It may border on freezing outside tonight, but inside the Utilita Arena this evening there’s a lot of people packed in – in fact, it’s sold out for the first stop of Sheffield alt-metal titans Bring Me The Horizon’s NX_GN WRLD TOUR. And they’ve brought some of the most exciting upcoming names in rock in the form of Static Dress, Cassyette and Bad Omens.
The latter band, who play before BMTH, take the stage as if headliners, with a setup of CO₂ and strobes. The crowd eats up Bad Omens’ songs without hesitation, too, screaming back every word of Just Pretend, Artificial Suicide and Dethrone. Frontman Noah Sebastian owns it effortlessly, and pops back up later with the actual headline act – more on that in a bit.
It cannot be underestimated just how absolutely massive Bring Me The Horizon are right now: this show sold out in minutes, along with the rest of the tour, and may end up being the smallest venue they play in the UK this year. The anticipation is palpable in the room as a video game menu appears on stage-side screens for Post Human, asking the crowd to press the start button. In due course, a RPG-like character – name of Eve – shows up, goading the crowd and hyping the room, before the band appear, opening proceedings with Darkside and a blast of confetti.
The show that follows is pure rock filth, with the likes of Mantra, Antivist – where Sebastian pops back up – and Kingslayer beyond massive. There’s no replacement onstage for the recently departed Jordan Fish, who left the band last month – something BMTH frontman Oli Sykes refers to, tongue in cheek, as “internal issues” when Eve asks why the album isn’t done yet. This duly addressed, he gets the crowd involved to record some gang vocals for an as-yet-untitled track (“you guys are gonna be on the album!”).
There’s also two extended stoppages tonight due to injuries in the crowd, with new single Kool-Aid and rarely-played fan favourite Diamonds Aren’t Forever both paused to extract the injured parties from the mosh. Doomed, played for the first time since 2019, opens the encore before BMTH close out the night with uber-banger Throne. Cheeky references, injokes, and most importantly a gamut of outrageous bangers: a ridiculously good show from one of the best contemporary bands in Britain.
Bring Me The Horizon, Bad Omens, Cassyette + Static Dress, Utilita Arena Cardiff, Tue 9 Jan
words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos JONATHAN HERRON
