A Skylit Drive
The Foundry Concert Club
Cleveland OH
July 2, 2025
By Rob McCune
Cleveland’s The Foundry Concert Club became a haven for head-bangers on a recent summer night as four hardcore rock bands, led by A Skylit Drive, crashed onto the stage and brought the roof down.
First up was Cleveland’s own Titans In Time, led by Vince Gillman on vocals, Zac Gundlach on guitar, Joshua Jansen on bass and Matt Bryson on drums. The Titans turned up the volume quickly with original tracks “Having Fun,” “Enemies With Benefits,” and “Work For It,” blending bright pop-rock stylings reminiscent of bands like “311” with the full-throated grit and growl of “System of a Down.” One of the more surprisingly satisfying songs on any setlist the whole night was the Titans’ take on “Sunglasses at Night,” originally recorded by synth-pop Canadian Corey Hart in 1984.
Next in the lineup, Jersey City, New Jersey-originating Enox held nothing back, erupting with their own metalcore mix of extreme metal and hardcore punk on original tracks from their 2022 debut album Euphoria, along with a new single out this year, “Sedative,” a gut-punching anthem about feeling out of control that really showcases lead vocalist Michael Guevarez’s range, from a soft, soulful sonnet to raging rasp. Bass player Roy Beatty, guitarists Mikey Luna and John Capparelli, and drummer Mario Conte ride the storm and bring their own thunder and lightning to the set, with songs like the explosive, adrenaline-pumping “Mortar Shell,” released in 2023 as a single.
Batting third, the heavily tattooed artist known only as Dizasterpiece, another Jersey boy, brought his unique rapcore style to the scene, with his hip-hop emcee mixing board and a backing band, including guitarist Phil Addington. Spitting sharp rhymes like a Beastie Boy seamlessly into screamo intensity, Dizasterpiece ripped through tracks off the 2021 debue album Regression Toward The Mean, last year’s ZZonebound and a new single, “Cursed With a Purpose,” which sounds like it should be on a soundtrack for a “Final Destination” movie.
By the time A Skylit Drive arrived, the crowd was on overdrive. A small, but enthusiastic moshpit had formed in the center of the venue. Fans rushed the stage. And the metal poured like molten steel over The Foundry. The band, which has endured more than its share of upheaval and tragedy since forming 20 years ago (including the death of original vocalist Jordan Blake in 2023), rocked like they had something to prove, to themselves and both new and longtime fans.
Drive dived right in with “All It Takes For Your Dreams to Come True,” a track off their first full-studio record (2008) “Wires … and the Concept of Breathing” that truly emphasizes the contrast between lead singer Michael Jagmin’s distinct high-pitched vocal style and the deep, ferocious growl of guitarist and vocalist Louie Caycoya, who would cower a bear with his voice on the lyric: “This is a war we cannot win!”
The setlist also included the latest single, released last year, “Count Me Out,” a song that feels both redemptive and unrelenting, evoking “the weight of all the worst” this band has been through. Most of the set was devoted to two of the band’s five studio records: “Wires” and 2011’s “Identity on Fire,” which recently got a new vinyl pressing and features favorite tracks such as “XO Skeleton.” “Too Little Too Late” and “Cali Buds,” all of which made the set.
Halfway through their set, Jagmin rivaled Rihanna on ASD’s cover of “Love the Way You Lie,” which subbed in Caycoya’s scream-sing verse for Eminem’s lyrical hip-hop beats. The combo again hit incredible harmonic highs and lows, moving the crowd to first sway and then slay, and ending with Caycoya off the stage and in the floor in a full back bend while bending his electric guitar in a move that is about as metal as you can get.
Ultimately, the proof was in the performance: A Skylit Drive shines as bright and fiery as ever, and there’s no chance of these stars blinking out anytime soon.
