There was a lot of speculation and murmurs that the Bring Me The Horizon day at All Points East hadn't sold spectacularly well, a theory more than backed by the sheer amount of offers that went out in the week directly prior (important to note that this was for the majority of the days). Despite that, we wanted to open up this review by outlining what an excellent atmosphere there was across the entirety of the day, with the vast majority of those on site really there through the passion for the bands who were set to perform. By the time Bring Me The Horizon did hit the stage later in the evening as well, the park definitely packed out a lot more which just generally added to the entire vibe.
Opening up our day were Scottish Metal crew Lotus Eater (8/13) who blitzed through their set with an admirable level of enthusiasm despite it being so early on. Even with their giant sized energy, some sound issues on the North Stage meant that a lot of their set felt a little skewed - something which arguably caused the band themselves to lose focus as at points it all got a bit messy. Again, a lot of their issues were out of their control - they're certainly a band we look forward to catching live again in a smaller more intimate setting. Speaking of a little bit messy, next up were SCARLXRD (8/13) over on the Main Stage (East Stage). There is quite a lot of hype around SCARLXRD at the moment which showed by how many migrated towards the stage as his intro hit. On the most part, this wasn't a particularly "good" set, it was more a dose of entertainment to break up the day a bit. The strangest aspect of it all really was the fact that it pretty much sounded like SCARLXRD and his mad DJ pal hit play on a couple of their tracks and then danced around and shouted over some bits of it. It was all a little bizarre - to see a perfect example of why this isn't how it should be done, see Run The Jewels a little later in the day.
Heading back over to the North Stage we were lucky enough to see another Summer Festival set by the truly excellent Employed To Serve (12/13). The crowd for them was a decent size, certainly more than they had at Slam Dunk and just like the kind of reaction they got there, the overwhelmingly positive reception from start to finish for them at All Points East was brilliant to see. Employed To Serve are one of those bands in heavy music at the moment who seemingly have the entire scene by the throat, tearing through live sets as if their lives depended on it and absolutely crushing each stage one by one. Tracks from their latest record Eternal Forward Motion have seamlessly glued their way in to the set-list with what felt like an added dose of ferocity every time one was unleashed. Brilliant band on course for big things.
Heading back over to the East Stage, another startlingly fantastic performance came from Bristolian Punk unit IDLES (12/13). This is a band who have built up a gargantuan following recently, one which we're certain will take them to headlining some very big venues of their own in the very near future. Looking across the entire line-up for the BMTH day at APE, more than any other band IDLES felt like they stuck out like a sore thumb so it was always going to be interesting to see firstly what kind of crowd they'd get and secondly the reception they'd have. Well the answer to those two questions are 1. Big and 2. Massive. By the end of their set it almost felt triumphant - their eclectic, no fucks given, infectious attitude drives every moment of the live show and they had the entire crowd eating out of the palm of their hands. We cannot wait to see what comes next for IDLES.
Considering how excellent both Employed To Serve and IDLES were, it was difficult really to see how any band were going to be able to follow it on our schedule for the day. As expected, it was a struggle, and whilst While She Sleeps (9/13) drew a massive crowd there was just something missing from their performance. This is a band many members at Room Thirteen have seen over the years, and it's rare for us not to be salivating all over the keyboard as a result, but at All Points East a mix of a poor set-list, a relatively laboured performance and bad sound meant they didn't quite hit the sweet spot this time round. Understandably, with them being on tour with their latest record, the set-list was geared mainly in the direction of tracks from it and for that we have the central reason as to why it was a little flat. The latest record has had some mixed reviews and it's now also causing for some of the feedback from their lives shows to have the same. The band themselves looked a little tired and it felt like they were going through the motions more than they normally would be - it's perhaps time for one of the hardest working bands in the industry to just have a little bit of a breather.
Directly following on from them were the headliners for the North Stage and a band who continue to go from strength to strength. Architects (11/13) hit the stage with a flurry of absolute ragers in Modern Misery, Nihilist, Naysayer and These Colours Don't Run which whipped the crowd in to an absolute frenzy. There was barely a pause for breath in the opening stages of their set, a level of momentum which certainly smacked you in the face, but one they struggled to keep up for the entire 70 minutes or so. Some of the band's more recent shows in the UK have been on an enormous scale - headlining Wembley Arena will no doubt go down as one of the most important milestones in their career and for them to be headlining a stage at an event like this with a huge production only shows that they're more than ready to continue taking huge strides forward. Sound issues hampered them slightly later on in the set but the evidence was clearly there that this lot are still on blistering form at the moment.
With the headliners for the North Stage reaching their conclusion it was time to move over to the main event on the East Stage and the first UK headlining performance from Bring Me The Horizon (11/13). It was a shame really that there was this cloudy haze of "how well did it sell though?" in the build up because from the word go it was clear that Bring Me The Horizon were making this show a true statement of intent. From pyro to costume changes to special guest appearances from Sam Carter, Dani Filth and everything in between, this was easily the biggest show Bring Me The Horizon have ever compiled and for the most part they had the entire park absolutely hooked. As the band dutifully promised beforehand, they pulled out tracks from across their discography which of course meant that this was a two hour set filled to the brim of all manner of different sounds and styles. Considering the band are currently on more melodic terrain in their back catalogue, it was when they smashed out some of the heavier material the real highlights peeked through. Reason for this is that Oli's growl vocals throughout were STRONG whilst the cleaner bits (when he actually was singing live) didn't sound very good at all. Standard shout-out at this point to Jordan Fish who truly has become the conductor of the BMTH machine - he was absolutely working his socks off for the entire set especially at points Oli needed a little help on the vocal front. Overall, this felt like a huge moment for Bring Me The Horizon as they were able to display they are the real deal as far as headlining festivals are concerned - expect to see them atop one again the near future.