Fit For a King Brings the Lonely God tour to London Ontario
- Vic Gerrard
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Anyone who knows metalcore knows the band Fit For a King. Hailing from Tyler, Texas, the five piece band came to the London Music Hall on May 29th on the final leg of their Lonely God Tour in North America, along with their fellow Texans in Invent Animate, the French deathcore hard hitters known as Ten56 and English metalcore band Acres.
To start the night off was the Hamshire-based metalcore quintet known as Acres. Before the band took the stage, My Heart Will Go On rang through the speakers. Following the ballad, creepy ambient sounds seeped from the speakers as Richard Morgan (vocals), Alex Freeman (guitar), Matt Tubb (guitar), John Olsa (bass), Matthew Hiscock (drums) finally arrived onstage. The stage was bathed in red, with subtle flashes of blue and white sprinkled throughout their first three songs. Hiscock shook the room with his ferocious beats, accompanied by Olsa. Freeman and Tubb brought in some heavy riffs and accompanied Morgan as he delivered both powerful screams and smooth clean vocals. The creepy, foreboding sounds carried throughout their set, bringing forth a more dramatic and eerie energy. With their creepy visuals flashing behind their band name, Acres brought a unique energy to the stage that culminated in their final song, Lost. They closed out their set with all that they had, and when they left the stage, the name Acres would still be in everyone’s minds.
Ten56 was a complete switch up from the band that had previously played. The deathcore group from Paris, France delivered a performance that felt like a headlining set through and through. Each song started with an explosion of sound, with guitarists Quinten Godet and Luka Garotin and bassist Steeves Hostin delivered technical and incredibly precise riffs to accompany the earth shattering blast beats from Arnaud Verrier. Aaron Matts was easily one of the best deathcore vocalists out there right now, delivering a range of screams with such ease, it was like breathing for him. Each member alone was a beast, and when they come together as Ten56, they are an incredible force of nature. During their second song, the band called for a girls only pit, and encouraged the crowd to mosh and form circle pits. Each song started and ended with brutality, shaking the ground of the London Music Hall to its core. The only exception to that rule was their second to last song, Boy. The song spoke about addiction, and instead of it being a heavy and dreary deathcore song, it was more of a hip hop influenced track, featuring only Verrier, Godet and Matts. However, the deathcore returned for the final song, as the band was rejoined by Hostin and Garotin. Vocalist delivered his best vocal performance of the night, and by the time Ten56 was done, they had taken everyone’s breath away.
Invent Animate is a name that is not unheard of in the metalcore scene. The band hailing from Port Neches, Texas composed of vocalist Marcus Vik, bassist Caleb Sherradan, drummer Brody Taylor Smith and guitarist Keaton Goldwire, brought their own unique energy to the stage that would stay with every member of the audience from beginning to end.
The stage was bathed in blue and white flickering lights as Smith, Goldwire and Sherradan took the stage. Finally, Vik came to the stage, and that’s when the show really began. They opened their set with Absence Persistent, and everyone in the venue came to life. Vik was a masterclass in vocal gymnastics, flipping between incredibly high cleans to gutturals that sounded almost animalistic. Sherradan provided some backing vocals along with his monstrous bass lines, Goldwire carried the musical melodies with his riffs and Smith kept everyone in line with his fierce beats. Coupled with their intricate light show, Invent Animate delivered a majestic performance that could only be described as otherworldly. But don’t be fooled, their energy and heaviness was unmatched.
They continued with songs such as How We Used To Say Goodbye, Heavener, and Fall Like Rain. The two final songs contrasted each other perfectly; Without A Whisper carried the ethereal energy that Invent Animate had been building up, and suddenly without any warning, drifted right into heavy territory. They finished with Immolation of Night, which was nothing if not heavy. The song itself commanded a pit, and the audience obeyed. By the time Invent Animate said goodbye, everyone was cheering and completely ready for the headliner.
Finally, it was time for our headliners, Fit For a King. The band has been around for a while, having formed in 2007 and after nearly 10 years as a band, they have the experience and artistry that only comes with time. Vocalist Ryan Kirby is incredibly talented, delivering screams and growls with an unmatched intensity, and beautiful clean vocals where emotion rings clear all throughout. Guitarists Bobby Lynge and Daniel Gailey brought the melody and riffs to accompany Kirby’s lyrics, while drummer Trey Celaya evened everything out with powerful blast beats and monstrous fills. Bassist Ryan “Tuck” O’Leary kept everyone steady, all the while he jumped and ran around onstage, even pausing his playing for a while to do some cool tricks, like spinning his bass around.
Fit For a King’s set was also nothing short of incredible. While also being great performers and being able to perform interesting and entertaining movements while playing, the band was also incredibly technically sound as they played a mix of new and old songs. They kicked off the night with Begin The Sacrifice, off their newest album, Lonely God, and went right into Shattered Glass from their 5th album, Dark Skies.
As the set continued, pits opened up at various times all throughout the night, growing in size and ferocity. There would be moments where the sea of people was split down the middle, waiting in anticipation for the breakdown so they could run at full force and close the wall of death. The energy in the room was turned up to eleven with an incredible three song run of The Price Of Agony—which was a song they band hadn’t played in Ontario for a while, followed by the commanding and hard hitting God of Fire, followed by the infamous Backbreaker, which had the Canadian crowd shouting the word “backbreaker” along with the band.
The set would slow down for a brief moment with what some could consider to be the most emotional track off Lonely God, Between Us. Flashlights lit up the London Music Hall, and no corner of the venue was untouched by the light. Although by the end of Between Us, the energy was turned right back up as they continued with Keeping Secrets, Breaking the Mirror, Technicum and finally concluded their main set with the title track of their newest album, Lonely God. After the brutality that was Lonely God, Fit For a King left the stage, but the crowd still cheered, as they hadn’t had enough. The band came back to perform two more songs, When Everything Means Nothing and finally closing with the ever brutal Witness The End. By the time the crowd has witnessed the end of Fit For a King’s set, everyone in the room left in high spirits and with smiles on their faces.
