Bullet For My Valentine live review – 7th December

DJ Scott pulled double duty on Wednesday 7th December with The Sanctum on the air from 9pm and he was also in attendance for Bullet For My Valentine at the O2 Academy in Birmingham that evening too. Check out his review of the show below.

The second of two Bullet For My Valentine shows at the Birmingham O2 Academy was a special night. While the second night didn’t sell out as much as the first night, the venue was packed out.

As the crowd was filling up, the opening band Cane Hill came on. Their blend of in-your-face hardcore and stoner metal was received with a mostly lukewarm response from the Birmingham crowd. To be fair to the crowd, some of them may have been burned out from the previous night which I am told was an amazing show. Cane Hill presented some incredible headbanging, fist throwing hardcore anthems in their set with some more mellow stoner metal tunes thrown in for good measure. Their sound was very raw, which isn’t a bad thing. Quite the contrary, the raw sound was honest and it helped convey the pure aggression of the lyrics from these guys from New Orleans. From my view, Cane Hill are definitely a band worth checking out.

Cane Hill setlist:

True Love
Mggda
(The New) Jesus
St. Veronica
Fountain Of Youth
Gemini
Time Bomb

After a 15 minute changeover, the unmistakable intro of My Curse made its way through the speakers in the venue and the crowd erupted, coming to life. The lights came on and it was the turn of Killswitch Engage to rock the stage. Their set was comprised of so many of their best songs from their discography including My Curse, Vide Infra, My Last Serenade and The End Of Heartache. The crowd sang along with every word. You could tell that a large portion of the crowd weren’t here just for Bullet For My Valentine. The metalcore veterans were on top form. When frontman Jesse Leach informed us it was time for the last song, he was met with boos for the only time this evening.

Killswitch Engage setlist:

My Curse
Until The Day
Rose Of Sharyn
This Is Absolution
Quiet Distress
Fixation On The Darkness
Hate By Design
Vide Infra
My Last Serenade
The End Of Heartache
Strength Of The Mind
In Due Time

After a slightly longer changeover it was the turn of headliners Bullet For My Valentine. The lights went out and Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades played through the sound system. Once that ended, Intro from BFMV’s The Poison album came on as the band made their way to the stage. As advertised, this evening Bullet For My Valentine were performing their debut full length album The Poison which was originally released back in 2005. The Poison was the album that shot Bullet to fame 10 years ago and featured classics such as “Her Voice Resides”, “Tears Don’t Fall”, “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)” and my personal favourite “4 Words (To Choke Upon)”. The crowd sang along from start to finish in this unique BFMV set. Even without original bassist Jason James (due to his 2015 departure) and drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas (hiatus due to personal reasons), they didn’t miss a beat from the legendary album. Despite frontman Matt Tuck telling us, it’s hard to believe that some of the songs they played aren’t regular features on their touring setlists. After performing The Poison in full, the band returned to the stage for an encore to play “No Way Out” from their Venom album, “Your Betrayal” from their Fever album and they capped off the night with their latest single “Don’t Need You”.

While I’m blown away from such a fantastic showing from all 3 bands, the Bullet For My Valentine set stuck out to me in a strange way. As much as I love The Poison as an album, and as much as I am aware it is a landmark album in the discography of Bullet For My Valentine, I don’t think it translated well as a live performance. Hear me out here, this point I’m making isn’t to do with how well they performed because Bullet played their hearts out. The first half of that album is packed with momentum with its energy and memorable songs, the second half of that album (for me) lacks that momentum and loses steam. So for the first half of their set, I was headbanging away and singing along to these classic Bullet songs. And then after “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)”, I felt burned out almost, as were a few others around me. During the encore, the crowd (myself included) came back to life. Unfortunately I wasn’t there for the previous night, but looking at the setlist I imagine that the crowd would have been with Bullet throughout their set.

Bullet For My Valentine setlist:

Her Voice Resides
4 Words (To Choke Upon)
Tears Don’t Fall
Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do)
Hit The Floor
All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)
Room 409
The Poison
10 Years Today
Cries In Vain
Spit You Out
The End
No Way Out
Your Betrayal
Don’t Need You

Check out our gallery of pics from the show as well. Click here.

Live Review by DJ Scott
Host of The Sanctum – Your weekly fix of symphonic metal and folk metal every Wednesday night from 9pm GMT until midnight.