Last Saturday found Ohio’s Beartooth bring their heartfelt fiery beautiful war zone to Camden’s Roundhouse.

It’s been a not so short but definitely sweet journey for the Ohio hardcore punk five piece Beartooth who found themselves travel across the pond for their ‘Disease World Tour’ last week, and we were there on Saturday night amongst a sold out crowd of 1700 at Camden’s finest venue of Roundhouse.

The last decade treated the band remarkably well with the release of their highly praised debut album Disgusting (2015) and equally astonishing successors Aggressive (2016) and Disease (2018). After a striking performance by The Amity Affliction, the lights went out and all that could be heard was the manic screams of the crowd anticipating Bearthooth’s arrival. Vocalist Caleb Shomo and his bandmates stormed the stage and broke out into the opener The Lines from their debut album and I can honestly say I was not prepared for what was about to come. The energy was instantly raised to the roof and mosh pits were already firing up by one of most passionate crowds this venue has ever seen.

Unsurprisingly, the band responded to the crowd’s energy and kept the party going dynamically with Enemy, Hated and Aggressive and did not forget to bring along their glorious fire flames, fireworks and confetti, not only sparking everyone’s excitement levels, but also room temperature levels. Serving a variety of all their album’s work to suit everyone’s palate, Beartooth brought it back to the golden old school days with fire starter I Have A Problem – “We haven’t played this song in a long time, it’s the first song we ever played and recorded […] you better open those mosh pits London, open the fuck up!”.

At this point there was an outstandingly uncountable amount of people crowd surfing, circle pits were opened to the maximum and people went as wild as they could as more hits like You Never Know, Beaten In Lips, and Sick Of Me kept the night going. Lights went down and a subtle orange light hit Caleb’s face and he kindly asked for everyone’s attention for two minutes. This was the heartfelt moment, no one talked and no one moved as the lead singer took the time to introduce  to everyone the reality of their musical and tour journey and what the rest of us don’t see, without holding any tears back.

“We’ve been touring for so long and we thank you, I can’t see beyond this, this being in Roundhouse […] I am guilty that I am always focused on work, never focused on myself. It’s okay to take a break and breathe, it’s fucking fine! […] Believe in your fucking self London!”. Met by an enormous amount of cheers and tears, the night came to an end with more fire flames and confetti  than before as the band performed their latest album’s single Disease and said goodbye with the nostalgic note of In Between that ravishingly left you wanting to re-live the night again and again.

“I’ve had my ups and downs on this tour, but I can honestly say I have never been more grateful to go to a gig before in my life”, says the frontman and I could honestly not agree more.

Photos: Lina Molloholli