During the summer if the heat gets too much, rather that buy a fan, consider inviting much-lauded Australian noise-merchants Parkway Drive over to play a quick set. We've never been cooled down by the breeze coming from speakers twenty metres away every time the bass drum is kicked.
Their career-spanning set got a reaction worthy of a headliner from the young audience. They alternated between punk-paced metal noise and sludgy breakdowns which conveniently let the old-timers do some slow-motion moshing.
There are few bands dividing people in the metal scene quite like Sheffield?s Bring Me The Horizon. Examine any left-of-centre genre and you\’ll always find the band that makes people sneer.
They have a pretty singer (if you like that kind of thing), they arrived later than most, and they don't smash musical boundaries. These are red rags to music snobs. Music snobs are useful. They trawl through bands so you don't have to and they have great taste but they're too busy stroking their beards to actually jump up and down and have fun.
Teenagers however are not bound by such stupid rules.
This is the youngest audience hecklerspray has ever seen at a gig. There is barely a pint of lager within eyeshot, but sobriety is certainly no obstacle to enthusiasm. There's so much energy, we felt a teacher-like impulse to tell them to stop running in the hallways. Say what you like about stumbling drunks but at least they have some in-built sense of personal space. We've never been bumped into by so many friendly, if uncoordinated,? people.
The energy wasn?t just in the crowd. Singer Oli Sykes ran about for almost the entire set and, is it just us, or has his voice, previously their weakest link, suddenly got stronger?
BMTH?s recent album has been widely considered a leap forward for them, and tonight their aural assault does justice to such acclaim. In fact it’s the songs from that album that sit head and shoulders above the rest with the more interesting structures that come when bands are ready to take a few risks.
They’re still not kicking down the doors of invention, and lyrically they still use imagery that?we cringe at but they’re not talking to me, so probably care not whether I’m listening. Besides, we’re too old to even understand what they’re shouting about most of the time when they’re on stage anyway.
They?re already taken seriously Stateside and they?ll be picking up new converts at the festivals this summer so if you're looking for shouty rock-action, fun awaits…
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