The Beat Surrender

After a long alcohol fuelled trip on the train we had finally arrived in Manchester and hopped into the nearest taxi to the Manchester Academy. The queue was already large and it was only 7pm, the doors weren’t to open till half past 7. But still the many fans of Bullet For My Valentine showed determination and excitement for the long-awaited performance. Finally just before 8:00pm the doors opened and we slowly entered the Academy. The atmosphere was something like you’d see at Christmas, jolly faces drinking and laughing.

Within 10 minutes of being inside, supporting act “Skindred” kicked off with a hard-hitting performance. Their style of reggae mixed with heavy metal certainly got the crowd going and mosh pits were started out early! We kept out of this one to save us enough energy for Bullet so we just danced a little. After half an hour of exciting the crowd and a wait of about 10 minutes, the next supporting act “Still Remains” (replacing “36 Crazy Fists”) burst onto the stage with a heavy distinctive sound. The speakers were spot on. As this band was quite heavy, mosh pits were forming and we couldn’t help but get in the middle of it all. Looking around the Academy, it looked apparent that the mosh pit was difficult to avoid as some of the younger fans were pushed around quite a bit.

After “Still Remains” we as well as the crowd were becoming curious at Bullets delay. After seeing a few shadows behind the curtain everyone assuming this was them, screams of “BULLET, BULLET, BULLET!!” chanted around for 5 minutes or so. Finally at 9:45 the member’s shadows blatantly silhouetted through the curtain in their famous stance, the lights lowered and turned to red, the curtains fell down as fast as the music started. Kicking off with the new single featured on their album “Scream Aim Fire” the mosh pit began almost instantly, we expected this seen as this was one of the more aggressive and heaviest tracks on the album. Vocals were on top form although the sound wasn’t loud to us purely because we were in the thick of the mosh pit.

Playing a few more from their new album, they showed complete determination in all aspects. Guitar solos were all rather impressive, as were the vocals. Bullet had that overall really good sound. They aren’t your average metal act, with their memorable songs, catchy chorus’s and overall fantastic performance. The lighting was also perfect for every song. When they played their classic “Tears Don’t Fall” the lighting turned blue and had the crowd singing along. Straight after this was “Hand of Blood” their first single, this went down like a storm with the crowd as the lights went red. As for me, I watched this whilst on my boyfriend’s shoulders-the heat was too much, I was close to fainting, there wasn’t much chance of getting out of the crowd so this was the best option and also gave me an even greater view of Bullet.

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