By Jase Walker
By all accounts after the weekend I’ve had I shouldn’t be even functional right now but the powers that be have seen fit to give me a break on a hangover and I’m ready for an evening of riffy metal! Being As An Ocean have brought along favourites of mine, As Everything Unfolds, featuring Mikey from Exist Immortal filling in on guitars, and Acres, who I’m not familiar with but excited to see what they do!
Acres start off to a somewhat sparse audience, but I’ve taken a shine to them right away. It’s riffy, bouncy, and mixes high cleans and filthy uncleans; definitely my cuppa! I think the vocal clarity is a bit off, somewhat muffled which doesn’t help the quieter parts of some songs. The way some songs flow and the chord progressions work reminds me very strongly of Northlane, the mix of atmospheric elements juxtaposed against grindy riffs and upper fret hammer-ons. They’ve carried the set well considering this is the last date of this tour too, Acres have played a solid variety of stuff ranging from the more somber to the blisteringly riffy.
Their melodic elements are brilliant though, there’s nothing I like more than songs with really punchy rhythm and hooky melodies all the while leaving ample room for the vocals to fill out the rest of the song. The most unexpected thing for this set though, a guest appearance by 11-year old Harper: if you don’t know who she is, go have a look at her cover of Spiritbox’s ‘Holy Roller‘, or her single, ‘Falling‘! These are definitely going into my “listen to for weeks” list, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for any future appearances wherever I go from now on, I want more of this! I thoroughly enjoyed this set!
- Acres’ second album, ‘Burning Throne’, will be released on 3 March.
As one of the final few shows I’ve seen this year, I couldn’t think of any band I’d rather see more than As Everything Unfolds. Not only that but this is the final show of their ‘Within Each Lies The Other’ era before moving fully into finishing the next album. The moment those first big drops hit me hard enough to give me whiplash, I’m headbanging away with a massive grin, god I love this band! Charlie’s vocals are sounding incredible tonight too which is an attestation of endurance given how long this tour has been! It does seem like there’s a bit of frustration with the monitors as she’s had to take them out, and can appreciate that being pretty stressful for any live performance.
It shows a lot of professionalism though considering they’re pressing ahead and trying to fix or work around issues like this without interrupting the set. Technical issues aside though they’re sounding great, it hits hard when it needs to and the atmospheric segments soar as well. Considering the length of this tour, they’re all jumping around on the stage and really digging deep to put on a great performance. The new songs sound bloody massive too, I’m really enjoying how they’re building up an evolution of their sound and can’t wait to hear the album when it drops! ‘From The Inside’ to finish off the set and one era ends and another begins, thank you As Everything Unfolds, I can’t wait to see what you do next!
- New single, ‘Blossom’, is out now.
Finally tonight, Being As An Ocean. The front area of the crowd where I am is properly filled up now and I think I’m going to need to keep my wits about me to avoid the odd flying elbow or leg. Going off the response of the crowd as well compared to the previous acts, people are definitely a lot more awake and engaged for Being As An Ocean. Each song is met with voices singing back the words in unison, each of their faces charged with emotion. One thing that’s bothering me a bit with the sound is while I love strong bass at my live shows, this time it’s a bit too loud and it’s often smothering the guitars. Besides that though, I love Being As An Ocean’s riffy style and emotionally charged delivery. They’ve got a very distinct melancholy to their sound, so while it goes hard, it often feels sad or painful at the same time.
Just looking around the crowd I can see quite a number of teary eyed people mixed with cracked smiles, seeing this sort of strong response to someone’s music is a wonderful thing. Seeing someone waving around a cracked cymbal they’ve bought from the merch stand is definitely one of the more weird things I’ve seen people do at a show (nevermind the two occasions of wigs at other shows this year). Their singer even handed out two parts of a drumstick that’d been snapped mid show.
It’s quite striking how much control of the audience their singer has, he’s spent a considerable amount of time on the barrier moving from end to end while the crowd surges towards him with their fists in the air. To have this much energy left on the last day of what’s been a pretty long tour as well is astounding, each of them.has been thrashing themselves around the stage non-stop for the entire set! The dedication of their fans at this show is on full display, so many people here know every word to each song and this includes the spoken word monologues as well.
To say their vocalist loves their fans is a bit of an understatement. At one point he spots someone in tears in the audience and reminds him that he’s loved and proceeds to talk at length about the love for music and live shows. It’s inspiring to feel every drop of meaning in his voice, an incredible performer and speaker both. I relate to that a lot because that’s precisely why I love going to gigs and going to as many as I do, it’s all from a place of love for music. The encore sees their singer helping out bring crowd surfers over the barrier while leaning into the people at the front and getting up close, this man truly loves what he’s doing and it’s incredible that he’s going this hard even now. The entire front area of the crowd is jumping around in unison while screaming the words back with tears streaming down their faces.
A truly emotionally charged show, one that clearly means so much to so many people here. Seeing music provoking such a raw response from people is such a special moment, the shared bond between a band and their fans has been clear from start to finish tonight. Spectacular.
- Being As An Ocean return to the ÜK next year, headilining the Burn It Down festival in Torquay on Saturday 9 September.
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