Impericon Never Say Die! Tour @ Electric Ballroom London 18/10/2012 review

Seeing as I've been to the Impericon Never Say Die! Tour for the last couple of years, I decided that with a free evening, I had no good reason to give it a miss even with it's remarkably poor line-up relative to previous years, which featured bands such as Parkway Drive and Suicide Silence. Nevertheless, I gave it a go; I was up for a night of guilty pleasure in the form of mosh pits, breakdowns and metalcore with a touch of emo.

 

I arrived just in time to catch most of For the Fallen Dreams' (5/10) set. Having not listened to any of their new material from Wasted Youth, I was interested to see how they stood up against it's predecessor Back Burner. Unfortunately, I don't think it did. Songs like Deep Down Inside, stood out much more and whipped the audience into a metalcore sing-a-long. Despite a less than enthusiastic crowd, For the Fallen Dreams were on top form. Dylan Ritcher's voice was impeccable, altering between scorching bellows and pitch perfect singing while there was hardly a single duff note from any member; they were a unified force of sheer brute. Nevertheless, even with Dylan leaping into the barrier desperately trying to engage the crowd, they didn't quite manage step it up to the next level. 

For the Fallen Dreams were simply prepping the stage for Stick To Your Guns (6/10) to precede with ripping it apart. They were the first act of the night that I felt really gripped the crowd. Where The Hope Division and Comes From The Heart provided the catchy gang vocals, Diamond brought the ferocious breakdowns. Amber hurled the audience out of their lull to make way for a relentless set. Stick To Your Guns certainly don't lack in aggression or opinion, however they may have a little too much. I did feel that often their music got lost beneath Jesse Barnett's preaching. As much as I do love Stick To You Guns, they aren't much more than your generic hardcore band struggling to pull much more out of the hat than breakdowns and gang vocals. 

Having not really listened to much of blessthefall (9/10) prior to the gig and this being the first time I've ever seen them (yes, I was one of those people that was supposed to jump up to the front and give Beau Bokan a high five, but like that was going to happen!) I wasn't to sure what to expect. To be honest, my expectations were pretty low. Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised. They were easily the stand out band of the night for me. Where Stick To Your Guns didn't quite grab the attention of the slightly younger contingent of the crowd, blessthefall didn't skip anyone out on their invasion of stage and venue. They sound considerably heavier than they do on record. The pit could hardly contain itself as it bounced off the walls and security certainly had their work cut out as made sure by the countless crowd surfers. I was even impressed by their technical skills on stage, in particular Eric Lambert on guitar. His intricate riffs were spotless even on such a chaotic stage. All in all, I have learnt to never judge a band before I see them live.

Unfortunately (maybe because most the their fans were watching Terror down the road) the venue felt considerably emptier for We Came As Romans (8/10). The first time I went to the Impericon Never Say Die! Tour, We Came As Romans were just the opening band, and now they are headlining the whole Europe wide tour. It could be an explanation as to why the venue was empty or maybe it just goes to show how far they have come in the past couple of years mostly thanks to their brilliant album To Plant A Seed. Granted, it did take a while for them to hit their stride, but once they had, it sure was something to bare witness to. Less people in the venue simply meant more space to dance and form one hell of a moshpit. Their timing was off a bit at times, but they still had immense ability to command to crowd with every single note, every single beat of every single song.

You can't argue that in comparison to previous years, the line-up was incredibly weak, though having said that, blessthefall and We Came As Romans still showed that they were worthy of taking to a stage as legendary and massive as the Electric Ballroom. Nevertheless, I did feel as though the line-up could have done with a different headliner to end such a mammoth line-up. 

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