Bury Tomorrow earned the crowd for themselves in their Finnish debut

Bury Tomorrow worked the crowd expertly on their debut appearance in Finland and delivered a first rate head banging extravaganza.

Bury Tomorrow worked the crowd in Metelli Stage. Photo: Antti Pitkäjärvi

Bury Tomorrow is a British metalcore act who represent their genre with pride and confidence. Fans of metalcore will be right at home in one of their shows: their sound is driven by catchy guitar melodies and clean singing alternated with chugging riffs and heavy growls.

Although this was the band’s first appearance in Finland, they were evidently not phased by their unfamiliar surroundings and delivered an unrelenting set filled with head bangers. The band’s frontman Daniel Winter-Bates wasted no time and began working the crowd immediately after their first song by urging everyone in the crowd to pack up close under the stage. They continued with Lionheart, which quickly prompted the first circle pit to form in front of the stage.

About halfway through their set the band asked the crowd who had seen them live before; from the back of the tent, I could see a single hand being raised. As a follow up, the singer asked how many people had heard of them before at all. While a good portion of the crowd roared, there were also a fair amount of apparently uninitiated people in the tent as well. The band appeared to be committed to gaining new fans with their appearance in Ilosaarirock, however, and delivered an intense performance, only stopping for a moment to pump up the crowd in-between songs.

Watching the band perform and listening to their speaks gave away a strong impression that the first priority for them was to win over the crowd and earn their respect. In fact, I am going to make a bold statement here and say that out of all the bands that had performed on the Metelli Stage up until them, Bury Tomorrow worked the hardest on getting the crowd involved in the show.

Bury Tomorrow took the Metelli Stage by storm. Photo: Antti Pitkäjärvi

Their efforts to please the crowd did not go in vain: in the beginning of their set, the Metelli Stage was about half full, but more and more people kept streaming in throughout the gig. Towards the end, the tent was packed and the crowd was very much hooked on the performance. Hyped up by the band, the crowd formed what was by far the biggest circle pit seen on the Metelli Stage on Saturday. Twice.

The band closed their set with their recent single Earthbound, after which the singer Daniel exited the stage from the front into the crowd and had an immediate meet and greet with the fans. Based on the enthusiastic reaction of the fans and the lengthy line that quickly formed, I am sure the gesture did not go unappreciated.

I also got a chance to exchange a few words with Daniel after the gig, and he seemed happy with how it went and told me he was surprised by the amount of people who came to see them despite the fact that they had never been to Finland before. According to him, he had no idea what to expect and wondered if the band would have to throw a gig to a crowd of a dozen people. Daniel also mentioned that he was impressed by the massive circle pit the crowd managed to conjure up and ensured that Bury Tomorrow is definitely interested in coming to Finland again after getting such a positive reception here.

Text: Mika Alaoutinen
Photos: Antti Pitkäjärvi