By Jase Walker
So after a bit of an early night yesterday, I’ve woken up nicely rested for day three and after sorting out some personal stuff first thing and eating half of an undercooked panini, I’m back in the arena area for Another Now.
These guys seriously impressed me at Dynamo a few weeks back and they’ve been bumped up to the main stage after some last minute scheduling changes. The difference in sound they’ve got playing on such a big stage is incredible, don’t get me wrong I loved the more intimate show but being able to dominate a stage like this really shows how capable they are. Pretty good turnout for them so early in the day too. Another Now’s weaving of synth elements into crushingly heavy riffs sounds unreal for this performance, and as my personal favourite thing to mention, the bass guitar is shaking my guts and I fucking love it. Another Now conducts their live performance becoming of a band that are set to climb the popularity ladder quickly and with Hex as their latest offering, I can see them going places fast.
Brand Of Sacrifice are up next with their demonic deathcore, complimented by a repeating video of a gigantic demon engulfed in flames behind them. Opening up with their ‘Lifeblood’ album opener, ‘Dawn’, I don’t think they could have gone with a better can opener for their set. Brand of Sacrifice are fantastic on so many fronts but the one part that always sticks out for me more than anything is their drummer, they’re incredible how tight they play considering the speed and the amount of fills they use. Their singer constantly tests and provokes the audience to join in with the madness, more crowd surfers, more pits, more everything. As much as I love my melody in a lot of stuff, there really is nothing quite as satisfying as Brand Of Sacrifice just leaning fully into music that sounds like a multi-car pileup. Anyway, getting my melody fix next with ERRA.
I fucking love ERRA so much. Opening things up with their heavy as hell yet intensely melodic style. ‘Gungrave’ is a big one for me, I love the chorus in this, the cleans from Jessie Cash are probably some of my favourite bits of ERRA’s music. It’s really surprising how many people put their hands up for seeing ERRA for the first time but hopefully they’ll leave enough of an impression on the crowd to see them return sooner rather than later. Admittedly I’m not as familiar with the Cure material as I probably should be because there’s been a lot of stellar music releases this year so I’ve not had chance to really get familiar with it and ERRA are opting for a set that heavily leans on that material. God I wish this set wasn’t so short but it’s not like I’ve missed their headline shows before. Finishing with “Snowblood”, these hyper melodic metalcore outfit still remain as one of my favourite acts, fingers crossed for a headline tour nearby!
Later on is another fantastic Dutch band, For I Am King: it’s time for some angry tech death! If you like stuff along the lines of Jinjer, then For I Am King should be in your listening queue. Absolutely thunderous right from the start, machine gun drumming mirrored by relentless chugs and the filthiest vocals that rival Brand Of Sacrifice. I’m totally adoring their singers outfit for this show too, oversized link t-shirt, shite sunglasses and baggy white/green leggings, quite a contrast with the rest of the band all just wearing straight black t-shirts and jeans. For I Am King are fully kicking arse right now, they’re making sure everyone is on board with antics like a massive circle pit, people are incensed. I’m so glad I got to see these randomly years ago, they’ve been superb every time I’ve seen them and today’s show at Jera was no different, absolutely slayed it.
After an extended break due to the weather deciding to throw down a biblical amount of rain for about two solid hours, I’ve got myself back to the main stage to catch the trio of the ÜKs premier metalcore acts one after another starting with While She Sleeps. My feet are sodden but that’s not going to stop me screaming my lungs out to ‘Sleeps Society’! It’s great seeing so many in the crowd all the way back going berserk to ‘Sleeps‘ and down the front people are launching beers, people, shoes, everything. The rain has done nothing to dampen people’s spirits! People are climbing the tent pillars and launching themselves on top of the crowd, it’s nuts to see all this unfold. Even the singers decided to climb up the pillars to dive into the audience from pretty high up too, the size of the balls on this man are unreal! These truly are a band with zero restraint, the production is literally firing off, the sound is fucking huge and the entire tent is eating this up. This may very well be one of the best sets this weekend.
I really cannot overstate how While She Sleeps are a band that is truly in the middle of their biggest strides right now. They’ve got the right sound that’s accessible to such a wide crowd but haven’t lost their sense of what got them there in the first place. While She Sleeps are for the top and there is nothing that’s going to stop them getting there. And finally finishing with “Systematic”, it draws this set to a close and While She Sleeps have absolutely fucking killed their show, the legitimate kings of their podium right now, superb.
Next up is Bury Tomorrow, now in their villain arc and building up to their follow up for ‘Seventh Sun’. To say that I’m eager to see these live again is a huge understatement. Opening with ‘The Seventh Sun’, the title track from their most recent album and immediately following up with ‘Abandoned Us’ is a true masterstroke in getting this shit started properly! A massive singalong with ‘Black Flame’ and I can certainly say I do not stand alone screaming this song at the top of my lungs! Dan with no fear injects himself into the middle of the crowd and demands a circle pit around him, the ÜK metalcore bands fearing nothing. I’m already getting pretty emotional already, I’ve been a massive fan of these for so long. These guys are supreme champions of making sure that everyone feels safe and getting the crowd to jump arm in arm to ‘Boltcutter’ is very on brand for a Bury Tomorrow live show.
Asking if there’s old school Bury Tomorrow fans in and talking about their ‘Runes’ album and hitting us with ‘Man On Fire’, I think I’m losing my voice tonight I guess! We’re crossing across many different eras with ‘Choke’ being a massive banger off their ‘Cannibal’ album. Finishing up with ‘DEATH’, which admittedly isn’t as strong of a closer as I wished but it’s been a fantastic set and I can’t wait to see these again at Melkweg in Amsterdam, see you there lads!
And finally, Architects. What a way to finish off Saturday. Opening with ‘Seeing Red’ and the entire crowd has erupted into mania right from the start! From ‘Giving Blood’ into ‘Deep Fake’, we’re going for a straight set of their biggest arena type bangers. We even get a feature of Winston from Parkway Drive when they play ‘Impermanence’! Completely unexpected but very welcome! Architects much like the two that came before them today are a band at the top of their game right now with their live performances. The production along with the videos they play backing each song are heavy hitting and painting a very bleak picture of the world along with the lyrical content and ‘Black Lungs’ is very much part of that scene.
Digging a bit deeper into their back catalogue with ‘Gravedigger’, gets a bit more into their more intense riffing that admittedly has been a bit lost with the newer songs but hey ho, bands change. However the latest single with Jordan Fish at the production helm, ‘Curse’, goes hard as fuck life and you can see their fingerprints all over it with it’s fantastic combination of new and old Architects sound. Sam gives a solemn and heartbreaking speech before hitting ‘Doomsday’ about calling and talking to the people you love but may not see often and it hits me pretty hard given some personal stuff recently.
The show moves on though and it looks like the heavens have opened as I’m getting rain on my head periodically even in the tent so this walk back is going to be fun to say the least. ‘When We Were Young’ gets a gigantic circle pit going in the middle, Sam isn’t fucking about when it comes to directing the audience to go mad and Jera On Air is eating it up! Another reach down the older songs, ‘All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us’, a very welcome addition to the set, I do wish they’d play a bit more off that album as I’d love to hear ‘Gone With The Wind’ again but this’ll suffice for now.
And finally of course has been a mainstay for Architects for a while now, ‘Animals’, it’s a brilliant finisher and it’s been great seeing Architects for the second time this year but as they mentioned, it’s album writing time! Considering how ‘Curse’ sounds, I’m pretty excited to say the least!
Jera Day Three down, it’s ended a bit wet but I’m not going to let that stop the burning excitement within, as we’ve still got another day jam packed with great stuff…
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos courtesy of Jera On Air/For I Am KIng/HEKLA.tv/Kealey Oosterom. All copyright remains with the individual photographers.
- All written content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.