Every Time I Die - Cardiff University - 28th October 2012 (Live Review)
Tuesday, 06 November 2012
Written by Owen Sheppard
It was November 2011 that Every Time I Die led the annual Rock Sound Riot Tour with support from Trash Talk, Defeater and Spycatcher and played this very same venue. The Buffalo, NY five piece have since released 'Ex Lives' their sixth and most metal orientated album to date. A release that has seen them debuting at major festivals like Reading and Leeds and will inevitably earn top spots on “albums of the year” lists. What a difference a year makes you would assume, but disappointingly not quite so.
Maybe it’s down to a slightly weaker line up and having a tad less promotional backing that their last tour did, à la Rock Sound, but the turn out for tonight feels lacklustre compared with the scenes of utter chaos from ETID’s last Cardiff visit. Last Witness did little to stir the 50 or so early arrivals and the crowd at the barrier was no more than 3 rows deep for main support: Stray From The Path, who by all accounts put on a solid performance. Unfazed by a tough crowd, they stuck to their guns and even treated us to a new track 'Landmines'. 'Damien' provided a ferocious highlight and you could tell from front man Drew York’s satisfied grin as he left the stage, he obviously felt confident they’d won over a few new fans tonight.
Bang on 9.30 tonight’s headliners hit the stage and rather than belt out their newest and most lauded, it’s not till the fourth track that new material like 'Under Water Bimbos…' gets an airing. They open instead with 'Kill The Music', 'Bored Stiff' and 'I Been Gone A Long Time' tracks that are eight and ten years old. A peculiar game plan but the half full venue goes suitably berserk. Most Every Time I Die fans seem pretty acquainted with the back catalogue and to my surprise it’s still the older tracks 'We’re Wolves' 'The New Black' and 'She’s My Rushmore' that incite the most violent reactions of crowd surfer pile ups and flailed limbs. The classics have a more streamlined and perfected feel to them live than on their old and cheap recordings and it’s like hearing them as remastered versions, made to feel all the more abrasive and bruising.
Keith’s guttural roars and barks are something to behold on record but live, at his lowest pitches he sounds staggering. Still, it’s unavoidable to hear him occasionally falter with some of the cleanly sung sections of their more recent fan favorites – 'I Suck Blood' and tracks from 'New Junk Aesthetic' like 'Wanderlust' and you can even see the strain in his expression. He sounds and looks like he could roar his way to tomorrow morning but when it comes to the melodies he’s clearly a bit more restricted.
Then again this could just be the effects of the bands years of day in day out touring cycles. A band who play this hard and this often deserve a mulligan here and there but really there would be no need. After all it just feels pernickety to say that ETID are anything less than one of the tightest and most thrilling live bands of their genre and beyond. Barely a second goes by when any member of the band is static, and the spectacle before us is no less than anything anyone would come to expect from a metal-core master class like this.
A disappointing crowd but a simply breathtaking live band, let’s just hope ETID get their much deserved comeuppance from some audiences who can keep up with the them on the rest of this tour.
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Maybe it’s down to a slightly weaker line up and having a tad less promotional backing that their last tour did, à la Rock Sound, but the turn out for tonight feels lacklustre compared with the scenes of utter chaos from ETID’s last Cardiff visit. Last Witness did little to stir the 50 or so early arrivals and the crowd at the barrier was no more than 3 rows deep for main support: Stray From The Path, who by all accounts put on a solid performance. Unfazed by a tough crowd, they stuck to their guns and even treated us to a new track 'Landmines'. 'Damien' provided a ferocious highlight and you could tell from front man Drew York’s satisfied grin as he left the stage, he obviously felt confident they’d won over a few new fans tonight.
