Review – Being As An Ocean

Date: Thursday 7th November 2019

Venue: The Key Club, Leeds

Supports: Afterlife, Novelists FR

With day one involving seeing a rising band in Fever 333 gathering huge momentum on their first UK headliner, the second of my four gigs in four days spectacle tonight was my chance to catch the already well-established Being as an Ocean playing the intimate Key Club. Having seen these guys a couple of times before I knew to expect an intense show but before we could get to that there were a couple of support bands along for the show that I hadn’t come across before to check out.

After what can only be describes as a nightmare of a journey in thanks to the storms battering Yorkshire, I finally made it into Leeds just in time to catch Afterlife taking to the stage. Bringing a metalcore/nu-metal style sitting somewhere between Limp Bizkit and I Prevail, it was interesting to hear as you don’t tend to find too many newer bands playing with that kind of sound. Alongside the incredible music coming from the stage it was clear that the band had developed a slick performance over the last year with their crowd management waking the Thursday night crowd up nicely and leaving them hanging on vocalist Tyler Levenson’s every word. Things took an even wilder tone as the band incited the first pit of the night during ‘Throat’ which seemed to come as a nice surprise to the band on stage. Switching things up with slower track ‘Broken Home’ which was dedicated to ending domestic abuse got the emotion and realism across very well and really impacted the crowd who swayed along with torches lit. Finishing off tonight with ‘Giving Back the Pain’ which had the crowd bouncing along. The track showed off Afterlife at their best with huge drums and amazing riffs combined with the great mix of vocal types. To say it was still only early the band had created a great amount of energy and warmed up the crowd nicely for the remaining two bands. Afterlife are a band that seem to have found their style and perform it very well, hopefully this tour will have helped to bring them new fans as they certainly deserve it.

Next up taking to the stage were tonight’s main supports Novelists FR from Paris. The band had much more of a pure metalcore sound and sounded really tight throughout the set. After coming out swinging with guitar solos and riffs galore that kicked things into high gear from the start, it was clear that this was going to be a fantastic set. Impressive vocalists seemed to be a running theme tonight with Matteo Gelsomino switching between cleans and screams throughout the tracks in a very slick manner and keeping the impressive theme across all band members. ‘The Light, The Fire’ got a great reaction and as before torches from phones filled the room with everyone getting involved. The band worked effortlessly to take the energy up a great with the front half of the crowd moving throughout the entire show while everyone else watched on in appreciation. Following their more well-known tracks the band surprised those in attendance and played a track off their unreleased album called ‘Something Else’. Despite not being yet released the track went down a treat with the crowd. I can’t wait to hear it again as part of the record when it releases next January. Continuing their impressive set the band, ‘Monochrome’ dug down on the emotional slower side of the band with Matteo taking to the crowd to really add to the intimate feel and emotion of song. After working the crowd perfectly Novelists FR finished up with top track ‘The Bitter End’. Everyone in the room was bouncing and it showed that the crowd were definitely warmed up for tonight’s headliners Being as an Ocean. A solid set from a band that has somehow eluded me over the years and definitely one that I’ll be keeping eye out for again in the future.

With the crowd’s excitement at a fever pitch, Being as an Ocean’s surprisingly long sound check felt like it went on forever. But after a 10 minutes wait things finally kicked off with an opening interlude before the band went all guns blazing, starting off with the huge ‘Play Pretend’. As is usual at a BAAO show, vocalist Joel Quartuccio entered the crowd towards the end of the track and spent pretty much the rest of the set out there only taking short breaks back on the stage a few times during the set. The band had a nice mix across the set from their entire catalogue and it was great to hear the newer tracks get just a much of a reception as the classics. ‘Know My Name’ went down a storm and had the crowd with their arms in the air shouting along all while the pit kept things moving around Joel. New track ‘Skin’ got a fantastic reaction with the crowd slowing down to appreciate the song and the track showed the ability the band still had to write the heart wrenching tracks as well as their fuller and heavier tracks like ‘B.O.Y.’ which came as the penultimate track this evening. ‘L’exquisite Doleur’ made for a huge sing along from the crowd and as the band finished up in a brilliant way with almighty ‘This Loneliness Won’t Be the Death of Me’ they announced that rather than messing around and leaving the stage, they would just launch straight into the encore tracks.

Due to the time constraints of a weeknight gig and the extended sound check at the start, unfortunately Being as an Ocean only got one of the two planned tracks played having to forego new track A.N.I.M.O. in place of arguably their biggest song and the one that drew me into the band originally ‘The Hardest Part Is Forgetting Those You Swore You Would Never Forget’. Ending with the rousing track left the real feeling of emotion that you expect from a BAAO set and finished the night off very well – this may have been a blessing in disguise as it would be hard to follow it up with anything else. After tonight’s show it’s clear why the band have the reputation for live shows that they do with everything being heavy and intense throughout whether that’s lyrically or musically and the crowd bouncing through the whole show. Being as an Ocean are always a must see in my books and this set really cemented just why with the band not putting a foot wrong throughout. A special mention must be given before I finish this to guitarist and clean vocalist Michael McGough who put in an incredible performance throughout the night and really brought everything together perfectly.