Better Lovers brought the heat to Los Angeles last week, slaying metal and hardcore fans inside downtown’s Regent Theater. Despite this being their first-ever headlining tour, the band, a supergroup of the highest order [Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan alumni + Fit For An Autopsy], already has a dedicated fanbase, packing two different SoCal shows in the same weekend. The mind-bending grinders in Full of Hell obliterated the stage as we settled in. Intricate and brutal simultaneously, the crowd absorbed the band’s ferocious blasts of sonic chaos with pure enthusiasm.

Although the band played a couple of introductory club shows last year and tore it up at Sick New World 2024 in Las Vegas [an unofficial Los Angeles suburb], this was their first proper headlining run playing larger rooms while promoting their stellar debut full-length album, Highly Irresponsible. Most of the crowd inside The Regent were eager to catch their favorite new band in action finally. Musically, Better Lovers picks up where Every Time I Die left off: manic punk energy executed with metal precision and flare. If anything, the band’s intensity factor has increased with the addition of Fit For an Autopsy’s Will Putney on guitar and the unhinged ferocity of ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato.

The band hit the stage and immediately ripped into the opening track from their new record, “Lie Between the Lines.” Bodies started slamming inside the mosh pit, arms began flailing toward the ceiling, screaming along with Mr. Puciato as he re-introduced himself to metalcore fans faces in the front row. After Dillinger’s demise at the end of 2017, Greg immersed himself in numerous projects [The Black Queen, Jerry Cantrell] and officially launched his solo career to much acclaim. With Better Lovers, everyone’s favorite fire-breathing throat shredder has finally returned to melt faces once more. Crazy as this might sound, Jordan Buckley, the riff wizard behind Every Time I Die’s historic run, exudes just as much energy onstage. Free from the restraints of singing and blessed with decades of unstoppable muscle memory in his wrists and fingers, Buckley spent most of the night running a marathon onstage and leaping from every object he could find.

Better Lovers played just about every song in their repertoire. They tore through most of their debut album, their entire 2023 God Made Me an Animal EP, and even busted out a jaw-dropping cover of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.” The band wrapped things up with a fiery rendition of the song that dropped a million jaws last year, their punishing first single, “30 Under 13,” where Puciato used a flaming torch to spit fire into the crowd literally. This was quickly the most insane show of the year and one hell of a way for Better Lovers to mark their territory across Los Angeles. Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan played their final LA shows at The Regent, making Better Lovers’ triumphant headline show at the same venue even more special.

FULL OF HELL

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