Review by Lulu Davenport, photos by Sean Larkin
Welsh rockers Bullet For My Valentine chase up their latest fifth album offering with a sneaky few U.K stops on a tour bound for the U.S , Canada and beyond. A trip to Leicester’s O2 arena is necessary as Nottingham’s Rock City (or as I call it ‘home) is absent from the list.
Opening track ‘No Way Out’ is pulled from the new album, Venom. This slick, fast paced song sets a frantic momentum for the remainder of the night. Within seconds there are bodies flying over crowd surfing, mosh pits are circling at an alarming rate as far as the eye can see. The area is in a predominantly student location and tonight the crowd are geared up for Friday night craziness. A voice is heard behind me, loudly saying ‘Bloody hell this ain’t like Rock City!
Lead singer Matt Tuck briefly pauses to yell a quick rallying call of ‘‘how the fuck you doin?’’ followed by his, to the point statement, of ‘‘let’s not fuck around no chit chat’’ to which they steam straight into ‘4 Words (to choke upon)’. His vocal talents are only surpassed by the sheer pounding drumming prowess of Mike Thomas. Combined with the epileptic coma inducing use of the strobes, the night is a delightful assault on the senses. BFMV really are on a mission to give the crowd the musical high they’ve come for.
The set list flicks between adrenalin fuelled tracks from the past decade’s four albums to the present day, with ‘You Want A Battle… Here’s A War’, ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ and ‘The Last Fight’ especially invoking chaos with the crowd. Showing off his skills on guitar, Matthew Paget excels at an impressive solo, looking comfortable taking centre stage as he hogged some well deserved limelight.
There’s a lot of nostalgia in the air as it’s announced there has been a decade pass since the release of debut album The Poison, leaving me wondering how many of the rockers here tonight grew up being a stroppy teenager listening to the angst fuelled earlier years of Bullet? This being exactly what the band wish to step away from and by tonight’s standards they have done just that, giving the crowd what they wanted with a mix of old favourites and new solid material worked in for good measure.
Setlist
1. No Way Out
2. 4 words (to choke upon)
3. You want a battle? (Here’s a war)
4. Raising hell
5. Scream aim fire
6. The poison
7. The last fight
8. Venom
9. Alone
10. Worthless
11. Guitar solo
12. Army of noise
13. Tears don’t fall
14. Hand of blood
15. Your betrayal
16. Waking the demon
