By Jase Walker
November has been stacked for shows, like truly stacked and tonight’s show in Utrecht, the second night in this venue, While She Sleeps are smashing their way through Europe. To add incredible weight to this tour is fellow Sheffield natives, Malevolence, Swedish hardcore adjacent heavyweights, thrown, and finally French synthy metalcore outfit, Resolve. Who the fuck says Netherlands doesn’t get good metal tours? I’ve got a year of staggering shows under my belt so far in 2024 that begs to differ.
Starting off the evening with a chat with Aaron and Loz from While She Sleeps, talking about the band’s history and support for mental health and wellbeing, I’m already getting that buzz for the forthcoming show. This is definitely going to be a show where the crowd is going to be starting a riot and for a Friday evening in Utrecht, I couldn’t wish for anything better!
Considering how early the door time was for this show, the early turnout is pretty damn solid. It’s time for Resolve. An intro track with throbbing bass pounds my chest and I’m eager for that riff to hit. Considering the last few times I’ve seen these have been in far smaller venues in Manchester, Resolve sound absolutely monstrous right from the start. I’m getting chills up my spine over how massive they sound on this stage, incredible.
Every single riff shakes my legs, the drums pound away at just the right level to not overpower anything else but still sound heavy as hell and the vocalist stomps around the stage like he owns it. To give an idea of how excited people are tonight, Resolve wants a circle pit, they fucking get it and it’s no small one either. It’s only a short set because that’s the openers remit but Resolve have easily sounded the best I’ve ever heard them tonight and a big stage like this clearly suits them. They’ve got a lot of work ahead of them but I can only hope that eventually I get to see them headline their own show on a stage like this.
Adhering to a real speedy changeover, 15 minutes break and it’s time for thrown to get started and inevitably get the people here for the more hardcore side of things going wild. While these aren’t really the sort of thing I enjoy normally, I cannot dispute the sheer energy they conduct their live shows with nor the massive response they always get from the audience.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t head banging along with a horrific stank face on though, this sort of stuff goes hard as fuck live but my Spidey senses are going off as the pit grows ever larger and inches towards me when people are flinging their arms around like their life depends on it. The pits finally reached the sound desk and I can see the engineers on there looking a bit nervous as they’ve got to keep an eye out for an errant pint being sent their way through the air. The riffs go hard, the crowd goes harder, this is just how it is at a Thrown show, you throw down. Thrown ties off another short but spectacular set that really sets the tone for the rest of the night, if people are acting like this for Thrown, only God knows what Malevolence and While She Sleeps are going to get.
It’s now time for a sermon of metal in the church of riffs, Malevolence are about to batter the Tivoli in a way it’s never seen before. I’ve seen someone getting beaned with a pint within minutes of the show starting, there’s no room for not going apeshit down the front for Malevolence. These guys and their fans respect just one thing, that the riff goes hard. Looking down over the sea of bobbing heads that are barely staying in one place for more than a moment, the energy from Malevolence is being reflected back at them sevenfold.
This whole set has just been a non-stop riff fest and Malevolence have fully capitalized on the energy of the crowd. I tell people repeatedly about Malevolence always causing the biggest ruckus and tonight has been no different with causing the biggest circle pit I’ve ever seen at Utrechts Tivoli. The sound quality of this show is phenomenal too, every single fat chug shakes my chest like an oncoming apocalypse, Malevolence are truly one of the greats when it comes to getting crowds to lose their minds.
Honestly I’ve been so absorbed in the show that I’ve forgotten to keep taking notes, in-between the absolutely massive circle pit and almost the entire center of the crowd going nuts I’ve had barely a moment to snap out of it to write something. Malevolence are truly the unstoppable force when it comes to being driven almost entirely by writing music that is always going to cause mad shit. These Sheffield lads are incredible to watch every single time I’ve seen them, non-stop mania the entire show and Utrecht did not disappoint. Malevolence do riffs, fuck everything else, riffs.
And finally, it’s time for While She Sleeps, kicking off with a drum intro before getting properly into it. The crowd is clearly properly buzzed for this and the pints are flying all over the place and everyone is jumping around from the moment they start. The production for the show revolves almost exclusively around a full ensemble of flashing lights across the stage amidst a sea of Marshall Cabs, this is very much “the rock show” kind of set up but While She Sleeps aren’t known for using gimmicks. These guys operate almost exclusively on a show around delivering the best sounding stuff they can while getting the crowd to lose themselves in a mania for the whole show. Barely anyone from the band stands around the same spot for a moment, they consistently run around to different sides while spinning around like it’s going out of fashion.
There really is nothing like a Sleeps show, they’re one of the bands that brings a crowd that is truly unified in having a great time, screaming the words all the while arm in arm and pushing to greater heights of energy. ‘Systematic’ sees a ton of random people on stage bouncing around as well as a ‘crouch and jump’ shenanigans, everyone here is down for it. People on the shoulders of others? You got it, suddenly there’s half a crowd on top of each other, absolute madness. Not only that but in the middle of the crowd, Loz, their singer decides now is a good time to crowd surf to the middle of the crowd to be propped up and sings on top of everyone! There’s something to be said about how insane a Sleeps show is and this embodies it in a nutshell.
‘Down’ sees a guest vocal spot from the singer from Malevolence to add a lovely bit of aggression. This overall is one of those shows that I find hard to put into words because the experience of a show like this is truly a ‘You had to be there’ type of show. Every song is delivered in a sublime fashion, it sounds fantastic and the reaction from the crowd is truly something else. And finally finishing with ‘Sleeps Society’ this brings to a close an absolute fucking phenomenal show that solidifies why While She Sleeps are an institution when it comes to Metal.
A phenomenal set, a phenomenal band, a phenomenal crowd. This Friday night has been well spent.
- The ÜK leg of the tour kicks off in Bristol tonight (Tuesday 3 December):
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