Band: Architects
Support: The Acacia Strain, Bury Tomorrow and Deez Nuts
Venue: Institute, Birmingham
Date: 11/11/12
It’s a cold, raining Sunday evening in Birmingham: definitely a bad combination! But as the queue around tonight’s venue is packed before doors open and the few tickets on sale are snapped up early there is a great feeling in the air tonight!
With such a strong line up The Acacia Strain have a lot to prove as the opening act and sadly their heavy set seems to fall on quite a lot of uninterested sets of ears. Their music has a strong beat and a distinct sound to it that you certainly can’t help but bop your head and tap your foot along to. It’s the vocals which are the problem, the screams are heavy and on the ‘pig squealing’ side of heavy. What The Acacia Strain do they do well but would suit a show a lot heavier, and tonights crowd just aren’t the right audience.
If you turned up at 8.20 and heard the screams and chants you’d think the headline act were about to grace the stage. Bury Tomorrow blast onstage and play such a killer set that half hour just isn’t enough for them! Bury Tomorrow are heavy but without the predictable breakdowns and inaudiable screeching and the melody behind Jason Cameron‘s voice make this band everything a great band should be. They play a large selection of tracks from latest album ‘Union of Crowns’ including ‘LionHeart’ and ‘An Honourable Reign’. Every track is met by the screams and attention of a band you’d expect to see much higher up a bill. If you haven’t checked out this band then shame on you, you better get moving pretty quick!
Final support comes from Australian based Deez Nuts who with their ‘party hardcore’ throw together a mixture of hardcore and hip-hop. The mixture makes the band sound a little like Limp Bizkit at times which is one of the biggest compliments a band could probably get! The band premiere some new material alongside some older material alongside a new upbeat track dedicated to the late Mitch Lucker. Like every rock show nowadays there is the queue to crouch on the floor and then explode upwards when the beat kicks in and fortunately for Deez Nuts it works perfectly.
Tonight’s headliners don’t grace the stage until just after ten but despite the time, energy levels hadn’t wavered or dipped. Sam Carter is as engaging and charastmatic as always and gets the crowd to do exactly what he says from screaming to jumping to the ceiling. For such a small venue he even manages to ensight an impressive sized pit. 20 minutes into their set Tom Searle crowd surfs with his guitar into the crowd. There are only certain bands who have fans willing to carry their weight (literally) and only certain bands with enough faith in their fans. The band play tracks spanning all their albums from 2009’s ‘Hollow Crown’ right through to this year’s ‘The Here And Now’. The band’s brutal sing-a-longs and energy showcases their standing as one of Britain’s foremost metalcore bands.
The line up tonight is one to be reckoned with and has provided the perfect end to the weekend.
8/10
Reviewed by: Rhian Westbury
