Live Review: Bury Tomorrow at The Roundhouse, London (21/12/19)

It’s a cold, wet and windy night in London but the flame burns brightly inside the Roundhouse. The black flame that is. Yes, Bury Tomorrow are in the house for the final date of their Black Flame UK tour. A tour that is all about the band’s latest album, Black Flame.

Playing it completely from start to finish, anyone who has seen this done by other bands will tell you that if can be risky business. Even more so when it’s an album that is only 2 years old. The band have confidence in their material, that much is clear. The fan base? Well, it’s not a sell out that’s for sure but it’s busy enough to not make it look like a terrible idea. The fringes are looking a bit sparse and the upstairs seating is barely worth opening but the centre is a seething mass of rabid Bury Tomorrow fans.

A constantly moving, jumping and screaming set of fans that do themselves and the band proud on a night that could have gone badly. Happily that’s not the case as an excellent performance by Bury Tomorrow ensures everyone walks away with a smile on the face.

We enjoyed Black Flame, it’s a great album but seeing it in full wasn’t something to particularly get excited about. It’s a personal preference, but we’d have rather seen a standard Bury Tomorrow show. That being said, it sounds immense in a venue that always delivers fantastic acoustics. The drums are little muted at times and the reverb on bass is a bit too much occasionally but for the most, it’s a killer play-through of the album.

No Less Violent, the title track, The Age and Peacekeeper standing out as the highlights of the album run. To pad out the set, the band return for an encore that includes the bonus track ‘Glasswalk’ that was on the deluxe edition of Black Flame and the new track, The Grey. The latter sounding immensely heavy while taking on deeper meaning thanks to the explanation of what inspired it.

It’s moving and heartfelt, getting a raucous round of applause. It goes on a fair bit but you can tell it’s sincere. That’s important especially as this was a night of being laid bare. The production is heavy on the lights (a bit too much at times) and the band don’t employ any gimmicks. This is them and this is us, united under the banner of metal.