Live Review: Bring Me The Horizon w/ Architects @ The Riverstage

The walk through Brisbane’s botanical gardens is always more interesting when it’s to see a show at The Riverstage. Hardcore fans adorned in black and an array of Bring Me the Horizon and Architects shirts closed in from every angle, excited to see the two British monoliths on Aussie shores.

Being punctual as ever, Architects took to the stage in what was always going to be an incredibly emotional performance. Opening with Nihilist, The Riverstage erupted into frenzy of strobes, flying bodies, and Sam Carter’s brutal screams. The new guitarist replacing legendary guitarist and Architects founding member, the late Tom Searle (RIP), immediately captured our attention as we were pretty sceptical about who Architects could get to complete this tour.

Turned out it was none other than Sean Delander (Thy Art Is Murder), who in our opinion absolutely killed it! Having some insanely gigantic shoes to fill, Delander held his own and delivered Tom’s ridiculous riffs with precision.

“Architects truly are an inspiration.”

These Colours Don’t Run and Broken Cross followed with one crazy lightshow and Architects’ signature breakdowns, which left many physically beat after getting destroyed in the pit. Looking back up the hill we couldn’t see the end of the crowd as a sea of faces gazed back past us. With just about every soul singing back at the stage, Carter expressed his approval, “This is f*cking perfect!”. While the synchronised strobes were a nice touch, the vocals could definitely have been turned up a bit as they were often drowned out by craziness of the music.

After absolutely nailing Naysayer and Gravedigger with immense aggression and precision, Carter thanked Bring Me The Horizon for bringing them on tour. It’s always humbling to see gratitude from such huge bands. As the intro riff of A Match Made In Heaven echoed around us the crowd burst into an incredible energy as the lightshow literally blew our minds! With more strobes than we could handle, we fought off the seizure and somehow managed to make it to the last song with the help of a massive crowd chant.

Carter took a moment say a few words about one of his best friends Tom Searle, “Unfortunately we lost brother, band mate, the reason we are a band. We thought long and hard whether we should do this tour and carry on doing what we’re doing. Tom wrote all these songs…” Choking up a bit Carter struggled to go on, “This band is his band!”. An overwhelming sense of pain could be seen in all the Architects members, the fact that they even did this tour stands testament to their love for the music and the power it has to keep people united.

Fuelled by both love and pain, Architects wrapped their set up with the most aggressive performance of Gone With The Wind we will probably ever see. The lyrics “A sickness with no remedy/except the ones inside of me” takes on a meaning that’s all too real for Architects and their friends and family. Despite everything they have gone through in the last month, they delivered a show which I’m sure no one in attendance will ever forget. Architects truly are an inspiration.

Before we get into Bring Me The Horizon here’s a quick note: As someone who has loved Bring Me The Horizon for well over a decade (i.e. before they soldout), you can imagine how mad I was when I heard their latest album…but I promise I will try to behave…

Opening with the crowd favourite Happy Song, we were met with giant S-P-I-R-I-T on the screens and a huge explosion filled with streamers. The two-tiered stage was a visual masterpiece and truly aided the huge, anthemic live vibe they’re going for. However, the huge LED stage setup seemed to render the band members fairly static.

During Go To Hell, For Heaven’s Sake and House Of Wolves frontman Oliver Sykes barely even needed a mic with the packed crowd singing almost every word. The first few minutes of this set included everything from insane visuals on the stage long screens to epilepsy inducing strobes, and of course the incredible smoke cannons.

And then we got to some of their newer songs. Between Avalanche, Doomed, and Oh No I couldn’t believe I was still watching the same band. While the performance was super tight (despite these new songs being 85 per cent backing track) and the crowd going off, I just wish I didn’t experience these very pop tracks at a Bring Me The Horizon show!

At one point I heard someone say “I didn’t know Skrillex was playing…”, which may be an indication perhaps Bring Me The Horizon have taken this electro-synth vibe a tad too far. I cannot deny how catchy these songs are, however I would be much happier if I saw these at a Linkin Park or 30 Seconds To Mars show.

Luckily they redeemed themselves with the heavier Chelsea Smile and Shadow Moses. While there were no flares and Sykes didn’t give us the vocal growls we hoped for, it was nice to finally have him screaming again. Getting quite real with us he stated, “This next one is about depression. For me it’s about not knowing if you’re asleep or awake”. Bursting into Sleepwalking the crowd wasted no time in bringing a smile to Sykes’ face by screaming every word right back at him. “You guys are f*cking beautiful!” he exclaimed before jumping straight into Can You Feel My Heart, which ended in a beautiful shower of sparks as yet another incredible visual aspect in their set.

Antivist provided us with an opportunity to vent some frustration as a sea of middle fingers were raised in the air. Thanks to the immense energy shown from the crowd Sykes exclaimed “I don’t know what we did to deserve this Brisbane but you guys are blowing our f*cking minds! Why are there so many people here?!”.

I for one cannot understand the appeal of True Friends but the masses seemed to love it! With every word of this lyrical blunder sung in unison to the eruption of the smoke cannons there was only one song left that could cause this already rowdy crowd to escalate any more, Drown.

With a sea of crowd surfers trying to get to the stage to receive a high-five from the frontman, this really was quite an epic end to their set. An explosion of white confetti filled the air and smothered the crowd as Bring Me The Horizon thanked us again and left the stage to an insane roar from the crowd.

Overall, it was an incredible night. We witnessed an epic display from both Architects and Bring Me The Horizon, despite their newer songs. With very different approaches these bands provided something for everyone and showed us just how to get thousands of people moving, thrashing, and screaming!

Check out our full gallery from the night HERE