Live Review: Glamour Of The Kill – Sound Control, Manchester 26.02.2015

There’s no question that there should be more people out tonight at Manchester’s Sound Control, supporting Glamour Of The Kill as one of the most underrated yet interesting bands on the UK’s metal and alternative scene at the moment. Unfortunately, the people of Manchester and the surrounding area don’t seem to have quite grasped the error of their ways, however all of the bands play as if they’re in front of a crowd of thousands regardless.

Ashes kicked off their set with a few technical difficulties, but once these were taken in good humour, they got their riff game on and come down hard on their home town of Manchester. Complete with driving synths and vehement, growling vocals, Ashes annihilate the short amount of time they have on the stage.

EofE are a lot more about the clean vocals and guitar melodies and the crowd are right there with them doing their pop-rock thing. Changing up the pace from Ashes, who set the bar in terms of heaviness tonight, EofE bring the hooks and together with their polarising sounds, embody the different elements of tonight’s headliner.

The Hype Theory are still in the business of melodies; they’re some newer faces in the UK’s pop-punk scene. Epitomising bands like Neck Deep and Lower Than Atlantis, they also display strains of bands from over the pond such as Tonight Alive and even Paramore. Their set is exuberant, and the dominating drums keep it bouncy; they may not be doing anything ground breaking but The Hype Theory are still straight up fun.

They’ve barely been on the stage ten minutes before Glamour Of The Kill are demanding pits and instructing their select crowd to ‘tear down the fucking walls!’ They somehow manage to up this energy mid-set and during Freak Like Me especially, the strength of their fervour (along with their light show) is something that cannot be argued with. Frontman Davey Richmond works well with or without his bass, which he switches between depending on the song. After he introduces each member of the band to the audience it becomes clear why GOTK are so confident; not only do they have the music to back it up, but they also have the utmost respect for each other as musicians which is the overarching reason why their show goes off in the way that it does. Their well-chosen cover of Kiss’ Love Gun goes down incredibly well and solidifies GOTK as worthy to cover such a prestigious rock-anthem. In the way that some bands just stick to their newer albums, or even just their current one, Glamour Of The Kill seem to deliberately try and avoid this, even bringing songs onto the setlist from their earlier EPs. A band that are still proud of the work they’ve done and the places they’ve been is humbling, and a contributing factor to such a special and intimate live show.