Live Review: Bury Tomorrow at O2 Forum

Formerly known as The Mean Fiddler, the O2 Forum in Kentish Town London is a 2,300 capacity sold out venue tonight. Bury Tomorrow played a similar 4 band line-up here during the “Earthbound” tour cycle. It’s December. It’s cold and  pouring with rain. But Bury Tomorrow are here with Black Flame.

Japanese Metallers Crystal Lake [9/10] are perhaps the surprise package on this bill, though that being said, Bury Tomorrow have taken Loathe out as direct support for a UK headlining run in support of “Earthbound” previously and Crossfaith on the “Runes” tour. New singles “The Circle”, “Apollo” and “Aeon” show great promise for their upcoming new album while older material gets the crowd going more than most opening bands do. They’ve played to similar sized crowds before and that experience shows with great confidence and energy in their explosive and powering set.

Having missed Cane Hill [7/10] earlier in the year due to a “technical issue” that prevented them supporting Motionless In White at Southampton Engine Rooms we’re keen to see what they have to offer. Having announced a new 5 track acoustic EP entitled “Kill The Sun” and an even more surprising tour with Sevendust and Tremonti the band have raised more than a few eyebrows in recent months. However tonight they deliver the set you want on a night like this – pure Metal. The likes of “It Follows”, “Lord of Flies” and “True Love” are all solid enough before set closer “Too Far Gone” brings the house down. The amount of whammy bar action during each song is quite the surprise and a pleasant addition to their show while “Hateful” sees Crystal Lake frontman Ryo Kinoshita back on the stage for a scream off with Elijah Witt that is simply amazing.

Alaskan quartet and Metalcore mainstays 36 Crazyfists [8/10] are a fine live band. They are veterans of the Metalcore scene and it’s nice to see Bury Tomorrow saluting one of the bands that brought the sound to the fore in the early 2000’s by bringing them along. Older songs like “At The End of August” and “Bloodwork” are instant sing-a-longs despite being nearly 15 years old and Brock Lindow, Steve Holt, Mick Whitney and Kyle Baltus are clearly loving every minute. When set closer “Slit Wrist Theory” kicks in, the crowd not only sing along but the band stop playing not once but twice just to hear the crowd singing during the chorus before breaking back into the song.

Bury Tomorrow [9/10] bring a huge light show to the stage tonight, flooding the arena with a multitude of mood setting colours at various times during a career spanning set of 13 songs including a 2 song encore that sees crowd surfing, circle pits, jumping and headbanging throughout. The high energy material and encouragement from frontman Dani Winter-Bates keeps everything going at a fine pace. “No Less Violent” is a perhaps a surprise opener but goes down a storm before “Earthbound” takes an early place in their set. “Cemetery” is a fantastic sing-a-long while the “Man On Fire” is an absolute pleasure. Closing the set with “Black Flame” and then allowing the remixed version to play over the PA as they throw drum sticks and guitar picks into the crowd is a joy. Bury Tomorrow continue to go from strength to strength and tonight is a career high.

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