Live Review: Bury Tomorrow - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
17th October 2025
Support: Siamese, Lionheart, Nevertel
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Nic Howells
The month of October just keeps on giving with its slew of stacked bills hitting the UK. Last week it was Parkway, Paradise Lost, Decapitated and Testament, this week it’s Southampton metalcore bruisers, Bury Tomorrow, coming back to Manchester for – what is reported to be – their biggest British headlining show at the city’s Victoria Warehouse.
It’s an early start for opening act, Denmark’s Siamese, who have, by their own admission, “played Rebellion [Bar in town] a hundred times” and seem to be enjoying the opening spaces of the larger stage. Despite the hour, the floor of the main room is filling up nicely as they kick off the evening. The band’s main focus is on their more recent songs, as half of the set comes from the 2024 album, Elements, including opener Predator, and its follow-up Chemistry.
Notable for the prominent use of an electric violin, the instrument adds something another guitar might not; though it is dropped in favour of the guitar for the unreleased Drown. Mixing metalcore with emo and post hardcore, Siamese even manage something of an Eighties vibe for The Shape of Water. Manchester gets the opportunity to shout swear words to the chorus of This Is Not a Song, and Tom Prendergast takes a break from preparing himself for the show later by adding vocals to set closer Ocean Bed.
Oakland, CA, wrecking machine, Lionheart, is programmed to kill. Period. Even shorn of a bass player, guitarists Walle and Nik create grooving rhythms and an abrasive low end. Drummer Jay Scott appears to be having the time of his life behind the kit, and he underscores Lionheart’s fat-riffed heavy, beatdown hardcore. Death Comes in 3’s from the most recent record gets us going, vocalist Rob Watson stalking the stage with a focused intent.
Said latest recorded being the third part of the band’s Welcome to the West Coast series, parts I and II dominating the set, with the inclusion of Trial by Fire, Vultures and LHHC, all delivered with appropriate levels of chaos and carnage. A sizable pit has formed by the time Burn is aired, thought boos ring out when Oasis is mentioned; that’s either a musical thing, or that Old Trafford is literally next door. The whole floor crouches for a jumpdafuckup moment, with seemingly all invested in the show. Keep Talkin’ and Born Feet First lead us into the back-to-back covers of Limp Bizkit’s Break Stuff and Beastie Boys’ Fight for Your Right. Neither of which is ever going to do anything other than act as an accelerate when it comes to getting crowds riled up.
It's something of a change of gears when Floridians Nevertel take to the stage. Where Lionheart rage, Nevertel’s approach is a little more subtle. Their hop-hop beats and Easycore aesthetic certainly marks them as a moment of respite in the midst of the musical maelstrom of the evening. Based around the clean vocals of Jeremy Michaels and the rap stylings of Rual Lopez, the music is left to lead guitarist Alec Davis and touring drummer, Kevin, to conjurer some really quite impressive passages.
The new record, this year’s Start Again, is given the lion’s share of stage time, from the Did It All opener to Sacrifice’s R&B vibes. Sym soars at times, Icon receives an impressive response, and older material, Modified, has a hypnotic feel to it. Raul straps on a guitar to add rhythm to Alec’s leads for Some Things and by the time I’ve started to get my ear into what Nevertel are doing, the set comes to an end with Criminal, and it all seems to be over in a flash.
It hardly seems any time at all since I walked through the venue’s doors when the lights dim, and the adjusted Purge intro tape begins. Even before Choke has cranked up properly, Bury Tomorrow’s retina-searing light show is in effect. There’s hardy an inch of floor space left, but the crowd move as one to Deathcore strains of Life (Paradise Denied) and Death (Even Colder), leading frontman, Daniel Winter-Bates, to state that the band always love playing Manchester as every show is out of control.
To reinforce that comment, there’s an incident at the front of the stage as the band begin Cannibal, leading to a short and necessary pause in the show. Once sorted, Dan gets the crowd’s agreement to begin from scratch, which no one seems to object. There’s a sense of unity in the building tonight, as the crowd are encouraged to drape an arm around the shoulders of the people next to them, whether familiar or not, and to jump as a single entity along to the abrasive chords of Boltcutter. The previously unused flame pot joining the already impressive lighting, as Bury Tomorrow look to ape Parkway Drive’s AO Arean spectacle from last week.
Released back in May, the band’s new record, Will You Haunt Me with That Same Patience? gets a thorough road-test tonight: the edgy Let Go, and the deathcore chaos of Villain Arc, What If I Burn finds Manchester in fine voice and with phones out and light on, gives the Victoria Warehouse a particularly serene feel. Of this mid-set quadrilogy from the new album, and before Waiting, Dan praises Manchester’s skills in singing, surfing and energy, but calls for one more aptitude to be shown: Circle Pitting (if that is the correct verb form). He invites all those who have not yet been baptised in the art of the pit to make tonight the night it happens. It does.
The deathy screeches of The Grey (VIXI) appear to invite crowd surfers by the cartload over the top, give venue security a through workout; Heretic comes with explosive percussion, and The Age is introduced with a reminder that mental health does not – and should not - have to be dealt with alone. Dan even cited the band’s Cannibal album as the catharsis for his own travails.
One more newbie, Yōkai, before the closing duo of Black Flames’ title track and ending with a rambunctious version of Abandon Us, proves that anything those Aussies can do with arena metalcore, we Poms can do almost as well.
What should also be remember about this show is that it was Bury Tomorrow’s second live set of the day, having appeared at the town’s Represent store earlier that afternoon, and delivered half-a-dozen tunes, three of which, Forever the Night, Silence Isn’t Helping Us and Wasteland were getting live debuts and would not be included in the evening’s full show.
Bury Tomorrow love Manchester and it seems the feeling is mutual. Come back soon, boys.
Photo Credits: Nic Howells
