Birmingham's O2 Academy played host to the final night of a 22 date co-headline tour between Crystal Lake and Miss May I. A night that also saw support slots from Great American Ghost and Diesect was unfortunately not quite the triumphant last night on the road that the bands may have been expecting; illness within the crews, up in the air travel plans, and a hastily downgraded venue space to the Academy's third room due to low ticket sales. For whatever reason, the vibes weren't quite where they needed to be.
First out on to the dimly lit stage, and minus a bass player due to illness (the same illness took out their drummer for the Manchester show a few nights prior), was Australian Nu-Metalcore outfit Diesect, on their first ever overseas tour. With global events in the middle-east since the tour has gotten underway, means that the guys are not quite sure how they'll be getting back down under now that the tour is finished.
DIESECT
The set is short, yet their sound is anything but. It's punchy, it's in your face; an amalgamation of the metalcore and something more industrial verging on electronica but with vocals and breakdowns that are straight up unadulterated hardcore.
"Four Walls", the latest single from this January's release, HIDE FROM THE LIGHT, gets the "biggest" reaction out of the crowd. However, the vibes in the audience were off from the start. The room was sparsely populated and those that were there tended to hang to the sides and at bar at the back. Frontman, Damian Bigara, commented that 'all the bands on the bill tonight have travelled a long way to be here, Diesect themselves having been on a plane for over 28hours, that the least the Birmingham crowd could do was fill up the front of the room and act like they wanted to be there'.
This is in no way a slight on the band, as the state of the audience would be a recurring theme of the evening. I can't help but feel that the crowd had let down the Birmingham metal community. In a city that birthed the genre, we have to do better.
It's a quick turnaround for the second support act of the night, the New Hampshire brutalist quartet that is Great American Ghost. They are a firestorm of energy and frontman Ethan Harrison can barely be contained; almost maniacal at points, pacing about the stage and making multiple forays to the barrier.
Their sound is sharp, it's aggressive, powerfully cathartic; adding layers of melody to the hardcore sounds we had previously witnessed from Diesect. The whole thing feels somewhat like a hug but from chainsaw.
GREAT AMERICAN GHOST
By the end of the third track, "Altar of Snakes" from their 2020 release, Power Through Terror, things began to really heat up. With a note of thanks to the departing photographers, Harrison jettisons the "Fascist Killer" jacket and tosses aside the mic stand, instructing those that have seen the band before to prep all the newcomers for the chaos that was about to ensue when "Kerosene" from last years release, Tragedy of The Commons, kicks in.
"I know it's a Sunday night and you gotta save your energy for the working week, for fucking capitalism, but lets open that fucking pit up".
"Kingmaker" from the 2022 EP, Torture World, is dedicated, both, to that bright orange belligerent Toddler in Chief across the pond and, closer to home, that Royal Nonce, the Andrew formally known as Prince.
Ethan briefly reminisces about seeing one of tonight's headliners, Miss May I, on MySpace as a teenager 15 years ago; "No way that Levi guy is that nice in real life (spoilers he is)". He shared how stoked he and the band are that they got the opportunity to go out on this run with both them and Crystal Lake.
"I've only got 17 hoodies left, meet me at the merch stand afterwards, pay me what you want and they're yours".
The set closes out with "Forsaken" from Tragedy of The Commons and, after multiple threats to, makes the leap out into the crowd to conduct the circle pit. Great American Ghost are a band that you simply have to see live, they do not disappoint at all.
The first of tonight's co headliners is, Crystal Lake. The Tokyo based metalcore outfit burst onto the stage in the equivalent of a sonic boom, breaking into a trio of songs from the newest album, The Weight of Sound, with "Neversleep", "BlüdGod" and "Everblack".
From the last time they were in the UK, the band is featuring a new vocalist, John Roberto Centorrino, following the departure of previous frontman, Ryo Kinoshita, in 2023.
CRYSTAL LAKE
Past favourites, "Six Feet Under" from True North, released in 2016, "Open Water" from their 2020 release, The Voyages, and "Watch Me Burn", a single from 2020, pepper the middle of the set list.
I think it's been quite some time since the band has played a room this small; sadly, towards the back half of the set, Centorrino is almost pleading with the sparse Birmingham crowd to show some sort of enthusiasm at being there and exert even a small amount of energy in appreciation of the show the band was putting on; "you guys need to wake the fuck up".
CRYSTAL LAKE
The set comes to a close with the titular track from The Weight of Sound and all of the house and stage lights shut off as everyone's phone torches light up the space in what really did feel like a shared moment. Departing with the message that 'we are all Crystal Lake, this is not just a band but a family', hopefully the Birmingham crowd have redeemed themselves enough to have not left a sour taste in the mouth for the band on this final night of their 30 days on the road.
Bringing the night and this tour to a close are Dayton Ohio's very own Miss May I, who have been at the top of the metalcore game for almost 20 years at this point.
Full of charisma, frontman Levi Benton really looks like a kid on Christmas up on stage and is maybe having the most fun out of anyone in the whole of Birmingham.
"Shadow Inside" from the 2017 album, Shadows Inside, "Masses of Dying Breed" from the 2010 album, Monument, and a 2025 single "Pray For Silence" get us underway with Benton's harsh vocals punctuated by the cleans of bassist Ryan Neff.
MISS MAY I
"We're so glad that you've chosen to spend some time with us, for leaving your bullshit at the door. We are lucky enough to have been able to use this stage and this music to get some shit out over the years. Get some shit out with us, if your here and your working something out spin this fucking room!"
A duo of "some old shit that we wrote in high school" comes in the form of "A Dance With Aera Cura" and "Architect", both from 2009's Apologies Are for the Weak.
MISS MAY I
The second of the recently released singles, "Die On The Vine", goes down in an absolute storm, prior to which frontman, Levi Brenton, acknowledges that 'there are many more new song in the pipeline'. If this track is anything to go by, then we are very much here for this. I wont say incarnation but more of an evolution of the bands sound, and evolution is definitely the driving force behind the bands success over the last 20-ish years; hopefully, it will be the reason behind many more years of metalcore pioneer-ship to come.
The final breakdown of the whole tour is utterly massive, during 2012's At Heart, "Hey Mister". Levi Benton is up at the barrier screaming into the mic in unison with the crowd.
Although initially frosty, by the end of the night, the Birmingham crowd managed to just about save the reputation of the city that birthed heavy metal to the world.
