Live Review: Bury Tomorrow - Roundhouse, London
24th November 2024
Support: Make Them Suffer, Thornhill, As Everything Unfolds
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
Another new venue for me tonight, London’s Roundhouse, For a night of absolutely amazing musical performances. First of all, this venue is absolutely stunning. I have heard many a good things about this place before and it does not disappoint at all.
Up first tonight we have As Everything Unfolds. I was first introduced to these guys back in March when they supported Skindred at Wembley, so I was very much excited to see how they were performing now. Sadly, they haven’t had the greatest of years with the devastating passing of their drummer a few months back, yet despite this, they decided to jump back on the road for this tour just seven weeks ago.
Bearing this in mind you would think that it may have had somewhat of an impact on the performance. That is far from the reality though, Charlie, Adam, George and Jon put on an absolute blinder of a show, playing mostly tracks off their 2023 album 'Ultravoilet'.
Charlie’s vocals are sounding absolutely amazing, and the amount of energy she has on stage makes me wish I was young again. The crowd are feeding off this as well. As an opening band, they have started the night of in the very best way!
Unfortunately their sound was a bit quiet, however even at the volume it was it sounded great. Sadly this is the last show that they have planned in the UK at the moment, When they get back though, I feel they should definitely embark on a headlining tour of their own.
The second act is brought to us by Thornhill. If you have not heard of them before, They are an Australian alt-metal/metal core/nu metal (they've been described as all of these) band that have been around since 2015.
They have a very unique sound, opening with 'Raw' with some very unique synthy feels, catchy heavy riffs and a mildly distorted vocal.
Much like tonights first support they bring energy that rubs off on to the crowd, the pits are opening up throughout the crowd and people are loving it. They only have a short set which includes songs from both their albums and a sprinkling of new material in the form of 'Obsession' and 'Nerv' both of which are lapped up by the fans. Described by some as a band that can reinvent their sound whilst sounding the same, having seen them live it is a statement I can agree with. Their progression through their songs feels different, but yet still has what feels like a signature sound of them.
Final support act of the evening comes from another Australian outfit, Make Them Suffer. Personally, I discovered them around two years ago when YouTube’s algorithm actually did good and showed me their song 'Doomswitch'. Having caught a glimpse of them at Download this year but that was not enough.
Having recently released self-titled album, their setlist tonight is mostly made up of tracks from said record. Exploding onto the stage with last years 'Ghost Of Me' is a bloody strong start. Sean’s vocals are barely warmed up yet sound impeccable already. The combination of vocal’s between himself, Alex Reade and Nick McLernon works so unbelievably well!
Everything about this performance is exactly how I imagined it would be, they are flawless, they are heavy, as a band they gel perfectly together. With the stage presence they have and the way they control the crowd it feels like they are the ones headlining the show. However, they are just the last off three to get this crowd warmed up, and warmed up they certainly are!
Now for the main reason everyone is here. Bury Tomorrow. Having toured earlier this year it is great to see them getting bigger venues and still selling out. Last time it was 2000 capacity and sold out, this time standing alone is 3300 and there's balcony seating to add to that. This is deserved as they are one of the hardest working upcoming bands I know of.
We are in for a right treat tonight, even though there is four bands on the bill, Bury Tomorrow’s set is packed out with all of their greatest tracks. Opening with 2022’s absolutely dirty riff from 'Abandon Us' we are straight into an absolute assault of pure metalcore. The first “how could they do this to us” ringing out with such power, I think the whole of Camden heard it. Daniel Winter-Bates’s vocals have come on even more from earlier int he year, the unclean aspect is just so good.
With this still technically being in the touring cycle of their album 'The Seventh Sun', we are getting a lot of tracks from said album. 'Begin Again', 'Boltcutter' and 'Recovery?' all sounding just as brutal as they do on the actual album. But then we also get the beautiful 'Majesty' which shows that as a band they are not just pure unclean vocals and really bloody heavy riffs. This is performed with such passion, and you can feel that it really does hit home with a lot of people attending tonight.
Over hearing general chatter whilst in the queue, a fair amount of people seem to have really been helped by Bury Tomorrow’s music, getting them through times that weren’t the greatest it seems. Each one of them is just unloading tonight. This is what live music is all about.
All of the set list tonight is from 2016 onwards, possibly the best era for Bury Tomorrow. 'Earthbound' and 'Last Light' sounding like they have been released in the past year or two from the band when in reality they are nearly ten years old now, showing that they have stuck to their guns and just improved upon a recipe that they are nailing.
Their latest two single, 'Villain Arc' and 'What If I Burn' both from their upcoming album, are little tasters of what to expect next from them. If the rest of the album is anything like these two tracks we are in for an amazing record.
It's a joy seeing the bands progression, even when it comes to things like their stage presence, crowd control and stage set up, everything is all a step up from ten months ago, they really are becoming a band to look out for with consistent improvement across the board. The whole band perform flawlessly and all have so much passion for what they are doing. The crowd appreciates it all as well, pits everywhere, the whole centre bsection moving with every riff.
They close out the show with arguably their most popular song 'Choke', a song that really started their progression into a new level of popularity. Everything about this song is perfect, the clean chorus gets me every time.
The tour has now moved on over to Europe, so if you see them hitting a venue near you, definitely get yourself down there!
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
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