Spiritbox. Sleep Token. Bad Omens. What have these 3 bands in common? Easy: they are all killing it right now and they are for sure the 3 biggest prospects in the metal are right now. All in their own genre. This February 2023, Bad Omens are doing an intense and fully soldout through all Europe. And they easely confirmed their new status in front of 500 crazy fans in Eindhoven!
What young metalcore band can boast of doing a 28 shows tour in Europe and sell out all of these shows? With all the shows being upgraded when possible and/or seeing a 2nd or even a 3rd show added in the same city? Obviously, not in 200p club but in some big/decent venues for a metalcore act: Dynamo in Eindhoven was a small one on this tour (500p) before they play at the Live Music Hall in Cologne (1200p) and at Trix (1100p). The answer is easy: no one. Or maybe one: Spiritbox, another act from the magic trio we spoke about earlier.
Sold tons of tickets is thing. Sold tons of merch is another one. Tonight, the line to grab some t-shirts was long as f*ck. It was sad to see none in front of band supports merch. Hundreds of people bought some stuff during the whole evening. Speaking of the opening acts of this tour, they choose some decent ones. Firstly, Oxymorrons: an alternative band between hip-hop and heavy music, part of the 333 Wreckords Crew from Fever 333. One of the the many bands they’ve tour with in the US but it was – at least, it seems so – their very first tour in Europe. Sadly for us: driving from Brussels, we arrived too late to catch them live. But we’ll have another chance on February 21st at Trix for the only Belgian show on this tour. Secondly, Ghostkid, the new German phenomenon created by the singer Sebastian Biesler (former member of Electric Callboy he left in 2020). If they are already quite famous in their native Germany, they haven’t had the chance to play abroad until this month. We catched them live at the Headbanger’s Parade 3 few weeks and we were looking forward to see them again tonight. Unfortunately, due to some technical issues, we didn’t enjoy this show as much as we excepted to. The band was so motivated to be here, so was the audience, but the energy was too unstable. Sometimes great, sometimes not really. We know the potential of the German quintet so we expect to see a better show next time!
The backdrop of Bad Omens was there since the beginning of the evening, so was the drums and the lights so the change-over has been really fast and the show started a bit earlier. For a Sunday evening when lot of people are working or going to school the day after, we won’t complain. The audience is on fire, more than ready to see Bad Omens for the first time for a lot of them and all the smartphones are already recording to not miss the very first seconds of this – spoiler – epic show.
One by one, the 4 members appeared on stage. Starting with Noah alone singing the the first lyrics of Concrete Jungle, opening track of the show and their album “The Death Of Peace Of Mind”. Two details shocked us: everybody knew the lyrics and this stage looked way too small for them. The presence of Noah on stage, the energy they gave off and the response from the fans. Oh yeah, it gonna be crazy! With Artificial Suicide right after that, it just became more intense but, surprisingly, the first highlight was Glass Houses, first and only track from their debut album. So many people were singing along that we wanted to ask: “Where were all these people before the Covid?”… It’s only with this third album that the hype around Bad Omens became real but they didn’t wait until 2022 to deliver some massive singles. But still, tonight was their first headliner show in Netherlands and only the third show ever in the country. But it’s not better in Belgium: yes, they played 2 shows in our country and both were headliner shows. But the last one was in Antwerp in July 2019 promoted by Hurricane Bookings in front of only 70 people… You thought it was a privilege to see them in such a small venue with 500 people tonight? What about us and the other 69 hardcore fans in 2019?!
One thing hasn’t changed since before the Covid pandemic: Noah is not the talkative front-man. A few words at the beginning, some words in the middle, some words at the end. Nothing very particular: just thanked the audience for being there and making it soldout tonight, did some jokes about the fact many people were wearing old merch in the show and reminded that there are tons of new beautiful shit outside at the merch table. And basically, that’s it… except for one song. One of the songs that helped them reach their new status: Just Pretend, played as last song with before the encore, which became a huge track thanks to many shares on Tik Tok. It’s by far the most streamed song of the band on Spotify (43 millions so far). So obviously the song people have been waiting the most tonight!
Set-list: Concrete Jungle, Artificial Suicide, Nowhere To Go, Glass Houses, The Grey, Never Know, Mercy, Who Are You, Limits, IDWTS, What It Costs, Like A Villain, Just Pretend // Encore: The Death Of Peace Of Mind, Dethrone, What Do You Want From Me.
During 70 minutes, Bad Omens proved they didn’t steal their brand new status and they are for sure one of the biggest prospects in the metalcore scene right now. Playing almost their whole “The Death Of Peace Of Mind” (11 from the 15 songs), they didn’t forget the oldest fans with some classic stuffs. It’s too early to predict them a career like Architects or Bring Me The Horizon but they have a huge potential for that, no doubt!