Tour of the Year - Parkway Drive / Architects / Thy Art Is Murder - January 23rd, 2016 - Zenith, Munich, GER (Concert Review)

The Zenith is one of the biggest venues in Munich and, especially for bands in this genre, it's one of the greatest accomplishments and verification of success to be able to play it and actually (almost) sell it out. As did Parkway Drive with this one. Just over 5.000 people attended the gig, making it PWD's biggest headine show outside their home country, Australia.

The tension before the start of the first support band, Thy Art Is Murder [7], gets more and more unbearable as the lights dim. Reason for that is the recent departure of the Australian deathcore band's front man and vocalist CJ. His vocals being rather significant for the band's sound, the new live sound would be an interesting experience. Especially since it was only the second time the new singer appeared with the band after the tour's debut in Würzburg a day earlier. 

But the doubts reveal themselves to be unnecessary as the new vocalist, Nick Arthur (Molotov Solution), delivers an outstanding performance. None the less, the most impressive, personally, are still the drum tracks and how well Lee Staton delivers them live.

Next up are one of the UK's best exports these days, Architects [10]. Due to 'only' playing a support slot, the band's setlist remains rather short, and also mostly unchanged from the one they had on their latest festival run in summer 2015, but it none the less gets the crowd moving in every corner of the venue. While their stage show never really includes much apart from a huge banner in the bag and a few light effects (or some special effects for their last headliner show at the Roundhouse in London in March 2015), this time, not even the banner made it onto the stage. But these guys don't need much of a show, their performance itself is enough to fully deliver everything perfectly and with a thundering sound as they're giving it their all. Architects always deliver, no matter their time given or the stage they're presented with.

Finally, the headliner is getting doomingly close and the lights slowly dim as Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen comes to an end. The whole room gets quiet, the stage is tinted dark red, before a few single spotlights show the silhouettes of the band members behind a curtain. A few guitar riffs in and the curtain, gracing the band's latest album cover, drops down to the ground with a boom of the drums and a just as loud bang from two confetti canons at the corner of the stage, drowning the crowd in a red and white menace of paper. Parkway Drive [9] have arrived. It takes some time, but, at latest, as soon as the sounds to Vice Grip (their first released song off of their latest record 'Ire') bellow through the hall, every single person joins the madness. The show is further undermined with special visual effects, as well as different stage set ups getting revealed as another curtain drops behind the band, and, obviously, flames shooting into the sky for the last couple of tracks.

This tour is a circus full of attractions and is not to be missed if you have any chance to attend it.

Overall: 9/10 

Panic! At The Disco - Death of a Bachelor (Record Review)

I know I'm a little late to the new P!ATD party, but it's been busy and I'd still like to add my little something to this new gem of art.

Personally, I've been excited for this baby to be out ever since the glorious 'Hallelujah' got released onto the world. The excitement never died down with each song that got put out. Such as the intro 'Victorious' which instantly throws you off your chair to cheer and dance along to Urie's significant chants, immediately marking itself as one of my personal favorites. It's no secret that Urie has an immense vocal range and certainly likes to show it off, too, which is why in songs like 'Emperor's New Clothes', 'Hallelujah' or 'Golden Days', you might find yourself in utter awe at his talent. Not only that, but the notable fact that Urie plays all the instruments himself, adds to the already over-whelming musical talent with which this record is soaked. 

While in tracks like 'Death of a Bachelor', he shows off the obvious influences of one of his long-time heroes, Sinatra, and gets more jazz-y and groovey, others, such as 'House of Memories', make you move your hips once more. If you want to or not. There's really not much of a choice. 

Lyrically, it's very clear for the most part what he intends to get across. Most obvious e.g. in 'Don't Threaten Me With A Good Time' which covers the nightlife and its temptations, including drugs, alcohol, sex and the consequences it comes with for the next morning, its mood perfectly set instrumentally. 

Apart from the musical aspect of the record, Urie's has also done one hell of a job with all the videos he delivered to the songs so far, especially 'Emperor's New Clothes' probably being the most outstanding of them.

All in all, while the record does have a bit of a low point with 'The Good, The Bad and The Dirty', other than that, it's a rather flawless record, delivered by one of the brightest minds of music these days. 

Having gone through all the member changes, being the only original member left, Urie still lives up to the name and delivers another marvelous record with 'Death of a Bachelor'.

Favorite song(s): Victorious, Impossible Year, Emperor's New Clothes

Overall: 8,5/10

Cheerio xx

The 1975 - November 28th, 2015 - The Academy, Manchester (Concert Review)

Feeling the desire to hop on a plane again, I decided on November 27^th to book a flight and headed off to the airport about 6 hours later at 4AM on Saturday, November 28^th, to get transferred over to Manchester where The 1975 were scheduled to play their sold out hometown show.

After a couple of hours in the city center, exploring the alleys and browsing through the Arndale, I went to check out the sight of the venue and wasn't exactly surprised when I saw a whole lot of people already lining up at the doors of it. Some had even been camping out there since the day before. While I used to do my fair share of waiting in a queue all day for gigs in the past, I will never understand how people manage to actually camp outside the venue, especially during cold winter months. That's dedication, I guess … with a certain amount of insanity. Considering that this certain band has already sold out the Apollo thrice for their future tour in March 2016, the insanity seemed a little more appropriate considering their popularity in their home country.

Doors opened at 7PM and the process went by rather fast to my own fascination. The queue at that point went down Oxford Road, all the way down to the University of Manchester and probably even further. It was mental.

After another half an hour outside, I finally managed to make my way into the Academy and after giving my belongings away at the cloak room, I placed myself rather in the back with enough room around me to dance and a proper view to the stage.

As support act, RatBoy [3] got chosen and while the choice seemed logical, it didn't throw me off the rails. Some songs had rather interesting instrumental parts and arrangements, but I didn't really get into it all that much. Unlike the crowd around me of which quite a percentage even knew the lyrics to the songs that got played.

45 minutes later, the band left the stage again, the crowd got blinded with bright lights instead and the changeover of the stage was happening in disguise.

The tension in the venue got close to unbearable and the screams got louder and louder by the minute. Finally, The 1975 [10] hit the stage with Love Me, their first song to have gotten released from their upcoming record I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It (What a title, guys). The second the track started, the whole crowd exploded with joy. What an unreal moment to experience. But also, the second it all began, the stage light installation (by Tobias Rylander) instantly consumed you and goosebumps rushed all over your body. The combination of this artistic use of lights and the feeling the music by these British fellows gives you is such a unique feeling, it's unexplainable.

There was nobody standing still. Everybody danced. Everybody sang along. Everybody enjoyed themselves to the fullest. It was purely beautiful.

Without hesitation, Heart Out started and the party kept rolling. One of the many highlights of the light show was during The City when the whole setup looked like White Noise on a TV screen and the band members were nothing but mere silhouettes moving in front of the screens, producing one of the most gorgeous images I ever got to see.

(Picture by Phoebe Dalton)

With HNSCC, the band took a short break and the room quieted down to take a breath and fuel up on energy again of what was to come.

The vibe though didn't die down as they hit the stage again with Menswear and then presented the crowd with two of their unreleased songs from ILIWYSFYASBYSAOI (… wow …) called Change of Heart and She's American.

For the next song, frontman Matty Healy asked everybody in the room to put away their phones and just listen and connect with everybody for the next five minutes, to live in the moment and experience it all together, which was an amazing act seeing as 98% of the crowd actually participated and the atmosphere got created perfectly for the heavy and nostalgic Me.

With another ballad called fallingforyou, the band further showed their softer side to the crowd and engaged everybody in their performance as it got more and more hauntingly beautiful.

After thanking the crowd for their consideration and participation in the no-phones-rule, the party opened up again with Somebody Else, another unreleased song, and probably my favorite. With another new song called The Sound, the whole room jumped at the order of Healy when the 'breakdown' of the song kicked in.

Another short interlude, An Encounter, later, the beloved Robbers got its show time and then got closed off with one of their many huge hits called Girls.

The band left the stage for a bit to then reappear with the most gorgeous lighting to guide them through Medicine. Not gonna lie, the pure beauty of it all, visuals and music combined in such a way, made me tear up a bit.

Obviously they couldn't leave the stage without their two biggest songs, Chocolate and Sex, and the room exploded once more. Or as Healy demanded: Go fuckin' mental!

Without any exaggeration whatsoever, the current show by The 1975 is the most gorgeous, all-consuming and enjoyable around these days. There is absolutely no doubt about that. I see about 300 gigs every year, and this one was the best one of 2015. The hometown factor definitely added to it all as Healy talked a lot about Manchester during the show, but even without it, it would have been the most beautiful thing.

Huge, huge shout-out to Tobias Rylander for the creation of this light installation because without it, the gig would still have been amazing, but not as hauntingly beautiful and overwhelming as it is now, incorporating The 1975's old aesthetic with three frames above the stage and the new with the screens in the background.

This is art.

Here's the full setlist:

Love Me

Heart Out

Settle Down

So Far (It's Alright)

The City

You

HNSCC (played from tape)

Menswear

Change of Heart

She's American

Me

fallingforyou

Somebody Else

The Sound

An Encounter (played from tape)

Robbers 

Girls

Medicine

Chocolate

Sex

The 1975 will be back in the UK in March and will tour Europe in April, as well as several festival appearances following that. Check all dates, including for North America in May, on their site: |x|

I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It will be released on February 26^th, 2016, pre-order it now!

Cheerio xx

The Neighbourhood - November 17th, 2015 - Gloria Theater, Cologne (Concert Review)

Long overdue but about three weeks ago, on November 17^th, I spontaneously hopped on a train to Cologne to see The Neighbourhood at the sold out Gloria Theater. Let me tell you one thing straight ahead, they made it worth it all.

When I got to the venue at around 5:30PM, there was already a huge line of girls queueing to get into the venue. Occasional screams echoed down the street whenever the door of the tour bus, parked right in front of the building, opened and someone hopped in or out of it. 

The point the doors opened at 7PM, the girls went utterly mad and started sprinting towards the entrance. It was quite a sight.

Once inside, there wasn't much time left till the support act would hit the stage since going into the venue took ages. If that was due to security staff being overwhelmed with their duty or the girls being too impatient and interfering with their work is hard to tell, it was probably a lot of both.

Tunji Ige [6], a rapper from Pennsylvania, had quite a hard time getting to the crowd who were only interacting with the artist for the most part whenever he mentioned the headliner band. Nonetheless, some of his tracks got the room to jump along and dance for a while, but only for a short amount of time. After about 30 minutes, he and his accompanying DJ leave the stage again to make way for the main act.

As the stage gets prepared, not much has to get changed and it all remains pretty much the same. There's no back drop. No extensive lights. No huge production. All things viewable are the instruments and a couple of mics. Minimalism and simplicity as we know it from The Neighbourhood guys.

The Neighbourhood [9] open with the thundering intro of Ferrari, a new track from their just recently released record Wiped Out! (you can check out my review of it here: |x| ), but don't got further into the song than that and instead smoothly go into What Do You Want From Me.

The show gets played with hardly any talk sequences in between, which is much to my personal liking as the whole performance seems a lot smoother due to that. All tracks flow smoothly into each other and trap you further in their haunting and mezmerizing performance, no matter if they go from a more playful Prey into a slow Baby Came Home, or back from Daddy Issues into a more upbeat Female Robbery.

There's a bigger rumble of dislike going through the crowd as the band gets to the experimental and instrumental part of Wiped Out!, I personally loved that certain part the most as the focus is solely on the music and the track is also one of my favorites off of that new record.

As it has to be, Sweater Weather found a place in the setlist, too, as the second to last song. The crowd goes mental to the band's biggest hit up-to-date. No matter what though, it is a solid track and it is after all what brought them to a bigger audience. It is also clear that the most part of the people that night were only waiting for this to be played.

Despite that, they decided to go out with another bang instead of letting Sweater Weather fade and close up their show with RIP 2 My Youth.

A special shout out at this point to the band's FOH guy and light engineer because the sound and visuals were nothing short of stunning, working perfectly well with the band's concept of minimalism.

Here is the complete setlist:

Ferrari Intro

W.D.Y.W.F.M.

Let It Go

Wires

Prey

Baby Came Home

Afraid

Daddy Issues

Female Robbery

The Beach

Wiped Out!

Warm

Sweater Weather

RIP 2 My Youth

Personally, from their debut I Love You, Staying Up was definitely missing, and as far as their newest record is concerned, I would've loved to hear Cry Baby and Single. But the show was beautiful nevertheless, worth the travel and surely worth experiencing again.

The Neighbourhood will be back in Germany in March 2016 for their Underwatour, check their website for all tour dates: |x|

Listen to their latest release Wiped Out! on Spotify and buy it at a record store near you!

Cheerio xx

The Neighbourhood - Wiped Out (Record Review)

Starting by taking 'A Moment Of Silence' a little too literal, they manage to put an odd twist on the whole record already by something so simple. Easing us further into their usual laidback atmosphere with the previously released track 'Prey' and the ride through their universe begins. With 'Cry Baby' the atmosphere gets a bit more haunting and soulful and then transcends into the surprisingly faster, yet 6 minute long, title track 'Wiped Out!'. If you still don't feel like lying on the beach at the West Coast by the end of that, you might just not be listening close enough. Slowing the process down with 'The Beach' again, which was also released previously, they set the next stone for this journey to get in an even darker, spacier mood with 'Daddy Issues'. It might just be me, but I'm also getting Portishead and Puscifer vibes, especially from that certain track. Another track lasting over six minutes is 'Baby Came Home 2 / Valentines', though the second half mainly consists of a big instrumental part leading into 'Greetings From Califournia' which takes you exactly where it's greeting from. Unlike 'Ferrari'. Which sounds more like it got sent from outerspace than any part of the US. 'Single', being a personal favorite, puts you back at the beach with both feet buried deep in the sand Ending with the previously released 'RIP 2 My Youth' they close with what could be considered a proper banger considering their general style.

It's perfect to listen to on a long journey. When you do nothing but lie in your bed, relaxing with your eyes closed. Staring out the window on a rainy day. Simply, to completely annihilate your surroundings and taking your mind on a trip.

It's mesmerizing.

It's a drug for your thoughts.

Overall: 9/10

Favorite track(s): Single, RIP 2 My Youth, Prey, Cry Baby

Cheerio xx

5 Seconds of Summer - Sounds Good Feels Good (Record Review)

Constantly being in the media these days with basically everything you could think of, it's hard to not notice that these four Australian guys just released their sophomore record.

5 Seconds of Summer have been in the talk of basically everybody, no matter good or bad. Getting stamped off as a boy-band early in the days due to them doing several tours with One Direction. Quite frankly, it didn't shine the best light on them for a certain amount of time, but their latest release will show you the opposite once you plug it in your headphones to give it a chance.

All of the songs sound absolutely massive and a major reason for that is probably how the whole thing got produced by big names such as John Feldmann (Goldfinger), who has previously been a huge influence on record to bands such as All Time Low and The Used.

Having the support of not only him and ATL, but also other artists such as Good Charlotte, State Champs, Fall Out Boy and many others who have voiced their approval of them has helped them to gain a certain level of appreciation among other artists. GC being also massively involved in the recording of Sounds Good Feels Good is something you can definitely hear in many parts of it all.

Generally speaking, there are a lot of different factors why those guys have evolved so much considering song writing, lyrics, stage performance and general movement in the business.

Those guys know how grand their following of young (female) fans is and instead of continuing to write about only 'girl meets boy' stories, as they did for the most part on their debut, they actually use the power they have over their crowd.

By approaching subjects such as parental divorce, mental health issues and loneliness, they show that it's okay to not be okay. Having grown up and being discovered in the new age, they know what this generation is currently going through, being part of it themselves. Gaining their first fame through YouTube and having such a widespread social media accessibility, they know what it is like to get ripped apart on the web by millions of other people from a very young age on.

We've all seen it happening before with bands like Papa Roach who addressed similar things on their debut Infest and who were unquestionably one of the bigger bands in their era. While for that generation it was mainly Nu-Metal to talk about these problems in their songs, right now, these guys are the leaders of it. And they embrace it by calling it 'The New Broken Scene', being aware of their possible influence on kids these days.

Putting the ballads aside, 5 Seconds of Summer also have a proper amount of arena anthems piled up on Sounds Good Feels Good. Especially in songs such as 'Permanent Vacation' (which sounds awfully similar to Sum-41, nobody can deny that), 'Hey Everybody', 'Safety Pin', 'Castaway' or 'San Francisco', you can hear the influences and examples they've taken from bands like Panic! At The Disco and All Time Low (and even a bit of Brand New). There's also a very intense Fall Out Boy vibe going on for the most part of the record with chants in almost every song, using all four of their voices in their favor for it, making sure to incorporate the crowds into their upcoming live performances.

Instrumentally, it's out of question that these guys have come a long way from what they used to create. There's even a guitar solo, or two, included.
To pick up on something previously stated, the songs manage to sound ridiculously massive by including a big variety of instruments which are only minimalistic-ally used though. This is foremost prominent in 'Invisible', 'San Francisco' and 'Outer Space'. Undeniably, they had a lot of helping hands, but the fact that they managed to write this kind of music despite that, at such a considerably young age is certainly an achievement to be proud of.

Personally, the thing that bugs me the most about it is the track listing. To have it start with a bunch of upbeat and motivational songs, to then fall into this depth of ballads, one after another, is quite the downer. While it still gets a little more exciting every now and then, it doesn't flow through all too well. This is no criticism of the songs itself, but the placement of them on the list. Once I gave it another listen on shuffle though, it felt a lot more natural. There might be a concept behind it all as to why they chose this exact track listing, but as for now, that is unknown and I rather make up my own.

But as it always is with music, everybody interprets it in a different way and has an own reason and meaning to find in it.

Is it pop punk now?

Not really.

It's 5 Seconds of Summer and that's really all it needs to be.

Well done.

Overall: 8/10

Favorite track(s): Jet Black Heart, Castaway

Cheerio xx

State Champs - Around The World And Back (Record Review)

Having anticipated its release ever since Secrets got released, I finally managed to give the new State Champs record a proper listen. Going in with certain expectations of the guys, I get a little lost at the fact that I hear nothing all too new in any of the tracks. But then again, it’s not like there always has to be something ‚new’ about a band whenever they come back with ‚new’ music.

Generally speaking, if you look at State Champs’ past releases, you get exactly what you can expect from these guys. But better. While ‚The Finer Things’ was an already well-rounded Pop Punk record from one of the US’ finest exports in said genre, ‚Around The World And Back’ is still an improvement to it. With a few special highlights, such as the anthem that is ‚Secrets’, the thundering (as far as you can go to describe something pop punk as thundering) chorus of ‚All You Are Is History’, the resolve to the calmer things with the title track and the perfectly chosen outro track ‚Tooth & Nail’ to finish it all up.

Personally, I can hear a lot of similarities to All Time Low strike in certain songs. Especially so in ‚Losing Myself’ and ‚All Or Nothing’. Which is not a bad thing at all though. It’s simply soaked with sources of inspiration and shows how they managed to transform and include those into their very own style.

While the lyrical content doesn’t impress me much, Derek’s voice makes up for it straight away, being one of my favorites across the genre.

Having been on tour with the likes of All Time Low and 5 Seconds of Summer in the past year, playing to huge crowds every night, these guys are gaining popularity like crazy these days. This record will only increase that matter with its ability to put you straight back to summer with its vibe, despite its autumn release and their upcoming winter tours.

Check out their next tour dates on their facebook page and make sure to roll over to one of their gigs if you got the opportunity to do so. As much as you might be impressed by them on record, get ready for their rise and their tremendous live performance.

Favorite track(s): Secrets, All You Are Is History, Around The World And Back

Overall: 7/10

Cheerio xx