Memphis May Fire + The Word Alive + FACT + Cytota @ Birmingham Academy 2 – 10th April 2014
By the time I arrived at the Academy 2, Cytota were already smashing through their opening set and had attracted quite a crowd. A crowd that was probably a little younger than your average school night audience, and offered more flesh tunnels and ear stretchers than you could shake a pair of skinny black jeans at.
As their set rounded out the audience reaction was a little pedestrian, despite vocalist Joby Fitzgerald’s requests to get the room moving and it being a hometown gig. However, I do think this was more due to them having the onerous task of being up first rather than anything to do with their performance, which did a good job of showcasing their blend of post-hardcore and melodic rock.
After a lengthy stage rebuild and sound check, the six members of FACT gathered in a line facing their drummer before exploding into their high energy, up-tempo set. FACT have fairly recently augmented their line up with the addition of Adam Graham on vocals and guitars, I would have said backing vocals, but front man ‘Hiro’ Onose and Adam almost seem to pass lead vocals back and forwards between them, and despite a few mic leveling issues, sounded pretty solid.
The rest of the band also sounded good, furious drumming and a full guitar sound layered on top of some interesting use of tracks provided an overall sound that felt a little different from some of the more common metalcore out there right now and proved that people shouldn’t be writing off all music coming out of Japan, despite what Babymetal are trying to do.
From the t-shirt representation in the crowd, it was easy to predict the reaction that The Word Alive would receive and the crowd didn’t disappoint. From the outset security were busy fishing surfers from the top of the crowd, each time raising a smile for front man ‘Telle’ Smith, that is, every time he wasn’t doubled up atop his ego riser screaming lyrics that demonstrated a really impressive vocal range, and effortless transitions between cleans and screams.
The other four guys from Arizona were also on their game, serving up some crushing riffs and breakdowns that only further fuelled the crowd participation. While The World Alive don’t offer anything ground breaking for their genre, what they do offer is top notch, and delivered live with a huge amount of passion
They finished off with the title track from their 2012 album Life Cycles, which was clearly received by the crowd as an anthem, the majority of which sang back every word, including the opening lyrics “I’d rather die for what I believe, than live a without meaning.”
Anticipation for the arrival of Memphis May Fire seemed to swell as their impressive light show began warming up, the almost laser-like beams cutting into the waiting crowd. Anticipation erupted into an explosion of noise and screams as the band from Dallas, Texas (via Nashville, Tennessee) arrived on stage.
Their set tonight included a mix from across their back catalogue as well as a number of tracks from their current album Unconditional. Matty Mullins ask of the crowd to cut them some slack for the first live airing of The Rose wasn’t required, it sounding like it had been part of their repertoire for years.
Crowd interaction between tracks was short but sweet until finding themselves with a chunk of time to kill while drummer Jake Garland replaced his kick pedal. During this, Mullins entertained the crowd by providing high-fives for the entire front row, attempting to find a wife for bearded bass player Cory Elder and reminding the crowd that MMF would be back in June for Download (though failed to mention Hit The Deck in a couple of weeks time). Once the drums were back in business, they let the crowd know that they’d be playing the full set without leaving for an encore and then fired into The Unfaithful from 2011’s The Hollow.
Whether you’re a fan of metalcore, in particular the sound that seems to have been attracted by the Rise record label or not, there is no denying the polish that MMF bring and with Unconditional, this seems to have been taken to the next level.
Review & photos – Steve Kilmister