LIVE REVIEW: Stick To Your Guns @ The Asylum Venue, Birmingham

There aren’t many venues better suited to a night of bruising hardcore than Birmingham’s The Asylum Venue. Its confined walls are ready built for a shot of rough and tumble, and that’s exactly what was delivered on this brisk evening in the nations second capital.

It’s interesting that on a night where melodic hardcore is set to be at the forefront, you’d need a magnifying glass to find any melody within opening act EMPLOYED TO SERVE‘s set. The Woking quintet’s abrasive mathcore tones sound engulfed in fire tonight, it’s a scathing affair. Lead singer Justine Jones isn’t overly animated in her stage presence, but it comes across as part of the act – her bellows of hardcore scorchers are effortlessly eerie.

The set is book-ended by Void Ambition and I Spent My Days (Wishing Them Away), both taken from last year’s phenomenal record The Warmth Of A Dying Sun, with the odd new track thrown in for good measure. It all sounds incredibly tight and brutalising. Those unfamiliar with EMPLOYED TO SERVE will leave this set knowing one thing: as far as underground hardcore bands go, they’re as good as it gets.

Rating: 8/10

Canadian five piece COUNTERPARTS often like to play the role of the light hearted jokers, tonight they even come out to the hilarious Somebody Kill Me Please song from Adam Sandler‘s The Wedding Singer. But the truth is, once they get down to playing – there’s nothing humorous about this act. COUNTERPARTS are legitimate hardcore masterminds, and there’s a groundswell of appreciation for them tonight.

The aching screams of Bouqet and No Servant Of Mine from new record You’re Not You Anymore are propped up by guitar lines from Adrian Lee and Blake Hardman that cannon around the room. Classic tracks Stranger and The Disconnect bring a sense of familiarity to proceedings, and they crush everything in their path. Sometimes criminally underrated, COUNTERPARTS are a force of nature when on their A game, and tonight is an apt example.

Rating: 8/10

One of STICK TO YOUR GUNS strongest traits, is how true to themselves they are, and that’s shown in abundance tonight. As the band strut on to the stage, there’s no playing up to the crowd, it’s simply a full throttle drop into What Choice Did You Give Us? and We Still Believe. That’s not not to say that the Orange County boys lack showmanship, but there unabashed hardcore kicks are consistently their most notable attribute.

Empty Heads has enough pace that it seems to flick by in a seconds glance, while the breakdowns on The Sun, The Moon, The Truth: Penance Of Self and Married To The Noise shake the walls. Everything you could want from melodic hardcore is on show here from STICK TO YOUR GUNS, the rough edges, the frenetic pace, and the singalongs of bangers like Against Them All.

STICK TO YOUR GUNS are evidently in a strong position right now, not only are they genre leaders, but they’re doing so on their own terms. Melodic hardcore might still be yet to break out to the mainstream masses, but the bands on show tonight are evidence that it’s in perfectly steady hands going forward. Barely a foot gets put wrong throughout the evening from three bands with great pasts, and terrific futures ahead of them.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action from Birmingham from Em Coulter Photography here: