Eternal Champion, Sumerlands @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, USA, 25 February 2024

Eternal Champion, Sumerlands, Legendry

Eternal Champion, Sumerlands @ Music Hall of Williamsburg, USA, 25 February 2024,

March 04, 2024
By Matthew Berliand
Photo by Matthew Berlyant
Web Exclusive

While it is not particularly unusual to have co-headlining sets at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, it is when each of the co-headlining bands share the subscription. Co-headliners Eternal Champion and Sumerlands share guitarists Arthur Rizk and John Powers along with bassist Brad Raub, but they also have very different, if connected and familiar, sounds.

The Philly-based Sumerlands, now led by singer Brendan Radigan (who joined for their excellent 2022 album Dream killer), play a more “traditional” style of heavy metal with huge hooks and bigger riffs on songs like “Edge of a Knife” and the title track. One player on bandcamp described them as (paraphrasing here) “the best metal band from your town in 1987 that wasn't signed yet” and that's a pretty good description. Their style of melodic power metal, produced by Rizk, owes more than a little to pioneers of the genre such as Queensrÿche, Metal Church, Accept, Warlock, Helloween and the like, but there's a 21st century feel here too, which makes the overall result. you feel like Sumerlands is more than the sum of its parts or a nostalgia trip. That said, with a large portion of the audience singing along, it's easy to see that if this was around in the late eighties, this material would be all over the Headbanger's Ball or Hard 30 and even pass for regular MTV rotation. And that kind of pure joy and great songwriting they can do in any era.

Eternal Champion, on the other hand, is led by singer Jason Tarpey (ex-Iron Age, Far from Breaking, etc.), just as the Sumerlands have roots in the hardcore punk scene (Austin in their case). Again, although they share ⅗ of their lineup with Sumerlands, they play a self-described style of “epic” metal that's heavier, more groove-oriented, and perhaps less overtly catchy than Sumerlands, but still aggressive, on the riff. and inviting a huge audience to sing and fist bump to songs like “I Am the Hammer”.

Openers Legendary are a trio from Pittsburgh and are also described as an “epic” metal band. They were very good, playing a variety of styles and warming up the crowd for the co-headliners. They opened with a great Motörhead style track, but ran the gamut from epic/fantasy inspired stuff to doom/stoner to quite a few eighties style thrashers. For about half of their set, they were joined by violinist Dee C, giving the proceedings an even more “epic” feel.