By Jase Walker
As I’ve walked up to tonight’s venue, unfortunately I find that the headline act, Amaranthe, have had to pull out of tonight’s show but the rest of the bands on the lineup have stepped up to fill the gap. So the headline act is now Beyond The Black, supported by Butcher Babies and Ad Infinitum, all performing extended sets instead, so this will be a bit of a unique show as far as this tour goes!
Due to the absolutely massive queue I get in about 15 minutes into Ad Infinitum‘s set and it sounds bloody massive. I sometimes forget how good the sound is in the Ritz! I’ve found myself a perch on the upstairs balcony and I genuinely can’t believe how stuffed the venue is, the Ritz can hold a pretty large number of people but seeing it packed out like this from the start is unreal. The singer gets the crowd going with a “Hey! Hey!” chant and the volume of the audience is almost enough to match the band’s volume. It says a lot about the audience as well considering Amaranthe unfortunately dropping out yet the vast majority of them have still decided to attend.
The balance of sound is fantastic too, the guitars, bass, and drums all working incredibly well in tandem which allows the singer to focus on projecting her voice and work the audience without any worry. Feeling very at home with this stuff too, thunderous riffs and incredible vocals, it’s not quite symphonic in the way that say Nightwish, Epica, or that ilk are but it’s certainly got an influence on them. Ad Infinitum’s clearly got a well honed live performance, fantastic entertainers and musicians both. Seeing the audience clap along and wave their arms in unison with barely any prompt from the band really drives home their skill at putting across a great live show. Definitely off to a good start tonight.
Next up tonight is a band that I didn’t actually know was on the bill but have been meaning to see live for bloody ages, Butcher Babies! The energetic dual female vocals fronted metal outfit has been on my radar for a pretty bloody long time but I’ve never actually caught them! The moment they kick off they sound way WAY heavier than any of their recordings sound, this is mental! The way they both jump back and forth between soaring cleans and filthy uncleans is jarring too, I don’t think I’ve actually heard harmonising growls done live before weirdly but here’s Butcher Babies doing it! This set is going hard as fuck right out the gates, there’s no preamble, no warm up, it’s just straight up nuts from the start.
Admittedly the crowd could be going a bit harder but they seem to be enjoying it all the same, just not much in terms of movement when the music’s going mental. They’ve got a pretty even split between which vocalist takes the lead on different songs too, both of which are running around, jumping off stage, jumping with each other, it’s a very busy live show to match the busy music. Absolutely savage riffs, thunderous grooves, and to top it off the singers screaming in your face and head banging so hard it’d put anyone to shame, what a stage show! A bit later on in the set there’s more movement and a much better response and finally a moshpit, took bloody long enough for them to wake up!
Butcher Babies put on a show that was straight up electrifying, they sound immense live in ways their recorded albums, while great in their own right, just can’t emulate. Honestly blown away by this show!
Lastly, Beyond The Black to top off tonight’s show. If anything this will be a chance for them to really pull out all the big guns and capitalize on the unique opportunity they’ve been given to headline a date at one of Manchester’s prestigious venues. And going off the light show they’ve got going from the start, they’re doing just that! The singer takes the stage with two pillars of light in her hands while singing on the raised box at the front of the stage, there’s no backing down from their chance here! Definitely much more Symphonic in comparison with the previous acts, I feel right at home here, love me some heavy symphonic metal!
Not only does this set sound unreal with every single little chug from the guitars being felt in my legs, but the light show they’ve got with them is awesome! There’s so many different things they’ve got going on, large flood lights, strobes, horizontal bars doing different patterns, it’s incredibly intense. It probably won’t be much of a surprise to know the crowd is focused almost entirely on their singer and she knows it, fiercely using it to direct the audience from punching the air, or chanting, or getting the entire audience to clap along.
I looked down to type something for a split second, I looked back up and she’s wearing a different dress, where did that come from!? Not long after that a crown of horns and a mask, I’ve not seen commitment to stage wardrobe use since In The Moment years ago! Not only that but bringing a large drum on stage to dictate the crowd participation is a neat touch, what a fantastic frontwoman, she’s got the audience wrapped around her little finger. Another wardrobe change, this time with a massively long draping cloak and with a light pillar in hand again. It’s hard to not take note of the wardrobe changes as they seem to punctuate each passing song and adds a lot to the overall performance. She really is the biggest personality on stage and it’s hard not to be drawn to what she’s doing between engaging the audience and incredible vocal melodies.
What is most abundantly obvious is though with Beyond The Black is they have an extremely well honed, well planned and amazingly executed live performance. One that has clearly been refined many times over the course of their career and the performance I’ve been able to experience tonight has been the culmination of all that effort. While it’s a real shame that Amaranthe weren’t able to make it tonight, Beyond The Black have stepped into those shoes with grace and have delivered an outstanding performance to what is an absolutely packed venue. It’s no small feat taking over the main headliner slot with barely a few hours notice but they did it and they did it well and I hope that’s how they felt after coming off the stage. A fantastic night!
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photograph courtesy of www.facebook.com/beyondtheblackofficial.
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