On what promises to be a heavy evening things get off to an explosive start with Manchester bruisers Guilt Trip. Building on the good work of their debut album (reviewed here) and their recent tour with Malevolence (reviewed here) the band’s latest release Rough Justice (reviewed here) finds them brimming with confidence and ready to take on the world. It’s always hard for an opening act, especially with a stream of stragglers filtering in, but Guilt Trip do a grand job in warming up the crowd with a tight sound that swings like a bar room brawler, and by fourth track ‘Severance’ a healthy pit has erupted which leaves a few souls battered and bruised. In a scene that can often veer towards the generic, it’s good to hear a band bringing something fresh to the table and Guilt Trip are straight from the vine. Future headliners, methinks.
Like a viper that’s peeling from its coil and darting with fangs exposed, Like Moths To Flames hit the stage with great gusto and proceed to lay the venue to waste. Vocalist Chris Roetter in particular is all over the stage like a rash (and gets bonus points for sporting a Cannibal Corpse t-shirt) and the audience respond in kind with some serious wrecking in the pit. It is the band’s first appearance in Birmingham tonight and they seem intent on ensuring they won’t be forgotten, but with songs such as ‘Bury Your Pain’ in their arsenal, that’s highly unlikely. This crew are one of those few bands who can shrink an entire crowd and put them in their collective palm, and that’s precisely what they do tonight. For many this is their first time witnessing Like Moths To Flame in the flesh, but I bet it won’t be their last.
There’s a real sense of anticipation crackling the air as we await The Devil Wears Prada, a tangible tension that stretches things to breaking point. The dam finally bursts when the band appear and sweep across the stage like a raging tempest. Things get very hectic, very quick and right from the get go waves of stage divers crash over the barrier, and things don’t let up for the next 45-minutes. On what has thus far been a stacked bill, The Devil Wears Prada take things to a whole new level with a spirited performance that places all the needles firmly in the red. The thing with this band is that you should always expect the unexpected and when Jeremy DePoyster makes a sojourn into the crowd along with his guitar and then returns with a pint of lager, well, now I’ve seen it all. A set full of classic cuts, of which ‘Ritual’ shines brightly, means that tonight has certainly whetted the appetite for next year’s headline tour.
Preceded by three bands who each raised the bar a few notches, the pressure is really on for LANDMVRKS, yet they’re a band who seem to thrive on adversity and with things reaching boiling point, they confidently step up to the plate. After the wild histrionics of The Devil Wears Prada, LANDMVRKS might seem a tad tame by comparison, yet their set is just as strong, only in a different way. As befitting a band topping the bill, LANDMVRKS are more of a slow builder, using their time on stage to deliver a set that ebbs and flows, then peaks and troughs. From opener ‘Creature’ to the closing crescendo of ‘Self-Made Black Hole’ this Marseilles mob take the crowd on a wild ride ranging from emotional highs to loquacious lows, all stitched together by a hard hitting sound. In Kévin D’Agostino the band have a drummer who makes every beat count, delivering a tattoo that dances upon the solar plexus, yet the whole band lock in tightly for a set that’s overflowing with riches and songs such as ‘Visage’ and ‘Scars’ ensures that no one leaves disappointed.
LANDMVRKS Set List:
- Creature
- Death
- Blistering
- Say No Word
- Visage
- Tired Of It All
- Scars
- Suffocate
- Hollow
- Rainfall
Encores:
- Lost In A Wave
- Self-Made Black Hole
