven Kingdoms was like watching a band full of plate spinners. Every song threatens to go right off the rails with the vocals and guitar soloing, yet somehow it doesn’t. They keep the musical plates balanced and spinning. As a result, once again I will be cracking a cold one for the penultimate band of night two. Two bands with seven in their title and two top notch bands of the fest.
Seven Kingdoms the Beard salutes you with a 91/100.
CRIMSON GLORY
From thirty years of not knowing these guys existed to seeing them headlining two different festivals in two different states over two months.
In March, this Florida prog band performed well at Hells Heroes (after a dismal day of sound for almost everyone else). Let’s see how they come across on a smaller stage and on a day with mostly good performances by everyone.
They were indeed crowded on Reggie’s stage. This six-piece act takes up a lot of space and there was only so much to go around, so they had to constantly watch where each other were.
Of course, Travis Wills howls just like former singer Todd Latorre, who himself howls much like Geoff Tate. Point is the man can sing. Powerful and with great range. Crimson Glory came along after Queensryche was both established and huge and they mostly emulated their style and sound. That said, the band was certainly good, and the crowd was as loud and jacked as for anyone this entire weekend.
Special note, “Lady of Winter” was a damn good song and might have been the best performed single number of the festival. I thought the rest of the set was hit and miss, but I had also seen this set before. They didn’t change it from the one they did at Hells Heroes last month, and because after two days and nights the Beard was tiring out ... I am scoring it 88/100. I enjoyed the singing and the crowd.
This wrapped up Legions of Metal 2025. Remember to watch my videos on TikTok @ thebeard0728. Follow Mark McQueen on Facebook and of course stay up with all our Metal reviews, on your site for metal The Mighty Decibel.
Let me thank the bands, the Reggie’s staff, promoter Bob Byrne, and all the fans I got to see and talk to this weekend. Until our next review, this was The Beard and Little Johnny saying Live Life. Stay Heavy. and Horns Up.