The Japanese band Coldrain tried to warm-up the crowd as the first band today. It seemed like this post-hardcore band only had 2-3 Japanese members, but all of them are definitely from the same country. Due to their strong beginning they won my attention instantly. But when the out of tune clean vocals came in, I only thought about WSS very quickly. I do believe this band gave it all and you could see they made a great effort on stage, but I just kept comparing the two bands. The level of this band wasn’t even close to the level that While She Sleeps has shown during the last years. Nevertheless, some people in the crowd were greatly enjoying the band and they received quite some applause.
After this start I finally got to see Callejon. Although this is a metalcore band from Germany, they are quite different from HSB, Caliban, and the other well-known artists. Somehow, this band seems to mix the German metalcore with some humour and influences by Rammstein. This band started some moshing in the crowd and some people in the pit came here to see them. They were clearly enjoying themselves and they also sang along a little. The band itself played quite tightly, although it wasn’t the vocalist’s best day. It was a very good support act, although maybe it wasn’t the best choice in genre. There was still quite a big barrier between the most die-hard BFMV fans and the people in the mosh pit. Nevertheless a surprising amount of energy and the performance promised a lot for the headliner.
When Bullet For My Valentine came on stage with the well-known intro “O, Fortuna”, the crowd couldn’t stop screaming the name Bullet as well as screaming their lungs out for some reason. Of course they started with their new song from the upcoming fifth album. “Raising Hell” started a mosh pit in the crowd. What was more surprising was that the second song was one of their greatest hits: “Scream Aim Fire”. During these songs the crowd went crazy and screamed the lyrics along, but I could only be disappointed. The sound wasn’t that great during these songs and most of the vocals weren’t spot on today. I have seen this band quite often now, and this was definitely the worst show so far. The best example is the small break in “Scream Aim Fire”, after which the band members all join in again at the same point. Today it sounded like they joined in one by one, which ruined the entire break.
From here on the band played songs like “Your Betrayal, “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)”, and “4 Words (To Choke Upon)”. Clearly, the band played many older songs, which was a very pleasant surprise, but the execution of these songs wasn’t as good as we’re used to either. I tried to bear it for one more song, but when Matthew Tuck sang solo and acoustic for the first part of “The Last Fight” it was even more audible that this wasn’t his best day. I chose sleep above this average performance and went home right after that song. I left halfway during their set, and I heard many people still enjoyed it a lot, but for me it was a huge let-down.
I’m probably going to see them at a festival this summer for a second chance.
