By Jase Walker
So after seeing Bury Tomorrow announce this tour with ÜK only dates, I felt my heart sink because a tour like this with Make Them Suffer, Thornhill and As Everything Unfolds is an unbelievably stacked lineup. As luck would have it, European dates dropped and lo and behold, it’s at Melkweg!
As I’ve approached the venue I note the single biggest convoy of tour buses and equipment I think I’ve ever seen outside of this place. Annoyingly the door times are crazy early for here at 17:30 with As Everything Unfolds starting at 18:00 but I’ve made it so let’s get my ears around tonight’s stacked show eh?
The screen behind the stage and subsequent gigantic stash of equipment lights up with AEU’s signature logo, I am already buzzed as fuck a out this! Already actively fighting the urge to start screaming “JON CASS” at the top of my lungs, but we’re off to a LOUD start and I’m so excited to see these again this year!
An oldie like ‘Hiding From Myself’ so early in the set so I guess we’re going for a mix of big bangers to get their statement out there! AEU are absolutely not fucking about with getting the crowd warmed up either, people keenly starting a circle pit and bashing into each other. This is already a good sign for the vibe of tonight and it’s only going to intensify as the adrenaline and beer starts flowing. ‘Ultraviolet’ sounds as fresh as it does the first time I heard it with its undercurrent of Limp Bizkit record scratches and thumpy riffage. I’m constantly stunned by how much Charlie’s vocals have improved over the past couple of years too, her unclean gutturals are an incredible juxtaposition against her pop style cleans. Finishing with the old classic of ‘From The Inside’ wraps up a fantastic opening set that’s clearly got the crowd going on the right foot. Don’t stay away too long, I’ll be there every time!
The screen on stage lights up again but sadly is obscured a bit because of the equipment crush on stage but anyway, Thornhill time! Their signature sound with a crushing baritone guitar tone lights up the room and they’ve already got a much warmer response than their earlier appearance with Polaris. ‘nerv’ their latest single goes hard as fuck live, to me this feels like the right sort of blend of their newer Deftones style sound and spacey atmosphere from ‘The Dark Pool’. ‘The Dark Pool’ is still getting some love with ‘Lily And The Moon’ and ‘Coven’ which is great for me as I’m a huge fan of that album.
I’m quite happy with the sound mix considering some friends at the Manchester and London shows remarked the drums were way too loud but here the sound balance is pretty bang on, everything is strong and clear but nothing overpowering each other, lovely stuff. The crowd reaction to ‘Dark Pool V’s newer songs seems to be quite different again by the end sadly, ‘Where Do We Go When We Die?’ gets a huge response but ‘Obsession’ doesn’t quite seem to land in the same way. The middle center who are down for going mad don’t seem to care much and are clearly having the time of their lives the whole set anyway! I do hope with the advent of ‘nerv’ that they continue to marry the two very different eras of Thornhill together and things are looking peachy for that!
Mercifully we can actually make out Make Them Suffer‘s logo now as they’re using the drum kit in front of the screen. Opening with ‘Ghost Of Me’ to really get things going and the front of the crowd is going absolutely bananas right from the first riff, love it! Gonna straight into one of my favourites from How To Survive A Funeral, ‘My Bones’ with its epic chorus, there’s so much movement it’s hard to keep track of! The crowd is definitely amped up now as I can clearly see many heads jumping up and down across the venue including the balconies, the vibe is definitely what you want from a show like this.
The new album material goes hard as fuck live, ‘Epitaph’ has clearly landed well with the crowd here as I can hear them shouting the lyrics back super loud. More with ‘Oscillator’, the groove in this song is pounding and amid the flashes of light and shadows of crowd surfers across the top of people’s heads I can see an audience that are fully engaged and locked in.
Nobody writes a riff like Make Them Suffer does, somehow balancing that perfect mix between sheer aggression and exquisite melody. You want to equally dropkick a stranger in the pit as much as you want to scream the chorus arm in arm with the same person. Another favourite of mine ‘Erase Me’ is probably the start of me barely being able to talk tomorrow after screaming the chorus. But as with all good things, it must end but they’re going out with a huge bang with ‘Doomswitch’, I adore this as one of the biggest tracks from their new self-titled. Not gonna lie, ‘Mana God’ better be on the next setlist! Spectacular set, these get better every single time!
Prior to Bury Tomorrow starting I can feel the hairs on my neck standing up, these are one of those bands that I’ve been following for years and keep upping the ante every single album. Opening with none other than ‘Abandon Us’ with the visceral line of ‘How could they do that to us?!’, I couldn’t think of a better ripper to start. The production they’ve got with them explains the massive trailer they’ve got outside as well, a full light display and three screens playing per-song backing as the show progresses.
Reaching back a bit in time, it’s ‘Earthbound’ and the circle pit is taking up the vast majority of the crowd now. I feel sorry for the poor bastard that’s crowd surfing around that’s clearly lost his shoe after the 4th song. There is barely anyone in this venue, front, back, balcony, that isn’t going mad for Bury Tomorrow, the openers have done a bang-up job of getting the adrenaline going full tilt and Bury Tomorrow are fully cashing in on that.
Phone lights up for ‘Begin Again’, another example of Bury Tomorrow’s knack for writing a verse with crushing technical riffs and a chorus that everyone in the crowd can sing along to. Evidently we have found the shoe as well, hopefully this will find its way back to the rightful owner’s foot but I’m not holding my breath. I’ve been waiting for the latest single though, ‘What If I Burn’ considering the change in vocal styles that are apparent in it, and what a beautiful performance it is.
The versatility of the vocal performances that Bury Tomorrow put out is astounding, nevermind the facemelting riffs. After Dan speaks candidly about his belief that we are all one regardless of outward qualities, dropping into ‘Boltcutter’ sees the whole audience go bananas, crowd surfers, hundreds of people smashing into each other, the lot.
As we progress to the final part of the show, Dan requests a stream of crowd surfers and then the band dives into ‘Black Flame’ and the crowd gladly obliges by sending people floating to the front and what a remarkable sight it is. The melodic intro for ‘Cannibal’ is unmistakable, the clearly everyone’s been wanting for this one to appear in the set as the hype for the centre goes even harder than before. It’s getting towards that time, I don’t want it to end but it’s gotta happen. But the finisher being ‘Last Light’ and ‘Choke’ is a brilliant one-two punch to finish off the night. I did kinda miss that ‘Man On Fire’ wasn’t in the set but I have seen them play it like seven times so not a massive loss for me I suppose.
Amsterdam has fucking brought it tonight. As for the bands? All of them smashed the fuck out of their sets and I could not have wished for a better Wednesday night.
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