Unless you’ve been living under some kind of rock for the past few months you’ll know that Welsh metal legends, Bullet For My Valentine have recently hit the road on their most bonkers tour to date. The tour is in direct support of their 5th studio record Venom and it’s an absolute screamer. Bullet made note of smaller venues they’ve never played before and brought Sheffield metalcore unit While She Sleeps and Japanese rockers Coldrain along for the mosh. One of those little venues was the Middlesbrough Empire which made one Teesside rock journalist a very happy chappy.
Having seen Bullet before playing huge shows like the main stages at both Download and Leeds Festivals, the notion of them tearing up the tiny Empire was very titillating indeed. Fuelled by a burrito and several pints of Guinness we joined the queue, and in doing so missed out on the majority of the set from Coldrain. We did manage to catch them smash ‘The War Is On’, and it’s safe to say the Nagoya quintet bagged a few smoggy fans that night, the crowd fucking loved them.
Sleeps were up next, and the hype was real. Itching to get involved in the chaos the anticipation was too much to bare. Chugging down that last mouthful of crisp, slightly overpriced beer it happened, ‘Brainwashed’. Immediately it was like someone flipped the crazy switch. Bodies swarmed in from every direction with limbs and hair flailing manically, beautiful. Sleeps didn’t quit, belting out hits like ‘This Is The Six’, ‘New World Torture’ and ‘Seven Hills’. Frontman Loz Taylor even went for a little climb, joining the standing fans on the upstairs balcony. Before in true rock star fashion performing a leap of faith into the crowd, don’t worry we caught him. Ending their chaotic set with the riff monster that is ‘Four Walls‘ Sleeps gave it everything, hyping the crowd encouraging pits, walls of death and crowd surfing. Bullet couldn’t have asked for a better opener, these dudes had us amped.
A quick change of colours saw the Bullet For My Valentine gear wheeled out and the Venom banner raised in all its serpent themed glory. Opening with the lead single from Venom, ‘No Way Out’ was certainly a hell of an entrance. Hearing fans screaming the lyrics to new material is always a good thing, put it this way Matt looked well chuffed. From new screamers to old favourites the Bullet setlist included gems from way back when with ‘The Poison’, ‘4 Words To Choke Upon’ and even ‘Hand Of Blood’ all making an appearance. Something that didn’t make an appearance though to the delight of us was anything from the 2013 sicky burp that was Temper Temper. Not that it mattered though, we were all far too occupied with our favourites ‘Scream Aim Fire’, ‘Tears Don’t Fall‘ and the epic finale of ‘Waking The Demon’. All in all then it was an amazing show, the amount of intimacy was incredible but bittersweet as this was the first Bullet show I’ve attended without experiencing the deafening bellows from ex bass player Jay James. Do not interpret that as a slam on Jamie Mathias’s part though, he did great a great job and looked like he was having a blast.
To summarise then, the show was incredible. Positively oozing energy and passion, every band present left its mark on the Middlesbrough Empire. Commiserations to any of you who’ve been unable to make it to a show, gigs like this don’t come around very often. Best of luck to Bullet For My Valentine, While She Sleeps and Coldrain on the remainder of the tour, and hopefully it’s not too long till we get to rock out again soon.
