Review
Review
Live Review: Fit For A King at Electric Ballroom, 12/12/23
Fit For A King celebrate metalcore in style at their first London headline show
For heavy music to continue to thrive, it needs bands like Fit For A King.
Throughout their long and winding journey, they’ve remained steadfast in the name of showcasing how powerful and personal metalcore can be. Climbing the ranks from best-kept secret to furious frontrunner, cultivation and community has always been the aim of the game. So it only seems fitting that with their first-ever headline tour in Europe, including this stop-off at London’s Electric Ballroom, they celebrate the genre’s past, present and future.
Concerning the future are openers The Gloom In The Corner and Thrown. The former kick things off with their uniquely sprawling brand of callous and creative world-building. Then the latter gets the room even toastier with 30 minutes of razor-sharp and belligerent hardcore fury. Though spun from different yarn colours, both share the same lust for innovation, identity and expression. A sign that things are in very safe hands.
Turning to the past, Emmure follows – demonstrating why they’re still on the pile after all these years. Devilish, dizzying and devastating in equal measure, their career-spanning set is met with flailing limbs, snapping necks and savage singalongs aplenty. It’s a firm reminder of how their influence can still be felt reverberating throughout the scene.
And to the present, Fit For A King represents the crème de la crème of what is happening right now. From the spine-tingling ‘Falling Through The Sky’ to the pulverising ‘Reaper’, their balance of heavenly melody and hellish destruction is something to behold.
Everywhere you look, something inspires awe, from vocalist Ryan Kirby’s guttural croon to guitarist Daniel Galley’s triumphant soloing, and not forgetting bassist Tuck O’Leary’s death-defying spins. Entertaining as much as enchanting, the band make performance look like second nature.
Then, with the likes of ‘God Of Fire’, ‘When Everything Means Nothing’ and ‘End (The Other Side)’ in their arsenal, they prove precisely why they have ascended these heady heights. Honouring the masters, propelling tomorrow’s greats and delivering timeless brilliance in abundance; it’s all in a day’s work for Fit For A King.
Long may it continue.
