The Amity Affliction – An Emotionally Charged Evening

On October 11th, Australian metalcore outfit The Amity Affliction brought the House of Cards tour to the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, one of the final stops on their European 2026 tour of the same name. They came armed with their signature nostalgic emo/metalcore legacy songs and a wonderful selection of opening acts.

Starting things off, hardcore outfit Orthodox were tasked with warming up the crowd and they did so with their head on blend of hardcore and metalcore. Their early 2000’s nu-metal influences can also be heard throughout the set, and even though they only had half an hour to assault the stage, the mosh pits started opening early. They’re energy is infectious and even though the crowd was still finding it’s footing, their hard hitting aggressive tones were a perfect match for the evening. From the opening riffs of “Sacred Place”, to the adrenaline heavy “Commit to Consequence” which sees Varials’ Skyler Condor join on stage for a crushing breakdown all the way to the ending in “Waiting” and “Cave In” they provide a short yet powerful opening set.

Up next, Varials take an even harder approach with their set. Their stuff sits a little darker than Orthodox, and by now the crowd is ready to show what a London bunch of metalhead can get up to, even on a Sunday night, so when Condor asks for crowd surfers to start going over the barrier, they crowd commits and we see about 50 being hurdled over for their forty minute set.

Their set focuses highly on their latest album “Where The Light Leaves” released earlier this year and one of the highlights see Silent Planet’s Garrett Russell jump on for “South of One”.

Silent Planet bring on a different kind of energy to the evening. Having been a bit more on the experimental side of metalcore since the release of their 2023 album SUPERBLOOM their sound has evolved into something truly their own. Beautiful synths and haunting vocals from Russell dissolving into crushing breakdowns and screams.

They start the set with a series of songs from Superbloom, from the haunting intro of “Offworlder“, and into fan favourite “Antimatter” before going backwards into their catalogue and playing through heavy hitters “Wick”, “Panopticon” and devastatingly riff heavy “The New Eternity” they really show that they are a forced to be reckoned with.

A very special moment comes towards the end of the set with Russell talking about the state of the world now and the impact of war, before launching into anthemic “Panic Room”, a deeply personal song for the band, inspired by the band’s long time friend Jeriel Clark’s history of PTSD and war trauma. It’s worth mentioning that especially in the current climate, bands like Silent Planet are needed more than ever.

After Silent Planet ended their set and the stage began transforming for the headliner, the energy and expectation in the crowd was palpable and soon after everyone started warming up their vocal chords with Linkin Park’s “In The End” before the song started glitching and Amity’s logo started displaying on the screens set up on stage.

They take to stage one by one and jump straight into fan favourite “Pittsburgh”, the song that sat as the background for teenage angst for years before heading straight into melodic “Drag the Lake”, an unapologetically and emotionally charged anthem of an entire generation. For a song with truly dark lyrics the chorus sing-a-long felt downright cathartic as the voice of the crowd was rising to the point where we could barely Joel Birch’s own vocals.

Their new album “House of Cards” sees the band enter a truly new stage in their personal and professional life, with band member changes, online criticism and a fear of “how are they going to do this now” whispered not so quietly over the last year, especially since the separation with founding member Ahren Stringer, it feels like they have to prove that they are still the same emotionally charged band that can blend the heavy parts with the really soulful ones.

The first songs to hit the setlist are the heavy toned “Bleed” and favourite singalong “Heaven Sent” and it’s enough to show that even through all the changes the band has stayed true to who they are, still combining the same ferocious riffs with story telling and emotionally charged choruses that involve the crowd in the live shows as much as possible.

And speaking of crowd engagement, they give the room the choice between “Open Letter” and “Chasing Ghosts”, with the latter winning by a long shot.

The rest of the set is a pretty well balanced mix of old and new, jumping between high energy “Kickboxer” and album/tour moniker “House of Cards” to older fan favourites “All That I Remember” and “Death’s Hands” before sending the crowd on their way with a striking encore of “Soak Me in Bleach”

All in all, it was an incredible performance and they showed once again that they are a force to be reckoned in, and that in the face of all adversity and change, their emotionally heavy music will always be welcomed.

The Amity Affliction are next scheduled to play in the UK at Slamdunk Festival and are currently booked for a few other festivals in the early Summer 27 circuit.