If anyone has deserved to finally achieve festival headliner status, it’s definitely Bring Me The Horizon. Long gone are the days of bottles being thrown at a 12pm slot at Reading and songs, instead they now have a UK Number 1 album with their latest effort “amo” and a fan base which has just grown and grown. Some may thought that they would have headlined the likes of Download or Reading & Leeds this summer, if anything this set at All Points East in London feels even more pressure having curated the whole event and selling tickets on name alone – By Daniel Winkler
The supporting bill speaks for itself though, sporting some of the greatest British talent in rock and metal right now. Employed To Serve have already released one of the albums of the year and their extremely loud set is a real treat for those arriving early. Idles are quite possibly the best band in Britain right now, earning that title through relentless touring, high intensity shows and their ideologies which represents everything that’s great about a band. That’s not forgetting While She Sleeps who are constantly raising their already high bar and Architects, a band that have been in the game for over a decade and are still delivering the goods every time. So with all that leading up to the main event, does it deliver?
The simple answer is yes, but there wasn’t even a question that they wouldn’t put on a great show. Even sound issues around the site in general don’t detere from the spectical and the deep catalogue of songs that they’ve got. Donning a red suit and a Marylin Manson esq “Milky-Eyed” contact lens, Oli Sykes is front and centre leading the show. The rest of the band are as equally prominent throughout the whole thing with Jordan Fish really helping to steer the group into the band they’ve become today.
The setlist spans their whole career from their new outputs of “MANTRA” and “wonderful life” even featuring a cameo from Cradle Of Filth’s Danny Filth. To older cherished songs such as “It Never Ends” and a real blast from the past in “Pray For Plagues”. Throughout the whole set the adoring crowd are lapping it up, but the true highlight comes in “nilhist blues” which is probably their most complex and actually best song to date. This new direction they’ve taken really maintains that intense sound they give but gives it a brand new edge which has not only kept fans happy, but brought new ones in.
The end of the set has many a sing along moment which is something you wouldn’t have 10 years ago with songs that had lyrics almost completely indistinguishable. “Follow You” and “Drown” are evidence that they’ve fulfilled on their early promise of being a worldwide act to be really reckoned with. They’ve worked their way to get to the top throughout controversy and adversity. Let’s hope that they stay at this level for another 10 years to come.