By Jase Walker
A Thursday night at one of my favourite venues, with one of my favourite metalcore bands? Absolutely.
This unusually warm Thursday evening sees me back at Rebellion in Manchester for a night of the heavy from Our Hollow Our Home, with Aviana and Glass Heart along for the tour. For tonight’s show, we’ve also got local supports Crushed By Waves at a really early slot of 6:30pm, so might be a bit of a scant crowd for them opening up as I get the feeling a lot of people may think doors at 7:30pm which is generally quite standard.
Thankfully a small crowd has gathered just in time for Crushed By Waves to start which is a bit of a relief, but it seems they’re having some trouble getting started with a backing track which is preventing them from starting which I feel could have been looked at before they were actually going to start. After a near 10 minute delay, it looks like they’ve got it up and running but I can imagine this will cut into their set time quite a bit. To their credit they sound pretty decent although their style does seem a bit at odds with the headliners, sounding closer to hard rock such as Shinedown and the like. Not quite the sort of thing I’ve come to a OHOH show for but decent nonetheless, some of the crowd looks to be enjoying them a bunch too and I think that’s the best result for a local opener with such an early slot.
- Crushed By Waves play The Shipping Forecast in Liverpool, supported by After Smoke Clears and Decay The Ocean, on Sunday 20 November.
Unfortunately we’re already running behind now which means Glass Heart are on late, which is probably going to impact the rest of the running order. The moment Glass Heart kicks off I’m already into it, that opening riff was just the right sort of thing I needed right now. We’ve got harmonized cleans on the chorus and the bass player filling in some uncleans as well, this feels like home territory for me. As I mention a lot as well, it’s always good to hear a band with a properly audible bass to really drive home the riff! Glass Heart represents the no frills or gimmicks performance, just a lot of movement and really pushing the performance to the crowd. No idea how their singer hasn’t hit someone in the face with the amount they’re swinging that mic around though!
I’m fully enjoying this set though. They’ve got some real pop style segments, a great ear for a catchy hook and a songwriting style that focuses around simplicity that lets the pop run every bit as hard as the meaty riffs. Also shout out to the sound engineer that’s managed getting the bass drum to be felt on every single hit without it being crazy loud, works so bloody well with the bass guitar. They’ve gotten a pretty solid group of people up close to the stage that are definitely into them and they’ve won me over as well, great support slot choice for OHOH as well. All round great act to watch, fun to listen to and will definitely be going into my Spotify rotation, really enjoyed that!
Aviana are up next and they’re walking on stage to… Scooter? Unusual but not the weirdest I’ve heard this year, I think Unicron’s theme takes that title. The whole aesthetic of black hoodies and black masks (barring the singer) is pretty striking, I love a good visual band identity! Gotta admit I’m not really feeling any bass other than the bass drum at the start but this is less apparent from the second song where the low end on the backing track is a lot stronger. Aviana’s life set is pretty bloody fierce though, consistently using grooves that bounce up the fretboard (not too far mind) all while the singer screams down the mic and discordant wails ring out all over the place.
I’m really into this whole already being pretty heavy on the choruses and then just leaning fully into going as hard as possible during the verses. When the gears switch to outrageously heavy, it hits so fast and so powerful it’s enough to give you whiplash! The grooves they’ve got are blasting throughout Rebellion, I just wish the crowd was a bit more solid and responsive but I guess it is just before payday and Friday. Aviana’s singer manages to provoke a solid response later on in the set, even if it is just people trying to punch or flykick each other. Aviana have kicked out a pretty damn good set here but I think the timing of this particular show has been a bit unfortunate for the turnout. It’s testament to Aviana’s professionalism though that despite the turnout, they were still intent on getting a great response out of everyone, and they did just that.
Finally tonight, Our Hollow Our Home! I finally get a headline set after seeing them at Radar earlier this year so I’m happy to really get my fill of these here. Can’t get enough of those really catchy pop choruses that OHOH write, you’ve got songs that go so bloody heavy and yet be so light and fun at the same time. Hitting ‘Better Daze’ early on in the set seems to be the right spark people needed to get moving! Despite the crowd being a bit thinner than normal, it’s not stopping them giving back energy to OHOH in response to their performance. When they lean into their more groovy bits, I can feel every bit of low end from the drums, to the bass and even the guitars reverberating through my legs and back. I love it.
Whoever’s doing their lights knows OHOH’s set pretty well too, making full use of Rebellion’s new light setup. It compliments the music immensely when the lighting is on beat and works to drive the intensity of the show, working in tandem with the band for a terrific live set. I do feel bad about the turnout they’ve had but it’s definitely not phased them much, they’re still drawing on the energy of the audience and going for it! We’ve even got a bit of a treat of a guest spot from Thecityisours’s singer, Oli, who’s been doing photography work for them on arguably one of their biggest tracks, ‘Loneshark’. OHOH have put on a real solid headliner set tonight, yeah the turnout maybe could have been a bit better but it hasn’t impacted the performance they’ve put on one bit.
A consistently fantastic metalcore act, and they’ve proven once again why they’re a solid favourite of mine. Hopefully I’ll be seeing these again a bunch next year too!
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