Live Review: FACES OF DEATH TOUR ft. To The Grave, Varials, Heart of a Coward & Signs of the Swarm (30/10/24)

This being said the rest of the lineup leaves nothing to be desired. Starting off with Australian Straight Edge outfit To The Grave up first in-front of a very hungry crowd.

“To The Grave motherf***er!” is most of what I could make out, between a constant onslaught of bass drops and fatass breakdowns they waste no time in taking the energy from 1 to 10. Absolute raw, powerful slamming horrible noises. A couple of cheeky two steps are thrown into the mix right next to even bigger blast beats. I mean, it’s the sort of thing you’d expect from a band called “To The Grave.” – My only complaint for these lovely fellas is that I don’t think they were mixed very well. It was particularly bass heavy to the point where I could feel it so much in my chest, genuinely I could feel my lungs rattling around. Guitars weren’t mixed in well in place of the low end.

I highly doubt this was the bands fault though – so see this as me being a whiny little prick and ignore it! Following that fantastic performance are Varials, Philadelphia born and bred Metalcore ready to tear your face off sorta vibes. I have a long history with this band so I am interested to see them in a live environment. There I am, enjoying their set so much. Suddenly the vocalist of Pintglass is on stage? Shouting at me to punch my friends? I am fine with this. I am enjoying it in fact. Thank you Pintglass X Varials. This is all I’ve ever wanted.

Safe to say Varials got that dawg in em, they take the energy up to 11 and really set themselves apart from other bands in the genre. The energy up there is as high as the energy down here. Between bangers like South of One and Anything to Numb I’ve got absolutely no complaints.

Up next are metalcore heroes Heart of a Coward, following 2 – very hard to follow bands – they open up with big fat riffs and bouncy drums alike. I can very safely say that the crowd eat this up. Luckily for me I reviewed their new album last year so I’ve done my homework! Heart of a Coward stand out on this bill as one of the bands with the cleanest sound – this is not a bad thing! They’ve got some absolutely delicious choruses between huge fat breakdowns that rattle the bones. They end their set with a big fat beatdown, sending bodies flying in every different direction. Tasty riffs and huge chunky breakdowns the whole night through.

Heart of a Coward brought the energy –

Signs of the Swarm are here to kill it. In a good sense, they’re cool don’t worry. They come out to a crowd full of hungry fans; all ready to kill eachother (in a sense.) The entire room moves side to side, front to back – at their request. They’ve brought the energy and the crowd give it back.

Signs of the swarm are HEAVY and they’ve brought blast beats for days, for several days intact. They’ve got all the heaviness you could want in a band – and on this bill it’s no secret that heaviness is welcomed. Between all the absolutely brutal riffs and breakdowns is a controlled fury I cannot explain. It’s angry, it’s ferocious, but the kicks sound so clean?! Bodies are flying over bodies and more bodies fly over those bodies, as the band scream ‘London. Give me violence.’ No wonder this venue is packed out.

Signs of the Swarm killed it tonight – it makes sense that they are the headliners tonight, and I can’t help but feel proud of this band? They’ve put in the work and it’s clearly paying off.

Big up all the bands tonight, everyone killed it to be honest, and if you weren’t there. What were you doing?

To be honest, it doesn’t feel fair to rate these bands out of 10 – I think all of them did absoloutely brilliantly.