One of the most consistent live bands around.
Hatebreed just don't do bad live shows, it's not in their nature. Even Islington Academy's sometimes shoddy sound wasn't going to disrupt this fact. As soon as the first note was struck the crowd was whipped into a complete frenzy. This tour comes off of the back of the band's newest release, The Divinity Of Purpose, an album the band are vocally very proud of, and quite right too because if you thought the album was great you don't know anything until you've heard some of its tracks live. Key highlights off the new record included Indivisible which already spurs on massive levels of crowd participation. Along with this Put It To The Torch proved more bone-crushingly heavy than you could have ever imagined. A fact I'm sure the band will be pleased about is the fact that these tracks have all been able to slot in almost effortlessly with all of the big hitters.
And when it comes to big hitters, this show just highlighted how many they have. Doomsayer, I Will Be Heard and Live For This to name a few, all brutally heavy tonight. The band are just bang on form as Jamey Jasta and the crew clearly look to be enjoying the occasion and the moment. You know it's been a storming tour when by the time they'd hit a sold out London, they'd pretty much run out of merch. Perhaps the highlight of the night however came quite early in the show as Hatebreed paid homage to the recently lost Jeff Hanneman by delivering a blistering performance of their cover of Ghosts Of War.
Overall then, this album and its touring cycle have been a massive success as Hatebreed seem to still be going from strength to strength. They're no longer just this small time hardcore band, but can easily be looked at as one of the emerging heavyweights in Metal.