Live Review : Mallory Knox + Call Me Amour + HRTLSS @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 18th 2024

Sometimes you just want a melodic alt-rock band that delivers soaring clean vocals and catchy sing-along tunes – enter a reunited Mallory Knox. A ten-year anniversary tour of album ‘Asymmetry’ has come on the back of reunion dates at SlamDunk, and tonight gives the Manchester fans another chance to dance and sing along to all the classics from the Cambridgeshire rockers. 

Opening the night is HRTLSS who is about as modern as music gets regarding the range of influences and styles on view. In fact, this tour is their live debut, and not a bad way to get off the ground in my opinion! There’s pop-rock, emo, trap and grunge all mashed-up and delivered in something sitting between Sleep Token and Siamese. HRTLSS is fundamentally a solo act with a full backing band, having been a guitarist in a metal band throughout his teen years, and he delivers a smooth and intriguing set for the early crowd tonight. The drums and bass are solid and sit with the electronic elements well, the guitars are heavier and more engaging than on record, while HRTLSS’ vocals are spot on and inoffensively sweet throughout. None of the songs seem to ever lift-off though, and you just feel there’s a destination and a change in dynamic missing from every track. Almost like you’re getting the first half of every song and not the triumphant pay-off. Still, there’s plenty of promise and depending on the media backing and support slots he secures we could see big things from this vowel-less modern rocker.

Main support Call Me Amour take to the stage amidst flashing lights and cheers of approval from the crowd. They immediately set off into a mix of rocky electronica and straight up alt-rock. They bounce about the stage and in terms of being a warm-up act they certainly get everyone in the crowd energised and moving. The Isle of Man crew remind me of an old band called Grand Theft Audio, but with less punky vocals, and I think they’ll appeal to fans of Skillet and even South of Salem. They are immensely slick and have the full cohesive look of an accessible industrial rock band. From up on the balcony frontman Harry Radford looks like a mini-Billy Idol, and he works the crowd well making his way down to the front barrier as well as conducting proceedings in-between songs. The guitars buzz and the sing-along choruses keep coming as everyone’s heads nod and bodies bounce. There’s nothing technically spectacular, but it’s reassuringly familiar and catchy in all the right ways and is made for the big stage in the professionalism and theatrical delivery.

I vividly remember headliners Mallory Knox playing Central Station in Wrexham. A small, intimate venue, which on that night was packed out with an enthusiastic bunch of passionate fans. Fast forward to tonight and I’m able to bear witness to a reunion Asymmetry Anniversary UK tour that has sold-out the O2 Ritz in Manchester. The exciting part is that the passion I saw in that crowd back in Wrexham is no less diluted in the 1.5k fans here tonight. The two large neon MKs sit either side of the drums at the back of the stage, and the remaining band members prowl the front of the stage and riser platforms with accomplished confidence and showmanship. The songs are just as heartfelt and brilliant as ever too. Any fans of You Me at Six, Boston Manor and Young Guns will be jumping for joy at this band’s return, and what a return it proves to be.

Mikey Chapman’s voice is note perfect, hitting every high and low equally precisely and expertly. It’s noticeable that the original harsher vocal lines are now sung clean, but that doesn’t detract from the passion and power in the melodies. His style is based in swelling emotive waves of melodic vocals, and the crowd lap up every word he sings. That there is the addition of different clean vocals from bassist Sam Douglas just adds to the overall experience. Encore opener ‘She Took Him to the Lake’ showcases both vocals superbly, as well as the variety of Mallory Knox’s skills and sound – a beautiful and tender opening with jangling delayed guitar, into a churning and building ominous swell of something darker, until it unleashes into a fully powerful alt-rock song complete with soaring chorus and syncopated stabs of instrumentation. We’ll see if this is the start of a true comeback or was an isolated reunion, but one thing for sure is that everyone here tonight is thankful and elated to have experienced Mallory Knox at least one more time.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Mallory Knox + Call Me Amour + HRTLSS