Originally published by L.S. Media. March 29th 2011.

With five studio albums to their name, Funeral for a Friend can be considered at the top of the game right now when it comes to giving intimate, sweaty and fast tackling gigs. With a new studio album, Welcome Home Armageddon, not long released, fans of the Welsh band may have found it hard to get to grips with the direction the band have taken, but rest assured on stage, they are as cool, driven and manic as they ever were.

Opening up the evening with Roses for the Dead from the 2005 album Hours, the band went from song to song with an attitude of entertaining and joking with their vast adoring fans receiving the benefit of the hard work and endeavour.

The set comprised songs from nearly every section of the illustrious career of the Bridgend Post Hardcore lads, however the cheering and frenzy that was built up by the audience was saved for the pieces that came from the new album. With tracks such as Sixteen, Aftertaste and Damned if you Do, Dead if you Don’t being played early in the evening, Funeral for a Friend’s vocalist, Matthew Davies – Kreye, winding up the fans to the extent where one lad who had crowd surfed was treated and lauded as a hero…eventually.

Refreshingly for a younger band, Funeral for a Friend didn’t neglect their back catalogue to any detriment, they lovingly turned back the clock and played songs as diverse as End of Nothing and Monsters from Hours along with Juneau, Rookie of the Year and Red is the New Black from Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation.

However the night really was about the band stamping their authority on a much undervalued genre within the world of music. Their style and delivery of each song had the audience not only pleased but wildly ecstatic at their performance. One of the finest examples in their field they really have made their own and look to hold onto that title for years to come.

Ian D. Hall