Better Lovers rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the well-loved Every Time I Die, much to the joy of hardcore fans. At Nottingham's Rescue Rooms, they proved just why they are worth successors...
After hardcore punks Every Time I Die disbanded, the genre felt like it had a small hole in it. That hole was patched by the formation of Better Lovers, a band comprised of three of the members of Every Time I Die, alongside Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan and Will Putney of Fit For An Autopsy. Their first UK tour was a barrage of sound and energy, so before their first UK festival appearance they decided to treat Nottingham and Bristol to two nights of unbridled musical punishment. In a good way.
Newcomers to the scene Unpeople formed partially out of the breaking up of the excellent Press To Meco, and whilst the loss of a great band is never good, this did bring about the formation of a riotous new British music group. The massive hooks and riffs of the colourfully dressed four piece sound heavy as anything onstage, with as much metal influence as alt rock and some melodic pop thrown in to make for an absolute smorgasbord of sounds and styles, that somehow all work together brilliantly! Opening track waste is already a bona fide classic, and the sensational smother deserves to be used at the biggest sports events on the planet. A band destined for even bigger and even better, watch out for Unpeople at a show near you.
The main support slot was taken up by Black Coast, who had a sound that was very reminiscent of Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park, with a bit of 2000s thrown in. The nu metal vibe was slightly different to that of Unpeople’s British alt metal and Better Lovers’ groove laden hardcore, but kept the atmosphere high and sounded damn good to boot. No One in particular was great in a live setting, and Chains was great to hear in person.
Hardcore headliners Better Lovers opened the show in a style not necessarily befitting that of a band in their genre. The love theme of their name was replicated through a multi-minute long compilation of all the best songs with the word ‘love’ featuring prominently, most notably
opening with Easy Lover and closing with the intro to Somebody To Love as the group then walked out, and proceeded to decimate the whole place. Starting off with Become So Small off of their debut EP and rushing straight into Sacrificial Participant, Greg Puciato & Co did not let a single moment of their incendiary set go to waste. Deciding to alternate between songs we had heard before a new material, we got a one-two in this style from beginning to end – the third song in the set is unreleased and was followed by single Two Alive Amongst the Dead, then another unreleased before The Flowering and then again another unknown song before their cover of Rusty Cage by Soundgarden.
Every song had an energy and an impetus that is so rarely found anywhere outside of hardcore, and the crowd reacted accordingly. The audience were screaming lyrics and moshing for nigh on the whole set, and even by the time we got to the final new song it was still a chaotic swirl of people in the centre of the floor.
However, after covering Soundgarden and playing a new song they reverted back to the last two songs we hadn’t heard of theirs: God Made Me an Animal, the titular track off of their debut EP, which garnered a frenzied reaction throughout the room, and then the finale 30 Under 13, the debut single, which was like letting off some sort of artillery inside Rescue Rooms. Pummelling drums, chainsaw guitars, pulverising vocals, flailing limbs, everything was a blur and continued to be so until the audience collectively realised Greg Puciato was stood on the balcony’s edge, gripping the chained-up lights.
Briefly, the room slowed down to appreciate what was happening before he launched himself into the baying crowd, and once more chaos ensued. All too abruptly, the five musicians then exited the venue to the sound of cheers, and the night finished as quickly as it had started, albeit with far more sweat and lost voices.
Better Lovers performed at Rock City on 9th July 2024, with support from Black Coast and Unpeople.
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