Those loud noises coming from Irving, on the evening of July 3rd, wasn’t premature firework celebrations for ‘Merica. It was the muses of the Unheavenly Skye Tour. And the culprits of all the noise complaints made that night was Coheed and Cambria, Every Time I Die, and Mastodon. This guitar-driven shindig went down at the Toyota Music Factory.

Every Time I Die opened the show with a blistering hot batch of metalcore, with sides of post-hardcore, and punk. This outfit formed in Buffalo, New York, during the late ’90s. ETID put on a solid show to get the blood moving for the North Texas metalheads. They love the head bob breakdowns and utilized it often. Their energy is what really lit the fuse of this bottle rocket of musical magic.

Mastodon was the 2nd band on the bill. This band likes to co-headline tours, and what this usually means is one band plays last one night, and then the other will play last on the next stop of the tour. The problem that I have with this is it seems like every time they do this and come to DFW, it’s Mastodon’s turn to play second to last. And in my book any tour that Mastodon plays they should be the premier band and should play last. This was a cool show because they played their 2009 classic album, Crack the Skye front to back, which is arguably their best work. It is a conceptual album with the core theme being astral projection. They didn’t miss a beat, play a sour note, or flub any lyrics. After they finished playing Crack The Skye in the album order, they played a few from other awesome albums of theirs. My favorite of those was the jammy Bladecatcher. That song reminds me of a jazzy jam band of droids from space. This was also the last stop on this tour. Watching them and their fanbase grow has been an amazing experience. From North Texas’s introduction to Mastodon at the Wreck Room, back in 2003, to seeing them win a Grammy for Blood Mountain. And if you went to the show you know they hinted they are not done making more genius prog metal. I always look forward to seeing Mastodon, and probably always will.

Coheed and Cambria were supporting the release of their latest album, Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures. This is a fun record, and so was their performance Wednesday night. Coheed and Cambria are a Prog Rock band from Nyack, New York. They started their adventure in 1995. This band gave their fans exactly what they wanted. An upbeat epic story through music. The loyal Coheed heads were all shouting the lyrics to each song they played. It was a fun festive vibe at the venue during Coheed and Cambria’s set.

This show was a perfect start to the summer holiday. The Toyota Music Factory is no joke. It’s a great place to see a live show. The sound was on point and it still had that new car smell. They could lower the beer prices a few dollars, but other than that I give the venue a solid 5 Roman Candle review.