
Black Veil Brides + Attila + Fearless Vampire Killers + Drama Club @ O2 Academy – 7th October 2014
The ‘Black Mass Tour’ sees Black Veil Brides (BVB) touring ahead of the release of their fourth album, which is due out on October 28th. With support bands differing slightly to that of the U.S. leg of the Black Mass Tour, they’re joined in the U.K. by electro-house/shock pop, DJ duo Drama Club; British rock band, Fearless Vampire Killers and American deathcore band Attila. Walking to the venue I noticed that the queue was huge, managing to circle the building so I knew it was going to be a lively night. Teens with their parents seemed to make up the bulk of the queue, which added to the anticipation of an energetic evening.
Although Drama Club aren’t my usual choice in music they were a fantastic support act. They really got the crowd worked up and excited for the bands that were to follow. Fearless Vampire Killers seemed to have a lot of fans in the room so from the moment they came on stage, the crowd were engaged and they easily kept them involved.
Attila were the final support act. In my opinion they didn’t really fit in between the likes of Fearless Vampire Killers and Black Veil Brides, I just found their music to be too heavy but I will give them their dues, they had the fans buzzing from the moment they ran out on stage and they kept them going throughout their set.
Finally, the headliners of the tour, and a band that I personally already rate; Black Veil Brides! I have been a fan of these guys for a few years so I was extremely excited to see them tonight, as were the rest of the room who were chanting for them whilst we waited. Coming out on stage and diving straight into their new single ‘Heart Of Fire’, it was clear that their show was not going to disappoint.
Andy Biersack (singer) made it no secret that he had blown his voice out at a previous show, thus he admitted he couldn’t perform to his full ability but that he was going to give it his all and he did just that. In no way at all did Andy’s throat problems take away from the overall performance, he had the back up of the other band members and of course the fans. Continuing to please the crowd, they went back to the beginning of their career performing ‘Sweet Blasphemy’ and a favourite for all BVB fans ‘Knives and Pens’.
At one point during their set, Jinxx (guitar) did a violin solo which was not only stunning, it was something different and it was a personal highlight of mine. The only down side to this gig was that when the band performed songs from their fourth coming album (which, by the way, they executed perfectly) bar ‘Heart Of Fire’ and ‘Faithless’ which are available to listen to online, the fans just couldn’t get as involved because they didn’t know the songs, which put a bit of a dampener on the evening.
The lulls from the new songs were soon picked up again when well-known songs were played and the crowd could once again go crazy for the songs they know and love. It seemed like no time at all had passed when the band announced their final song for the night would be ‘Fallen Angels’, the room went insane for this song!
Naturally when they had finished and gone from the stage the fans stuck around chanting, “we want more” over and over until BVB returned for an encore in which they played ‘In The end’. I had a fantastic night and thought that even though Andy was having trouble with his throat Black Veil Brides were spot on and I am certain I am not the only person who had an awesome time.
Setlist
1. Heart Of Fire
2. I Am Bulletproof
3. Coffin
4. Faithless
5. Wretched and Divine
6. Knives And Pens
7. Overture
8. Shadows Die
9. Last Rites
10. Rebel Love Song
11. Christian ‘CC’ Coma Drum Solo
Photographer: Shaz Rafferty
Reviewer: Gem Bywater
Not going to lie, I wasn’t into BVB as much as I had been a year ago but I still enjoyed the concert a lot.
Drama Club weren’t what you expect at a scene metal concert with them being EDM but they were still decent and reminded me a lot of Knife Party meeting rock/metalcore.
Fearless Vampire Killers didn’t stand out for me.
The main reason I went was to see Attila which were amazing!!! Went in the circle pit on their closer track – About That Life and that was decent. I wanted to mosh on that but they asked for a circle pit. Found myself headbanging to most of their other tracks like Party With The Devil! Will be hopefully seeing them in March ’15
I was considering leaving halfway through BVB if they turned out to be crap, but they were great live and stayed til In The End. The drum solo was amazing and I’m pretty glad I stayed to the end. There was no mosh pit for BVB at any time but I wasn’t really expecting one since most of the people that went were either 12-17 year old scene kids who never moshed and the direct contrast – 16-25 year old heavy metal fans who would mosh for Attila but not BVB as it wouldn’t be their style of music. I went to the Southampton O2 Guildhall gig, mind.