Occasionally you’ll attend a concert which somehow feels different, special in a way, it doesn’t happen often but when it does, you just know. When I arrived at the O2 Academy and made my way into the already packed venue I knew something special was taking place, there was an energy in the air all brought together by one band from Wales; Bullet For My Valentine. When I was younger you couldn’t escape their music, it was there every time you tuned into Kerrang Radio, flicked over to Scuzz TV and rest assured their music was commonplace at every party I attended from age 15 to 25. They were featured on the front of the largest music magazines and went head to head with the worlds metalcore elite including the likes of Trivium and Killswitch Engage from the United States - at one point it was even said that they would be the next Metallica. Not exactly small shoes to fill.
Then all of a sudden there was radio silence, 2010’s ‘Fever’ while receiving some positive reviews and a few notable singles such as the simple yet catchy; ‘Your Betrayal’ had failed to hit the mark in the same way as ‘The Poison’ and ‘Scream Aim Fire’ had done so previously. Followed by the tepid ‘Temper Temper’ in 2013, Bullet For My Valentine fell out of the public eye and their two subsequent albums mostly went unnoticed, that was until 2021’s self-titled ‘Bullet For My Valnetine’. They’re back and as tenacious as ever, currently out on tour with Atreyu and Jinjer tearing up the UK and Europe. Off the back of a genuinely good album I can’t help but feel that their flame has been reignited and the show I witnessed in Birmingham was just the start of them once again taking the music world by storm.
