Live Review: Bullet For My Valentine - Luxembourg City 2019

Den Atelier, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
23rd August 2019
Bullet For My Valentine

To celebrate their 20th anniversary, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE released their sixth album ‘Gravity’ in 2018. Now the British Metalcore band came back to Luxembourg on Friday to enjoy a more intimate atmosphere between all the festival appearances.

Finding themselves five albums in and long established as one of the biggest British Metal acts in music history, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE have been busy rewriting their own future - finding new ways to invent intelligent noise and remaining unshackled by the legacy that comes with being masters of the trade. After initially forming as Jeff Killed John in 1998, eventually securing a five-album major label deal, their 2005 debut ‘The Poison’ and 2008 follow-up ‘Scream Aim Fire’ would provide an injection of what heavy music was very much lacking at the time. Consecutive full-lengths ‘Fever’, ‘Temper Temper’ and ‘Venom’ would cement their stature as modern masters, selling millions of albums worldwide and being crowned “Best British Band” at the Kerrang! Awards three years in a row - where they’ve also been awarded for “Best Single”, “Best Live Band” and “Best British Newcomer”. It’s not just the press and fans that have afforded them such faith - even the heroes that inspired them in the first place, bands like IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA, have personally selected BFMV to hit the road and share the stage with them. On 29 June 2018 the band released their sixth studio album, ‘Gravity’. The latter represents a significant change in sound compared to the band’s previous releases, moving toward the nu metal sound similar to their early years as JEFF KILLED JOHN.



Music & Performance
At exactly 9pm the lights went out and the Welsh entered the blue light wrapped stage. ‘Don’t Need You’ turned out to be a fitting opener where the fans were already warming up with head-banging and little moshpits. As usual, the stage design was dominated by a speaker wall, which was a bit smaller that evening. What looked quite impressive at first didn’t have any influence on the sound, but only served for the look. More was also not necessary, because the sound couldn’t be better. The lighting was really great and so ‘Over It’ was fascinated by the light show as well as by the musical aspect. But with ‘Your Betrayal’ at the latest, the wrecking ball was unpacked and the crowd was in a fury and celebrated their favourite band like there was no tomorrow. The band was perfectly coordinated and every movement seemed very routined. With ‘4 Words’, ‘Worthless’, ‘Last Fight’, ‘Venom’ and ‘Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)’ a wild mix followed through the past albums and only with ‘Piece Of Me’ a new ‘Gravity’ song followed.



 But BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE left the stage again and again for no apparent reason. This caused the crowd surfing and pogoing metal heads to take a breath, but at the same time it broke the concert flow a bit. The setlist, which clearly showed that the older tracks are a lot harder and more into metal than the newer ones, compensated for this, but especially the atmospheric sound landscapes make BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE an innovative and exciting band of the Metalcore genre. Then drummer Jason Bowld was allowed to prove his skills and hit like a fury on the skins, which was again loudly cheered by the crowd. In the solo the concise drumbeats of ‘Scream Aim Fire’ could be heard and so the demolition number followed immediately afterwards and mobilized the last forces. The Luxembourg audience was in the best mood and both enthusiastic about movement as well as singing along and textually confident.



With their biggest chart hit ‘Tears Don’t Fall’, which helped the band to break through, and ‘Waking the Demon’, the grandiose concert ended. After about 75 minutes there was nothing left, but even so everyone should go home satisfied on Friday.

Setlist
01. Don’t Need You
02. Over It
03. Your Betrayal
04. 4 Words (To Choke Upon)
05. Worthless
06. Last Fight
07. Venom
08. Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)
09. Piece of Me
10. Scream Aim Fire
11. You Want A Battle? (Here’s A War)
12. No Way Out
---
13. Tears Don’t Fall
14. Waking the Demon

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.8 / 10

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

All Pictures by Elena Arens