By Jase Walker
Stacked, absolutely fucking stacked. There is legitimately no other way to describe this tour’s lineup. The Devil Wears Prada fully capitalise on their jumps in popularity with another headline stomp around Europe that arguably moves them out of the shadow of supporting Landmvrks last year and into similarly sized venues in their own right. Not only that but American synthy metalcore outfit Kingdom Of Giants, Aussies Ocean Grove and tied off with sparkly metal band, SENNA. What an unreal selection!
First seeing SENNA kick things off and it’s no secret I adore this band and seeing them on a much bigger stage this time is a real treat. Opening with ‘Lavender’, the opening guitar riff is unmistakable and reminiscent of the likes of Unprocessed with its use of thump guitar technique. This time round they’re armed with new music on the run up to a new album, ‘Rain’ sounds fantastic and showcases their new development as a band and with the room steadily filling up, they’ve definitely captured the attention of the early arrivals.
These guys don’t waste their time with their opening slot, time to bear their souls on stage and put everything they can into it because they know there may not be many here who know them so time to give it everything. I can see people all around steadily getting into it, absolutely warms my heart seeing them all getting into it and stuck into SENNA’s vibe! I wouldn’t miss a chance to belt out the chorus for ‘Rosehip’ either, an absolutely immense banger that’s a mainstay of my heavy listening and my go-to track to recommend these to anyone. Sadly that’s the end of a short, sweet set and I think I’ll just have to wait for the album to drop I suppose!
Ocean Grove up next and I’ve got high expectations of how they’re going to provoke the crowd into going a bit mad. I’ve seen these nutters whip people up into a frenzy before in Manchester so let’s see how Haarlem responds eh? I’m a bit surprised by the changeover times admittedly but time for the first of a double bill of Australian madness! The moment they start I can’t help but shout ‘Holy fuck’ as the sheer tremendous force they unleash onto the crowd.
These guys always seem to find new ways to surprise me with their raw yet stylish nu-metalcore. The Limp Bizkit influences shine through so well but not in a way that feels like they’re copy/pasting the vibe, this is blended in with modern metalcore styles, mixed vocals and atmospheric layering. Anyway whatever it is, it’s loud and ballsy and these guys clearly are having great fun on stage and that’s how you should do it.
I’m also having a bit of a moment where I’m kicking myself for not giving their latest album, ‘Oddworld‘, the time it clearly so deserves. Ocean Grove comes off as almost effortless with the way they work the crowd, whether it’s inciting a circle pit or getting everyone to join in with lights for a more sombre song. I barely even registered that 30 minutes had flown past, what a show!
And finally, FINALLY, after way too long I finally get to see Kingdom Of Giants, and what a fucking racket they’re making to start! Admittedly I’m waiting on a lot of stuff from their ‘Passenger’ album due to a mishap with their set years ago! That dirty synth backing that marks so much of their sound is fully audible and is pounding every bit as much as the guitars and bass! I get my wish pretty close to the start of the set with ‘Night Shift’ which is probably my favourite song too!
After screaming my throat raw already, ‘Wasted Space’ up next to keep the EP material flowing. By this point the mood of the audience is hitting right enough for people to start diving into each other with no prompting, we’ve hit the stride now! Still peppering the set with Passenger stuff, ‘Blue Dream’ up next, time to rip my voice up a bit more! We’ve got a persistent crowd surfer too and he certainly picked his moment to jump onto our heads just as the crowd parted for a circle pit. ‘Bleach’ too, I am getting my cake and eating it tonight, but wait there’s more! Following it up with ‘Sync’, I feel like this set is more than making up for them getting squeezed out of the Manchester show so long ago. And finally finishing with ‘Wayfinder’ is just the incredible cherry on top of an incredible set that was literally exactly what I wanted, pound for pound, from these guys.
And finally, The Devil Wears Prada to wrap up the show with a fairly late start of the set (21:50). Anyway now’s the time for TDWP to put their mark on the show as they’re leading it this time and I think going off the screaming, everyone else here is ready to burn the place down. Our man, the regular crowd surfer, has wasted zero time jumping up on stage twice during the opener song while the center of the crowd rages on smashing into each other with the energy of a thousand suns.
TDWP have a superbly beefy sound that thunders through my chest and shakes the floor every bit as much as the crowd makes it bounce. There’s no real production gimmicks here, just a super dynamic light show and band members that don’t stay still for barely a second. “I wanna see a Dutch fuckin’ moshpit” gave me a bit of a giggle as if it’s somehow majorly different but was funny nonetheless.
One thing that’s really standing out to me this time is the fact that an American metalcore act isn’t using the “snare and bass drum louder than everything else” approach and they’re all the better for it. There’s something so very typical to some extent of a band like TDWP in that they approach their live show as all about the band putting across a great sounding set all the while constantly whipping the crowd up into a frenzy.
Considering the amount of people that are launching themselves up on stage and diving straight back off is steadily increasing while the central pit grows ever larger, I’d say they’re doing a pretty fucking good job at this point! Every chug, every breakdown, every bass drop, it’s all so overpowering in the best way, each and every ebb and flow is felt with extreme clarity.
Sadly this isn’t a show I can stick around for the encore due to how late it finishes, as it’s not often Haarlem shows tip over 23:00 for a finish. The bottom line though is this performance from TDWP is easily the best I’ve ever seen them, years and years of experience clearly showing through in an immaculate display.
I can’t get my head round how many stacked shows 2025 has had so far and we’ve only just breached February. There’s still so many more to go!
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