LIVE REVIEWS
Time is on Oli Sykes’ mind. Throughout the opening night of Bring Me The Horizon’s NX_GN WRLD TOUR at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena, the frontman rarely misses the opportunity to quip about ageing and nostalgia. In a heartfelt moment late in the set he reveals that, like many of the band’s early critics, “we didn’t think our band would last five years, let alone twenty.”
BMTH have proven their doubters wrong and then some. The four-piece are now a globe-conquering behemoth, one whose reach seems to still be growing, two decades on from their origins as the enfant terribles of deathcore. This tour will be the largest of their career, following a summer that saw them ascend to headliner status at Download Festival.
However, 2023 ended with some growing pains. Late in the year, following the news that the second instalment of their ‘Post Human’ release series – which began in 2020 – was delayed until the summer, the band parted ways with keyboardist and studio wiz Jordan Fish. Fish was a key figure in BMTH’s rise to genre-busting arena fillers from 2013’s ‘Sempiternal’ onwards, so his departure (along with the long-gestating new music) left a hint of uncertainty hanging over the band.
Not that you’d know it from tonight’s commanding spectacle. BMTH have always been brash, sometimes to a fault, but in the context of a live show these brazen tendencies are unleashed to thrilling effect. Amongst other OTT delights, the set features fire, hazmat-suited dancers and an on-screen character named EVE. It’s an unrelenting assault on the senses, one that shuffles through visual motifs (from a retrofuturist video game intro to gothic church backdrops) with the same wilful abandon as their unpredictable music.
The peak of this manic juxtaposition comes when, midway through the set, the band gather to perform a stripped-back rendition of the soulful ‘Strangers’. This moment of relative calm is immediately followed by ‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’; a breakdown-strewn, giddily heavy cut from 2008’s ‘Suicide Season’. It’s a whiplash-inducing rip through BMTH’s timeline, but also a bluntly effective jolt to the senses.
Sykes eventually addresses the recent uncertainties in the band’s camp. In a strange interlude, the EVE character appears on screen and ‘asks’ Sykes about the progress of their new release. He alludes to “internal issues” and after unveiling some brief snippets of new songs, Sykes jokes that the new music may come out “in six years.”
Nonetheless, this show takes place firmly in the ‘Post Human’-verse. The set leans hard on newer tracks, with cuts like ‘Parasite Eve’ and ‘Kingslayer’ generating some of the wildest responses. The band give it their all, utilising the full dimensions of the stage, which now boasts extra space given the absence of Fish and his setup. The spotlight is, of course, often reserved for Sykes, who performs with the effortless confidence of a rock star in total command of his craft, even if, once you notice that his red suit resembles Eddie Murphy’s in Delirious; you can’t unsee it.
“I’m way too old for this shit,” Sykes announces during one of his many reflections on time and ageing. However, on the basis of tonight and in spite of any recent complications, the BMTH juggernaut is showing no signs of rust.
‘DArkside’
‘Empire (Let Them Sing)’
‘MANTRA’
‘Teardrops’
‘AmEN!’
‘Kool Aid’
Shadow Moses’
‘Obey’
‘DiE4u’
‘Kingslayer’
‘sTrAnGeRs’
‘Diamonds Aren’t Forever’
‘Parasite Eve’
‘Antivist’
‘Drown’
‘Can You Feel My Heart’
‘Doomed’
‘LosT’
‘Throne’
LIVE REVIEWS
“I received plenty of comments saying it was far too soon to ‘go solo’,” Geese frontman Cameron Winter told NME last year while reflecting on how people initially reacted to his decision to branch out on his own. “Most likely because a lot of folks assume that ‘solo albums’ only happen once a band has passed its peak and that they usually feel like uninspired cash grabs.”
Honestly, everyone is trying to earn a living however they can these days, yet no one expected a Geese side project to generate any real financial payoff in 2024. “Just so you know,” he went on, “my solo album is different: because barely anyone knows my band, I am young and comfortable living with my parents and I have the freedom to follow any ideas that interest me.”
Brooklyn indie followers and former NME cover stars Geese were gaining real momentum when their second album ‘3D Country’ mixed cowboy psychedelia with a jazzy, art-punk energy that had already captured the attention of many UK 6 Music dads back in 2023, but who could have predicted what came next? Geese have become one of the most talked-about bands of 2025 and are expected to dominate multiple end-of-year lists with the ambitious and full-range rock of ‘Getting Killed’. Yet the moment that set the stage for this rise was Winter’s Lou Reed-inspired debut solo record ‘Heavy Metal’.
A handful of late-night US television appearances and a spot on Jools Holland acted as a welcoming doorway for the world to see what this 23-year-old can do far beyond what many twice or three times his age are capable of. Now the sold-out Roundhouse audience made up of indie teens, art school regulars, fans who traveled across Europe and seasoned listeners reacts with a collective breath as a slight opening in the stage curtain reveals the silhouette of Winter seated at a piano. First comes a spark of excitement, then a sudden hush.
There is no flashy social media moment, no chatter overriding the music and almost no sea of raised phones. There is a sincerity to how the night unfolds. The Geese singer barely turns toward the audience. “Turn around!” someone calls out from the balcony at one stage. “Is this not enough for you all?” Winter teases back. For some, maybe it was more than enough. At least four people appear to faint around the warm and crowded Roundhouse while the room stands in absolute focus as Winter moves through the dreamlike storytelling of ‘Try As I May’, the emotional swirl of ‘The Rolling Stones’, the bright lift of ‘Love Takes Miles’ and the sermon-like stomp of ‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’. When he reaches the intense and spiritually charged ‘$0’, even the most skeptical hipster might be convinced that “I’m not kidding, God is actually real”. In that moment, it feels as though we all understand.
The entire performance can be summed up in how ‘Drinking Age’ unfolds. It starts softly with a gentle touch on the keys before erupting into a thunderous attack on the Steinway that could echo into next year, followed by a long, open cry aimed toward the sky. Winter somehow manages to blend something minimal with something enormous, something grounded with something cosmic, a delicate approach that hits with staggering force as he reaches toward ideas of existence, heaven, hell and everything surrounding them.
Winter could recite the phone book and still leave a crowd stunned. He carries the spirit of a post-punk Rufus Wainwright you can play alongside The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, a Gen Z Tom Waits for listeners exhausted by TikTok overload, a new Nick Cave who arrives at exactly the moment he is needed. His voice feels older than his years yet perfectly suited to express the concerns and emotions of his own generation.
We will continue praising Geese endlessly because they deserve it. They are an extraordinary burst of musical creativity that goes far beyond what their lineup would ever imply, and along with Fontaines D.C., they are poised to become one of the decade’s essential bands. Still, tonight offers something quieter and more intimate. Cameron Winter stands completely on his own power, talent and magnetism, proving himself a rising force who can hold an entire room with only his voice, a piano and an entire future waiting for him.
‘Try as I May’
‘Emperor XIII in Shades’
‘The Rolling Stones’
‘Love Takes Miles’
‘Drinking Age’
‘Serious World’
‘Nausicaä (Love Will Be Revealed)’
‘If You Turn Back Now’
‘Vines’
‘Nina + Field of Cops’
‘$0’
‘Take It With You’
‘Cancer of the Skull’
