My first arena gig since the pre-apocolypse times, so this had a fair amount to live up to. Luckily I’m a fan of both bands, at least enough that the drive and the extortionate prices of anything in the arena didn’t put me off. However, both recent albums by the bands didn’t blow me away, so I was curious! I’ve seen Biffy Clyro a couple of times before, so was hoping they’d be just as good as both of those times.
Architects took to the stage to a rather spread-out crowd. But, by the time they’d finished their first number, the place had packed out considerably. I, like I’m sure a lot of others, were shocked that the metalcore titans were chosen to support the considerably lighter Scots. Yes, Simon did that song with the band on their album last year, but still. Heck, there was a pretty clear distinction between the two sets of fans in terms of merch and look, too. However, by the end of the set I feel like there were a lot of converts.
Opening on their big single from their most recent album, ‘Deep Fake’, their blend of metal and more radio sounds came across perfectly live. Architects are the one metalcore band that I never truly ‘got’, but clearly I just needed to see them live to appreciate it more. However, that may have been because almost the entire set was made up of tracks released in the last two years, with the lone exception being Holy Hell’s ‘Doomsday’. I’m sure it probably pissed off a few of the hardcore fans in the crowd, but I personally loved it. It made my appreciation of the new album that much higher and has since made me revisit it, as I didn’t like it too much before. Plus, the newer stuff is a little more radio friendly, and fits in more to the crowd they were playing to.
The band ripped through nearly an hours set of bangers, with crowd favourites definitely being the likes of ‘Black Lung’ and closer ‘Animals’. Sam Carter is such an entertaining and captivating frontman that it didn’t matter much that the rest of the band didn’t really move about. This was a polished, professional setlist and if anything the perfect opener for Biffy.
After a brief interval, the main men themselves took to the stage. The anticipation and energy in the air was palpable… and then they came on and played ‘DumDum’. It’s not a bad track at all, but after all that build-up it does feel a little anticlimactic to not burst straight into something a little more upbeat. However, they soon rectify that as they quickly head into the awesome ‘A Hunger In Your Haunt’, an instant crowd favourite.
From there, the band launch into, honestly, one of the most perfectly crafter setlists I’ve ever seen. Whether it was the hits or the deeper cuts, almost their entire back catalogue got some love at one point in their two-hour set. Whether it was the ever awesome ‘Black Chandelier’ or ‘Mountains’ to new hits like ‘End Of’ or ‘Unknown Male 01’, it all went down a storm with the packed out crowd. And the band played them all to perfection too, putting on an energetic show and some amazing visuals with lighting to go alongside the great music.
Whether it was ballads or more upbeat songs, the set was filled to the brim with highlights, too. From the heavy, prog awesomeness of ‘Cop Syrup’ to Simon, his acoustic, the two string players and his choir of 15,000+ singing along to ‘God and Satan’ with him, or the surprising crowd (and my personal favourite) ‘Biblical’. And of course we cannot forget about the epic set closer, their biggest ballad, ‘Many of Horror’. Simon barely had to sing a word of it, the crowd handled the vocals dutifully.
It was honestly, excluding Locash at The Long Road earlier this year, the first time since Covid I’ve stood in a crowd and felt that energy. The first time I’ve thought to myself ‘this is why I love this industry’. Mon the Biff.
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