By Jase Walker
If there’s one band that’s truly striking out on their own these days and forging a path of mayhem wherever they go it’s Bleed From Within. This Scottish outfit are laying waste to stages around the world now and since they dropped their ‘Fracture’ album, they’ve been catapulted into the limelight thanks in part to their ear for an epic riff and ferocious live shows to back it up.
Normally I’d be writing about the openers but, well, today the trains and traffic in the Netherlands have truly fucked me over massively. As much as I strive to get to the venue before the doors open, this time I completely missed the opening act, Great American Ghost. All is not lost though because I’ve at least made it in time for After The Burial so I’ll be looking forward to getting my face blown off with more riffs and pinched harmonics as is their prerogative.
As After The Burial get things kicked off with barely a breather between Great American Ghost and them, it’s time to surrender to the riff. They’re seemingly still rolling pretty hard on the ‘Evergreen’ material but that’s not surprising considering they’ve kinda disappeared for a bit. Nevertheless I’m happy they popped the set off with ‘In Flux’ and then immediately followed it with ‘Exit, Exist’, so it’s good to get off to a familiar start with a band that’s been a bit off the radar for a while!
These rhythmic grooves are proper home turf for me, that familiar sound that still echoes much of the older djent scene but with all of the ferocity of modern metalcore goodness. I admittedly didn’t expect ‘Behold The Crown’ so early in the set but I crack up immediately on hearing the absolutely ridiculous punched harmonic fuckery, I love it so much.
What’s good is knowing that they’re finally working on a new album – it’s been a hot minute but they’re leading with the latest single, ‘Hum From The Hollow’ and we are so SO fucking back! Reaching a bit further back into their back catalogue with ‘Lost In The Static’, the djenty original shine through a lot stronger here and given their pretty expansive catalogue of music, I can imagine it’d have been pretty tough to sort out what to stick into a 45ish minute set that signals a return with heavy hitters but showing you’re back in the game with newer material.
Wrapping up the last part of the set with a newer single, ‘Death Keeps Us From Living’ followed by another dig deep feature of ‘Collapse’, I’m satisfied but far from satiated with After The Burial. A support slot after six-ish years away has done a ton to revive my love for these but I’ll be patiently awaiting that follow-up headliner, don’t take too long! Fuck yeah, riffs.
Bleed From Within, ever with the sense of humour because the Scots know how to get a good giggle have opted for Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ as their intro track. The spikes of their ‘Zenith’ album art sit either side of the drumkit, each with a strobing light between them that further accentuates their presence, fantastic production right from the start.
No sooner does the opening riff kick in than a couple of beers fly through the air and the pit starts to churn, people down the front are here to take the night by force and they’re gonna get it. It’s absolutely stunning seeing how much they’ve upped their game since the last time I saw them, they’ve smashed it at massive festivals like Download and upstaged headliners on their support slots before but this is an entirely new level. Their low end rumbles through the floor and my legs as much as it pounds my chest and gut, the vocals and guitars remain crisp, this is how you mix a big show. This is the sort of performance you put on when you know you’ve got a proper shot for the top and I don’t think Bleed From Within are leaving anything to chance.
“Out for blood, out for war!!”, Scott gets the crowd to scream out a few test runs first, prepping them for that chorus hook on ‘Stand Down’. I mean there’s no secret that this is the ‘Zenith’ tour which is going to take up the bulk of the set but seeing ‘Shrine’ and ‘Fracture’ getting their brief moments to shine too is always going to get some appreciation.
Every passing moment in this show demonstrates that Bleed From Within are truly seasoned performers and more comfortable in their own skin than they’ve ever been. The production they have behind them, the sound engineering and lighting drives it forward but the band themselves make it look so effortless in a way that feels like they’ve always had this, not like it’s taken them over 20 years of hard graft to get here. Bleed From Within have worked their hands and hearts to the bone for years, seasoned veterans that have done more of their fair share of the ÜK pub track before getting to this point and you can see it in the way they play on stage that they’re still grounded and humble about the long road that got them there.
They get the singer from Great American Ghost up for a vocal feature too: I love these kinds of features especially from the headline band because it really helps put a proper spotlight on the opening acts. I’m sure that Bleed From Within are keenly aware that they were on the other end of the equation not so long ago so they’re happy to return the favour now they’re the ones leading the way.
As with any Bleed From Within show for years now, ‘The End Of All We Know’ is one of the big finishers, an incredible example of bottled lightning that thrust Bleed From Within to the forefront of new upstarts in metalcore from the ÜK, or as they’d probably prefer, Scotland specifically.
But we’ve still got one very last spin, ‘In Place Of Your Halo’ to fully wrap things up, no encore, just straight ‘bangers for the whole set time, no messing about.
Bleed From Within are making a statement with this tour, they’re signalling that they’re properly ready to take on the biggest names and they better be on their A game as BFW will storm past them unapologetically should they be too careless. These sons of Scotland have every reason to be proud of what they’ve built over the years, and I don’t doubt they’ve any reason to stand still for long.
I truly believe I am watching one of the next biggest names in metal crossing the threshold, all of their hard work is coming to fruition and it’s paying back incredible dividends. Bleed From Within will be doing arenas before long, mark my words.
