It’s Wednesday and you know what that means! If you don’t, it means its gig day! Well for the last few weeks that is, and there’s no better place to be than the Electric Ballroom in Camden. However the doors opening time had been pushed from 6pm to 7pm which meant I got there an hour early and forced into the new Wendy’s American restaurant down the road. No complaints from me!
First to grace the stage were French progressive metalcore legends Novelists, ed by Sam Kubrick from Shields on vocals. I saw these guys earlier on in the year at UK Tech-Fest 2022, I was impressed then and I’m even more impressed now! With some incredible progressive and techy riffs from both Pierre Daniel and Florestan Durand and incredible vocals from Kubrick too. Even though they were given only a few days’ notice to the tour, due to Miss May I having to drop out, they still put on one hell of a show! And I still love the light-up Novelists sign as a backdrop, it’s so different.
Taking the stage next is the main (and one of my favourite metalcore bands), August Burns Red, who came on stage to the intro to System of a Down’s “Chop Suey”. They proceeded to jump straight into covering the song from the second verse. It was interesting to see a metalcore rendition of one of nu metal’s greatest tracks. In response to this, the crowd went absolutely wild and remained captivated throughout their performance.
Throughout my time in the photo pit, I was constantly ushered away due to the sheer amount of crowd surfers with frontman and lead vocalist Jake Luhrs doing his best to fist bump every single crowd surfer that came over the barrier. This has probably been the most energetic crowd I have seen, there was even a giant mosh pit in the center of the venue. With a mixture of tracks from the mid to late 2000s there was certainly something for everyone.
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Last but not least, metalcore legends Bury Tomorrow, a band I have wanted to see for years. I missed them at Bloodstock, due to the fact that it was way too hot and that I was lying on the floor in the New Blood tent! However, that’s a story for another day.
The situation in the photo pit was the same for Bury Tomorrow, crowd surfer after crowd surfer. This wasn’t helped by my third and last song in the pit being “Black Flame”. This is probably their most popular track, it had everyone including us photographers singing along to every word. It’s safe to say that everyone was enjoying themselves.
Their sound is, simply, immense. Bury Tomorrow are a band who write great songs and produce great albums… but it’s running riot on a stage where they’re truly gifted. Finally having the opportunity to see them after missing them at Bloodstock was a great experience. They did not disappoint!
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Photos by Bracken Hake
