Glamour of the Kill - London Review

When I was a teenager, and my music taste was being defined, an important 'up and coming' band that helped to fuel my eventual love of all things rock and metal was York's Glamour of the Kill. I first came across the band back in 2009, when they supported DragonForce in Truro, and I became a big fan shortly afterwards. I went on to see the band a further six times over the years, until they sadly called it a day in 2015 - and played a short farewell tour the following year. The band cited financial reasons for breaking up, and I cannot say that I was surprised to read that money was the main reason the members were putting the band to bed. Recording and touring is an expensive business and, even though Glamour of the Kill had managed to build up a strong fan base, this clearly took its toll on the band members. While I was gutted when the band broke up, I totally understood the guys' reasoning. Part of me always hoped that the band would come back in the future however, so I was really pleased earlier this year to read that Glamour of the Kill had decided to reform, play a short European tour, and record some new music. With a new album entitled Resurrection due next year, presumably with more touring, 2018's short run of shows was an opportunity for Glamour of the Kill to reacquaint themselves with their back catalogue, give the fans something to get excited about, and road test one of their new songs. Three UK shows were announced as part of this European run, and the third of these at Camden's Underworld was the one I opted for. The other two shows, being in Manchester and York, would have been a bit of a trek for me from the South West - so London became the obvious choice. While the Underworld has never been a favourite venue of mine, I have grown more fond of it over the past couple of years (especially since they replaced the awful toilets!) and shows there always seem to generate a good atmosphere. By the time the show rolled around, the place was sold out - which must give the band great confidence as they plan to embark on their coming tour.

Before Glamour of the Kill took to the stage at 9pm however, the growing crowd had to sit through no less than four support bands. Support bands serve an important purpose, but even for a show headlined by a relatively small band four supports seemed excessive. This meant that the venue opened at 5:30pm, and the four support bands all rushed through their sets to allow the headliners to go on on time. None of the bands sounded particularly interesting, with the exception of State of Anxiety who's strong take on traditional heavy/thrash metal certainly stood out from the generic metalcore that filled the rest of the undercard. Both InVisions and Our Hollow, Our Home played that brand of American melodic metalcore which I had assumed had long died off - but that seems not to be the case. Neither did anything for me, not did openers Colt48 who barely seemed to have any time at all on stage. Their lumpy alternative rock was probably the least interesting offering of the evening, and I doubt there were too many in attendance who were disappointed when their short set finished. It was a shame that the night could not have been served by some better support acts, but in fairness the support bands chosen might just demonstrate how much of an outlier Glamour of the Kill are in respect of my general music taste!

All that being said, by the time Glamour of the Kill hit the stage at 9pm I was really up for hearing many of my favourite songs played live again. While the band only played for a hour, they packed as much material in as they could. I would have liked them to have played for longer, but an hour is still a decent-length set for a band of Glamour of the Kill's stature. Opening with Break ensured the energy levels were high from the start, with Mike Kingswood (guitar/vocals) and new boy Craig Robinson (guitar/vocals) nailing the barrelling guitar riffs. Davey Richmond (vocals/bass guitar) is still an excellent frontman, and alternated between prowling the stage microphone in hand and cutting some shapes with his bass guitar - dependant on the needs of the song. The new song Fire Fight aside, which is a powerful mid-paced slab of melodic metal that probably gives an indication of the direction Resurrection will take, the rest of the set was very similar to the shows the band performed in 2015 and 2016. All of the After Hours EP was featured, with songs from the band's two studio albums and debut EP also featuring throughout the evening. The highly melodic Second Chance was an early highlight, with Richmond leading the crowd through the infectious wordless vocal refrain and Kingsman nailing the lengthy shredded solo. Another favourite of mine during the early portion of the show was the thrashy We are all Cursed, a favourite from After Hours, that ensured there was a lot of movement from those down at the front. Towards the end of the show a lot of fan favourite songs were wheeled out. The oldie A Hope in Hell, with its strong Bullet for My Valentine vibes, brought some twin guitar leads from the band's two guitarists, and A Freak Like Me filled the venue with its huge synth backing and stadium-worthy chorus. By this point however 10pm was fast approaching so the show was coming to and end. The main set came to an with another oldie Rise From Your Grave, a song I have not seen the band perform since 2011, so it was fun to hear it live again. It gave Robinson a rare chance to take the lead guitar parts, and Richmond instigated some audience participation which went down well. Huge cheers erupted as the band left the stage, and it was not long before they came back to play one last song - although not before fans invaded the stage with Tequila shots for the band. Feeling Alive, sadly the only song from 2011's album The Summoning featured in the set, was the encore and it predictably went down a storm. It has always been a firm fan favourite, so it was always going to be a winning closing song. The setlist was:

Break
Earthquake
Fire Fight
Second Chance
Out of Control
We are all Cursed
Lights Down
A Hope in Hell
A Freak Like Me
Blood Drunk
Rise From Your Grave
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Feeling Alive

Overall, despite being a little short, this was an excellent comeback from Glamour of the Kill. It was certainly a big nostalgia trip for me, and I really look forward to what the band are planning next. I will be pre-ordering Resurrection as soon as it is available, and I hope there are more chances to see the band live next year.