LIVE: The Ghost Inside/ Bury Tomorrow at Birmingham Academy 2 [21/02/13]

By Lais

Tonight the Rock Sound/Impericon tour hits Birmingham, and it’s welcomed with exceedingly open arms. It’s no wonder, because the line up is absolutely stellar: The Ghost Inside, Bury Tomorrow, Stray From The Path and Landscapes. Tonight is set to be a rowdy one, and proceedings are started by the UK’s very own Landscapes and New York’s Stray From The Path. The bar has been set, and it’s time for Birmingham to get messy.

English metalcore five-piece Bury Tomorrow have gathered a lot of hype recently, and it’s 100% deserved. Their live show gets better every single time they play, and their songs are powerful enough to carry them the distance. Their set mainly consists of songs off their most recent album, ‘Union Of Crowns’, but there are a couple thrown in from earlier album ‘Portraits’. The highlights of tonight’s set are the mighty ‘Lionheart’ and ‘Knight Life’, and the whole band possess a whole shedload of talent, energy and passion. Guitarist/vocalist Jason Cameron has a beautifully melodic voice, and it meshes perfectly with frontman Dani Winter-Bates’ growls and charisma. Once again, a triumph for Bury Tomorrow.

Next up are tonight’s headliners, LA melodic hardcore veterans The Ghost Inside. They enter with a bang to the sound of ‘This Is What I Know About Sacrifice’, the album opener for 2012’s ‘Get What You Give’. It’s an absolutely bloody brilliant moment: the whole room comes to life and screams every single lyric back at the band. This is a band who know exactly how to command a crowd, and they have the anthems to back them up.

Tonight’s setlist consists of a mixture of songs off the aforementioned ‘Get What You Give’ and 2010’s ‘Returners’. Highlights are ‘The Great Unknown’, ‘Unspoken’, ‘Deceiver’ and ‘Between The Lines’. Frontman Jonathan Vigil has the crowd in the palm of his hands, and the whole band are unbelievable. They sound incredibly tight, and tonight is almost flawless.  They even come back on for an encore where they sing ‘Engine 45’ – it is without a doubt the best moment of tonight, including rowdy moshpits and spine-tingling, shiver-inducing singalong moments.

Tonight is a true victory for The Ghost Inside. Here’s hoping they come back to the UK again immediately.

LAIS MW