Live Review: Bad Omens - Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
29th November 2025
Support: Bilmuri, The Ghost Inside
Words: Tom Atkin
Photos: Bad Omens
Opening tonight is Californian metalcore quintet The Ghost Inside, a group that seems to have defined so much in their career, Yet here they are opening to a venue that is already packed, both the floor and seating are at about 80%. Which considering how many tours have been happening this month is absolutely amazing to see. Live music really is alive and kicking.
Bursting on to the stage with their 2014 album opener, “Avalanche”, The Ghost Inside give a great insight into what they are bringing to the table. Some incredibly heavy riffs, deafening drums and a phenomenal mix of vocals all coming from Jonathan Vigil. He knows how to get the crowd riled up as well, circle pits by the second song “Wash It Away” is bloody impressive and he repeatedly shows his appreciation for the early turn out of so many people.
A nod is given to drummer, Andrew Tkaczyk, one of the fellow survivors of their horrendous bus accident 10 years ago, he is till here and drumming with only one leg.
Launching head first into “Aftermath” is one way to wake the crowd up. Plowing through several more songs from their 2024 release, 'Searching For Solace' And several of their older releases, giving people an idea of the journey they have been on.
It is quite a difference to what we have next, Johnny Franck’s project Bilmuri. I still have no idea what genre they sit in, so we'll go with funky fun with metal undertones, and added saxophone. They have just so much fun on stage, consistent dancing and bouncing around. Gabi Rose on the saxophone is incredibly entertaining to watch.
Their style works so amazingly well, there's hints of 80’s style synthwave mixed in with chunky chugging riffs, and on paper this should sound like an absolute mess, but I'm really they have absolutely nailed it and it sounds glorious. It's still so confusing hearing the saxophone but seeing a massive pit open up on the floor.
Onto the reason why the Motorpoint Arena is sold out tonight, the legendary Bad Omens. Since 2022 they have sky rocketed in popularity and have been throwing them selves at everything. But they cancelled 2024 tour due to Noah’s extreme burnout, a choice that must of been incredibly difficult to make but it is definitely for the best.
Due to this, everyone in here has been waiting a fair old while to experience this show and following the London show earlier in the tour, rumour has it the band have stepped up their game leaps and bounds.
The atmosphere when the lights drop is something else, a thick layer of fog covers the stage, Noah takes centre stage on his own belting out the start of “Spectre” before slowly being joined by the rest of the band to kick off the show properly. "Glass Houses” brings the first bit of pyro flames are shooting from every angle in the stage, and this continues throughout, the band seemingly unaware or not bothered by an increase in gas prices lately.
Noah's voice is sounding perfect and he has a stage presence that matches. Centre stage majority of the time putting it all out there for everyone to see. The start of “The Death Of Peace Of Mind” being just himself, Nick Folio and the crowd singing back every single word to them. And the lights, the production on this tour, it is absolutely insane, a hell of a lot of thought had been put in to every last detail and it has paid off so well. Whether it be the completely edge lit stage that picks out the fog and creates mesmerising patterns or the odd times in which all lights go out apart from one that lights up Noah on his own. Everything works flawlessly.
“Dying To Love” is a nice insight into the new era of Bad Omens, a song that feels as though it has just as much emotionally charged energy behind it as their back catalogue, there is still that signature blend of haunting clean vocals mixed with glorious screams. “Limits” gets more and more people on their feet, the pits are opening up, crowd surfers are starting and even the seated attendees are standing up now.
Bad Omens really have taken over Nottingham tonight and have everyone reacting to everything they are putting out. “V.A.N” is a song few were expecting to see them play tonight, seeing as it is mainly Poppy that performs vocals on the song, however, Noah does incredibly well at singing their part. Having seen both artists perform it individually, I much prefer Bad Omens take, their musical touch to it works that little bit better.
Nottingham gets the song which you could describe as Nine Inch Nails mixed with the Mick Gordon's Doom OST, “What Do You Want From Me”.
The crowd tonight is on another level as well, during “Like A Villain” they could consistently be heard above the PA. With it being Nick's birthday, there is the obligatory crowd sing along of Happy Birthday flowing straight into “Just Pretend”, a tune that went viral on TikTok and definitely helped spring them up to this level. Every word sang by the crowd with such feeling.
The last song of the night starts with the glorious chant of “Concrete, Jungle”, which has become a staple of a Bad Omens performance to kick into “Dethrone”. What a way to finish it is, this song song holds legendary status among Bad Omens fans and deserves to be the highlight . The fact that Noah still had enough gas in the tank to belt this out is nothing short of impressive.
This whole evening was nothing short of incredible. 10/10. Will attend again. See you at Download 2026!
Photo Credit: Bad Omens
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