Of Mice And Men – Manchester Academy
A HEADY brew of punk and metal delighted the devoted as American band Of Mice And Men toured our isle.
The Academy was full-to-bursting as the Californians arrived with fellow metalcore monsters Volumes and The Amity Affliction in tow.
Metalcore is a genre that mixes hardcore punk with extreme metal, merging the most frenetic, aggressive, and most importantly loud qualities of both.
Now technically Volumes were a warm-up act, but they were running red hot from the first song, behaving as if they were the headliners rather than the support.
The band from West Coast USA were certainly at home in our North, with rapping co-lead singer Gus Farias even sporting a Madchester-style woolly hat.
Where Volumes’ sound resembled a platoon of mad machine gunners on the Western Front, the next band The Amity Affliction came across more like a brigade of heavy cannons.
The crowd were at fever pitch by the time Of Mice And Men took the stage: and the headliners drew on that energy and adoration as they launched vigorously into their first song Public Service Announcement.
The tightly-played set showed their long experience playing stadiums and festivals on both sides of the Atlantic.
David Knights
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