LIVE REVIEW: Beartooth @ O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
An international affair with bands from France, Australia and America brings us tonight’s festivities. After the long and arduous journey to one of Manchester’s most difficult venues to get to, a crowd full of metalcore fans are ready to mosh the night away. Tonight’s hosts at the O2 Victoria Warehouse are BEARTOOTH, headlining the first of two nights in the city. There is a palpable excitement in the air as the band are tackling the biggest venues they’ve played in in the UK on this tour.
Up first are the opening band of the night, French metalcore outfit LANDMVRKS. With an atmospheric opening, they burst onto the stage in an avalanche of sound and instantly make their presence known. They are impressive to watch, never missing a beat with their enormous riffs and screamy vocals. Every beat they play, you can feel on your rib cage. Frontman Florent Salfati’s vocals are incredibly impressive to hear, it’s a testament to his skill that he’s able to sing like this every night. The crowd are instantly won over too, singing and jumping along from the first note which is always nice to see during the difficult opening support slot.
Beefy breakdowns and massive mosh pits are a theme that will run throughout the night, from here they’re only going to get bigger and better. The tempo changes for a quiet moment as the frontman is left alone for a rendition of Suffocate before the band rejoin to end the song in a giant crescendo of sound, it’s a well earnt moment of respite in the crowd and we’re only one band in so far. They bring their short set to a triumphant close with Self Made Black Hole, setting the bar high for the rest of the night.
Rating: 8/10
Not long afterwards, Aussie band POLARIS take to the stage. Instantly, the room is full of pits and expensive double pints flying through the air. Whilst they have the audience moving, they seem to lack that bite that LANDMVRKS had. Impossible as it seems, the vocals were fairly muted which made it difficult to hear the singing amidst the wall of sound the rest of the band had on display. The audience were once again in full voice. So far the biggest circle pit of the night belongs to them with the audience obeying every command from frontman Jamie Hails.
They’re slick and never miss a beat, however they unfortunately fall into the trap of every song being dissimilar from the other, so far the night belongs to LANDMVRKS. A poignant moment sees the band pay tribute to late guitarist Ryan Siew with the audience erupting into cheers and chanting his name, its a nice moment that makes the set a little bit better. They improve toward the end conjuring a giant circle pit which the audience welcomes eagerly, conjuring a maelstrom of sweaty bodies that is sucking in every person it envelopes. The last few songs of the set showed some improvement as they felt the turn up the ante before finishing their set.
Rating: 7/10
As soon as they take the stage, the energy in the room goes all the way up to eleven. BEARTOOTH are in fine form as they deliver an all out assault on the senses. A stunning visual backdrop enhances the night with lots of brightly coloured imagery giving the stage a cool presence. The crowd once again are in full voice but surprisingly no pits are started. Opening song The Surface is a tour de force of and has the sections of the audience jumping up and down to every beat. Frontman Caleb Shomo makes a bold statement who promises the crowd that the show will be the “best night of our fucking lives”, and judging by the way the audience responded throughout the show, it was.
The whole show is a celebration of all things BEARTOOTH. As they burst through their set, tracks such as Riptide and Disease are met with the same level of enthusiasm in the crowd who impressively didn’t stop moving all night. Throughout the night, Shomo takes every second he can to tell the audience how much he appreciates them. In some cases this can feel contrived and forced to suit the crowd to each city with the majority of bands, but with BEARTOOTH, the sentiment genuinely feels real which inspires the audience throughout the night. After a face melting onslaught that features the likes of Hated, Love Myself and The Last Riff, Shomo disappears off stage for a moment only to reappear behind the crowd on a B-Stage. It’s very apparent throughout the main set that the budget for this tour is much larger than previous tours, BEARTOOTH pulled out all of the stops which included an enormous amount of pyro creating columns of flames across the stage and also a flamethrower used by Shomo throughout, it’s clear they’ve taken the opportunity and spared no expense.
A well needed moment of respite follows as Shomo slows things down and treats the crowd to an acoustic cover of Mr. Brightside by THE KILLERS, it’s a funny moment which sees the crowd in full voice once more. Look The Other Way follows and creates a beautifully tender moment both on stage and within the crowd, starting off acoustically with the band returning to the stage and joining in by the time the song closes. The energy ramped up once more as Shomo demanded the audience part so he could walk back to the stage as he hyped them up once more, a huge chugging guitar is played as he walks down before segueing into The Lines which somehow gave the crowd more energy with the return to mayhem. BEARTOOTH then went full throttle toward the end of the set, delivering rousing renditions of songs such as ATTN, You Never Know and a triumphant main set closer with I Was Alive, which resonated massively within the audience. Shortly afterwards, the band returned to the stage for one last hurrah as they blasted through Sunshine! and perhaps their biggest song, In Between, which saw the audience give their all one final time to produce a truly epic end to the night.
BEARTOOTH in Manchester was a truly triumphant evening. A celebration of everything BEARTOOTH. It’s clear from these shows that they have staked a claim on being one of the best mainstream metalcore acts around, their show was full of fun, camaraderie and hope amongst the well natured crowd who clearly had the time of their lives throughout. Not a moment was wasted on stage at all, you just wish the night had been a sell out show, however, despite the fact there were fairly noticeable gaps in the crowd, it didn’t deter the audience one bit. BEARTOOTH, take a bow.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Jess Bowden here:
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