Live Review : Bury Tomorrow + Employed To Serve + Blood Youth @ Academy, Manchester on December 20th 2019

My last gig of 2019 sees me catching one of my favourite bands for some festive metal shenanigans at Manchester Academy. We get there nice and early, following a few expensive beers elsewhere, to make sure we don't miss what are some excellent support bands. This limited venue tour from Bury Tomorrow is very much a purists offering. The two bands they have supporting them aren’t necessarily the most immediately accessible or mainstream acts, but instead they are young up and coming bands that are unique and exciting – hence presumably why Bury Tomorrow are giving them this platform.

First up are a band I've got a lot of time for - Blood Youth. Having first seen these guys back in 2015 at the final Ghostfest, they've certainly grown and evolved their sound over the subsequent time. They've stepped away from their early day sound of hardcore infused metalcore to produce music that belongs to the new wave of nu-metal. Cane Hill fans will obviously find a lot here to be delighted with. Compelling track ‘Keep You Alive’ is an example of how Blood Youth clearly wear their influences on their sleeves. It combines a Korn-esque intro, verses and outro with a chorus Slipknot would be proud of. Their other clear influence is the Cavalera family, with elements of Sepultura and Soulfly interweaved throughout. Unfortunately for the band the gig is very quiet tonight, especially early on, and clearly is suffering from students having already gone home and the close proximity to Christmas. It doesn't affect their on-stage performance but it does affect their sound, with the guitar far too quiet and vocals too loud. These guys are fantastic in a smaller venue though, where they can get in your face, and I implore everyone to catch them if you can in the new year.

Employed to Serve have the main support slot tonight, and their job of getting the crowd into a suitably sweaty and adrenaline-fueled frenzy for the headliners seems to suit them well. I’ve never quite 'got' this band before, but tonight they're superb and totally click with my sensibilities and what they are trying to achieve. Whilst Rolo Tomassi have the gentle and brutal, light and dark, juxtaposed within their songs, Employed to Serve belt you full in the face purely with the delightfully abrasive extreme. There's a hardcore and punk-metal ethos to much of their material, in a similar vein to Cancer Bats, but also some interesting avant-garde technical passages more akin to The Locust or The Blood Brothers. Whilst I think Blood Youth suit a more intimate environment, Employed to Serve thrive on a massive stage on which they can each prowl and posture to their hearts content. It allows every single member to showcase themselves and they all ooze masses of confidence on stage. The crowd has filled out a bit more for them, and the sound is much better – notably the clarity and distinction on each element of their setup and most evidently on Justine Jones’ powerful vocals. There’s clearly a fair few in the crowd that don't know what to make of them, but those who do seem to like it clearly love it. Count me among the latter.

The anticipation in the crowd for headliners Bury Tomorrow truly is palpable. They’re arguably at the top of their game having followed up the outstanding “Earthbound” with the equally excellent “Black Flame”, and each tour they book is getting progressively larger. It's the most recent album that they're playing in full tonight, and knowing the material well the moshpit doesn't waste any time in hitting it full pelt. Equally the band set about their work with vigor and enthusiasm, delivering their polished yet passionate melodic metalcore to the eager fans. Daniel Winter-Bates’ guttural vocals play out across the dynamic guitars and thundering rhythm section; controlling the crowd as fully as he controls the stage. As ever Jason Cameron is sublime in his clean vocal delivery, and his consistent and professional delivery is one of the standout aspects of the band’s product. This is after all a gig very much aimed as a treat for trusted fans – the complete play-through of “Black Flame” followed by a brief encore of some select fan favourites. ‘Earthbound’ surprisingly doesn’t make the cut, but we are treated to brand new track ‘The Grey (VIXI)’ and they close on triumphant ‘Man on Fire’. It’s nice to be indulgent and indulged sometimes, and tonight was an example of that to perfection.