THE AMITY AFFLICTION

O2 ACADEMY 2, BIRMINGHAM

Consistency has always been the key to Aussie mob The Amity Affliction’s 15-year survival within an over-saturated metalcore scene. Playing to a packed-out Academy tonight, voices are awash with emotion and arms held aloft as choruses are delivered with reverberating intensity, while the acerbic barrage of older material like Death’s Hand tips the balance, propelling the crowd into a frenzy.

The strength of anthemic bruisers Ivy

(Doomsday) and Holier than Heaven cannot be understated; each rampant tune pulses with rattling breakdowns, amplified by melodic hooks catchier than malaria and that omnipresent scream/clean blend courtesy of Joel Birch and Ahren Stringer. But such rabble-rousing moments are eclipsed when over-polished cuts from sixth album Misery creep into the setlist. The chant-laden D.I.E sinks into directionless popcore territory and it’s difficult not to wince when that rasping, titular vocal hook meets synthesised warbling during the appropriately titled

Feels Like I’m Dying. Hopefully, The Amity Affliction’s yearning to incorporate the ‘current’ into their sound won’t prove to be the catalyst behind their fall from metalcore’s grace.