Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men front man Austin Carlie beams as he announces their London show at KoKo sold out in less than 6 hours. It’s not hard to see why. Throngs of young girls are wailing, crying and generally inconsolable in their bid to simply be in this charismatic scream vocalist’s presence. Reason being he’s near 7ft of smiles, appreciation and gets tangled in his mic chord in the first ten seconds.

Despite AustinMania the Orange County band are there with musical validity. The metalcore fivesome come in strong to their lead track off their new album ‘Restoring Force’ and are as note perfect as they are endearing. Proceeding to play an even mix of first, second and third albums, they are not only anthemic but genuinely enjoyable to watch.

Strongest crowd reaction came from their latest album’s title track ‘Restoring force’ and the song that made them ‘Second & Seabring’. This is metal to sing along to, clean vocalist Aaron Pauley’s performance is flawless and the band seems genuinely stoked to be here in the U.K together.

KoKo’s set up afford levels of commitment in your standing. Standing area was however, reserved for the die-hard fans. Despite lead singer’s pleas for circle pits and multiple walls of death, there simply isn’t room as people clamber to be close to him. This results in him refusing to let the band play another note until the entire crowd ‘get low’ to kick start an almighty mosh.

Support came from Issues, the marmite of Nu-Metal. Love or Hate, they can only be described as boy-band metal. Their delivery however is flawless, with Lead Singer Tyler Carter belting out vocal runs whilst Michael Bohn screams into the crowds faces. Perhaps they haven’t heard their own hype, as bizarrely they only play 2 songs off their self-titled new album. Missing off ‘Mad At Myself’ their hero track. Regardless, when this sextuplet headlines great things will happen.

By Steffie Beaven