Live Review : Beartooth + The Amity Affliction + Higher Power @ The Academy, Manchester on February 28th 2020

Beartooth’s Disease tour has finally landed in Manchester, and it’s an exciting prospect to see them on such a big stage for their own headline show. Add to that the chance to see The Amity Affliction, and the UK’s very own up-and-coming hot property Higher Power, and you’ve got a real treat for a cold and blustery Friday night in February. As I make my way to Academy for tonight’s gig I’m shocked at the length of the queue. I knew the gig was sold out weeks ago, but I’ve never seen such a massive queue for a gig at Academy before – for all those saying Metal and Rock is dead, then tell that to all the mainly young metallers stood freezing in the cold tonight!

It’s still filling-up as opening act Higher Power take to the stage. There’s currently a sizable buzz around these guys from Leeds, particularly since the start of 2020 when they released their second album “27 Miles Underwater”. They come on stage and take up their positions, which in the case of Alex Wizard on drums is atop one of the highest drum risers I’ve ever seen! Higher Power deliver a delicious mix of alt rock and hardcore. There’s elements of Filter and Deftones in their sound, but undoubtedly they consistently sound like Jane’s Addiction playing 90’s NY hardcore inspired songs. This is most evident in Jimmy "J-Town" Wizard’s vocals, which are the closest I’ve ever heard to Perry Farrell’s style and delivery. It’s a shame the sound tonight means the guitars are slightly imbalanced, and some of the nuanced grunge-chorus effects are lost, but the crowd still gradually warms to them as the cross-genre sound of stabbing guitars and funky licks build to swelling and soaring choruses. The catchy tunes burrow into your head leaving earworms you’ll not quickly shift. Higher Power are on the way to something special you feel, and it’s more than worth your while to get on board now.

The main support is provided by The Amity Affliction. Starting as a straight-up Metalcore band back in 2003, they were one of the early successful proponents of heavy versus clean vocals switching over beatdowns and anthemic choruses. It’s noticeable that a large number of their peers have decided to follow a sickly sweet electro-pop path, but The Amity Affliction continue to successfully marry the harsh with the smooth, the brutal with the tender. They start with a couple of very heavy tracks, but then switch to much more poppy fare. They do drift into offering too much sampled synths and predictable clean vocal lines, but it’s possibly this reassuring comfort in aspects of melodic predictability that enables them to have such wide appeal and popularity. Arguably there’s more of the crowd here to see them than the headliners tonight, and the set is lapped-up gleefully by most of the sold-out crowd.

Beartooth have climbed the ranks of the alternative Metal scene not just with hard graft but by also allowing everyone in on the journey – both musically and emotionally. Frontman Caleb Shomo started writing Beartooth songs whilst he was still in former band Attack Attack! and that allowed him freedom in fusing Metalcore and punk rock together without a dependence on electronic aspects. They power onto the stage, of their biggest UK headline show yet, with purpose and determination. Snarling guitars, driving drums and heartfelt vocals have the entire crowd both dancing and singing along. They do their best to rock hard and engage the crowd fully, but you sense that such a big and lengthy tour has taken its toll – even by ‘Bad Listener’ it’s noticeable that Caleb is struggling with some of the higher melodies. Nothing can dampen the atmosphere though, with unbelievable raw emotive power displayed through main-set closer ‘Disease’ and encore fan favourite ‘In Between’. This might be Beartooth’s biggest UK headline gig at time of writing, but they’re destined for still bigger things to come you imagine.