On the 21st of August, Australian metalcore band The Amity Affliction ended their European Summer headline run with a show in 013, Tilburg, the Netherlands. They took two support acts with them on this final show: blacktoothed and Emmure. While the hall was not as full as it could have been – with it partially being closed off – the three bands managed to make it a night filled with energy.
Within less than an hour of the doors being opened to the audience, blacktoothed came to the stage to warm up the crowd. The rock trio consists of lead singer Hendrik “Henni” Rathgaber, vocalist and guitarist Matti Keitel, and drummer David Sommer. On stage, they were also joined by bassist Lucas Keitel. They started considerably slow with their track ‘Antidote’, yet it was a perfect opener to show off Rathgaber and Keitel’s vocals. Especially Rathgaber has a stunning voice that people might not have expected from his tough look. It did immediately become evident that the band is from Germany – Leipzig, to be exact – based on Rathgaber’s accent. Discovering new artists is always a great benefit of managing to catch the opening acts and it is lovely that The Amity Affliction took a small German band with them on this European run. blacktoothed’s set consists mostly of songs from their upcoming album Headway, which will be released in January 2025. Unfortunately, fans will not be able to find these tracks on streaming services just yet, but it can be said that this album will include some true bangers. The main stand-outs were ‘True Colours’ and the more heavy ‘Fight’, which they played as the fifth and sixth songs on their setlist. They ended their set with ‘You Never Know’ (from their 2022 album JULI) and ‘Novocaine’, during which they managed to get a portion of the crowd to participate in a wall of death. In general, blacktoothed’s music might be a bit too ‘soft’ for fans of The Amity Affliction, but their effortless blending of different genres and brilliant guitar solos made their set a delight to hear.
After a break of about half an hour, American metalcore band Emmure took the stage. Right from the bat, the audience knew that they were in for a treat a lot heavier. The band had quite some fans in attendance, as lots of people immediately sang along and raised their hands when asked if they had seen Emmure live before. The band currently consists of vocalist Frankie Palmeri, guitarist Joshua Travis, bassist Zack Davis, and drummer Zach Allard. Out of the four of them, only Palmeri is left from the original 2003 line-up, with Davis and Allard only having joined the band last year. Emmure’s set was filled with more than ten death metal anthems, featuring a wide array of screams and growls from Palmeri. Both Palmeri and the crowd are extremely energetic, with the former moving around the stage and dancing to the solos of his bandmates, and the latter jumping around, running in circle pits, and crowd surfing. The band spent their 40-minute set playing several of their smash hits, opening with ‘You Asked for It’ and continuing with tracks such as ‘Natural Born Killer’ and ‘(F)inally (U)nderstanding (N)othing’. Emmure fit The Amity Affliction’s vibe and although it was pretty hard to understand what Palmeri was screaming about, the crowd loved every second of it and was ready for the final act of the night.
The Amity Affliction came on stage about a solid 30 minutes after Emmure had left. Normally, the Australian band consists of vocalist Joel Birch, bassist and vocalist Ahren Stringer, guitarist Dan Brown and drummer Joe Longobardi. Currently, however, the band is on tour without Stringer, with Jon Reeves having taken over to perform his parts. This was especially important as the band had stated they would be performing the entirety of their album Let the Ocean Take Me on this tour, which includes quite a lot of Stringer’s vocals, for its tenth anniversary. The ten-track album was performed with lots of vigour, with Birch continuously moving all over the podium and engaging with the audience. To make the experience even more intense, the band brought fire and fireworks, which only added to the atmosphere. During the entirety of their performance, fans were moshing and crowd surfing and having the time of their lives. Birch dedicated Let the Ocean Take Me’s final song, ‘Give It All’, to a fan at the front with a sign stating “It’s my birthday, can you play ‘Give It All?”, which made for an adorable moment. After playing this final track, the band left the stage for a minute before coming back to continue with other songs from their discography.
This section began with ‘I See Dead People’, and also included ‘Like Love’ and ‘Open Letter’. During the final chorus, when the lyrics go “I’ll be in space” Birch made a heart with his hands, with the crowd quickly joining in. As this song was dedicated to Sean Kennedy, bassist of Deez Nuts and a friend of the band who passed away, this made for a beautiful moment. They followed this up with the always mesmerizing anti-suicide track ‘Open Letter’ before leaving the stage once more. The night’s encore included the final two songs, ‘It’s Hell Down Here’ and ‘Soak Me in Bleach’. For the final song of the night, Birch asked the crowd to get down low and jump back up to the beat.
While the main band of the night played only a little over an hour, it was surely a set to never forget, and hearing Let the Ocean Take Me in full was worth it for long-time fans. Right after the show ended, the band took to social media to announce a re-recorded version of the entire album called Let the Ocean Take Me (REDUX), to celebrate its anniversary as well as their independence as a band. The band’s European tour has now come to an end, but they’ll be back on the road in their home country in November – and Stringer will be joining them again for these shows.
