Live Review: Bury Tomorrow – Nottingham
19th January 2024
Support: We Came As Romans, Kingdom of Giants
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
First gig of the year hype is in full effect, along with almost baltic conditions. It’s cold, damp, generally not nice out. Yet tonight see’s Nottingham’s Rock City sold out.
The venue is brilliant, I moved about throughout the crowd a fair bit, and you could see from pretty much all angles. The staff, were absolutely spot on, some of the friendliest security I have come across, who went the extra mile to help out those in wheel chairs to make sure they had a good view. Also shout out to the person that handed in my car keys two and a half hours before I realised they were missing!
Music time - opening the night is Sacramento’s Kingdom Of Giants. They are a post-hardcore band thats been doing the rounds since 2013. I can only really compare them to my addiction to Pringles. Exploding on to the stage with 'Burner' from their 2020 album 'Passenger', that energy did not stop at all. Unfortunately they only had a short set of seven songs, but the intensity of their performance remained at a constant peak throughout. Certainly getting the crowd hyped for the night ahead.
Most of the set was songs off the 2020 album however they threw in their latest single 'Wasted Space', giving every one a treat of whats to come from this amazing band.
Next up we have the mighty We Came As Romans, formed in 2005 out off Michigan. This metalcore quintet continues the night’s insane vibe and by the time they take the stage Rock City is packed out to the extent that this feels like they are the headliners of the evening.
The 2022 album 'Darkbloom’s title track is the bands opener, which just sits perfectly as an introduction to those that have not heard of them before. Synth straight into a ridiculously chunky riff just shows the style of them. We are treated to several of 'Darkblooms' tracks tonight, Including 'Black Hole', 'Daggers' and 'Plagued' each one performed just as flawlessly as the last. You’d hope so with it being their latest album, however, even their performance of 2013’s 'Hope' is executed perfectly.
And finally, Bury Tomorrow. I first came across them in July of 2020, prime pandemic time, when a friend of mine told me to check out a streamer buddy of his. Turns out it was non other than Davyd Winter-Bates, one of the founding members of Bury Tomorrow. This was around a week before they released 'Cannibal' and instantly became a fan. Since then, the Southampton born band has been going strength to strength.
As this tour is in support of their latest album 'The Seventh Sun' the majority of the songs on the set list are from that album. Which might I add, is an absolute gem of an album. Opening with the title track it launches straight into a brutally heavy riff and singer Daniel Winter-Bates impressive growl singing. From what I have seen from the rest of the tour, tonight is not too different, they don’t hold back with their performance.
The correlation between the unclean vocals and Tom Prendergast’s clean singing is absolutely stunning. In my opinion, this partnership works even better live than on recordings. The show continues with 'Abandon Us' and 'Begin Again' just like on the album these songs flow perfectly into each other so only makes sense that they are played together live.
At this point we are getting pits opening up, crowd surfing and just generally the crowd really going for it.
Bury Tomorrow have quite an impressive back catalog now and pull songs from all but two of their albums. With flawless performances of 'Man On Fire', 'Life' and 'Black Flame' Just proving that they have always been this good are writing great music.
Honestly these guys deserve bigger venues, I see them hitting places like Wembley Arena in the next year. The stage looks amazing with three massive LED panels lighting up the place. Their on stage presence is spot on and crowd interaction is on point. Tonight was sold out and you can see why.
Towards the end of the set Daniel has a bit of a heart to heart with the fans about his history. It hits home with the crowd, with a reaction of cheers, and hands in heart shapes raised.
Closing out the set with arguably their most popular song 'Choke' and 'Death(Ever Colder)' the band and crowd are showing just as much energy as at the start of the night. This has been an absolutely brutal night, all three bands I would happily go and see again, but they deserve bigger venues.
Bury Tomorrow’s full set list is below, Their whole album back catalog is available on spotify, If you havent heard much of their stuff. Go check it out right now.
Setlist:
The Seventh Sun
Abandon Us
Begin Again
Man on Fire
An Honourable Reign
LIFE (Paradise Denied)
The Grey (VIXI)
Black Flame
Knife of Gold
Boltcutter
Wrath
Heretic
Cannibal
Choke
DEATH (Ever Colder)
Photo credits: Tom Atkin
