Blood Youth (w/ Altered, Death Blooms, Divine Hatred, Surya) @ The Parish (Huddersfield, UK) on September 26, 2021 [Photos & Show Review]

For most people, spending a Sunday in The Parish might conjure up scenes of a family stroll by a babbling brook with the sound of church bells wafting through the air… but this wasn’t that. This was something far rowdier, and it was magnificent.

This Sunday service was a 5-band aural assault that rattled every single bone in the bodies of all who attended. Openers, Leeds-based metalcore band Surya, gave everyone a smack around the head with their set, with their guitarist getting into the mosh pit for the duration of the final song. A brilliant start.

Altered and Divine Hatred then took the volume and intensity up another notch. Divine Hatred’s vocalist Bradlee Clarkson looked absolutely overjoyed to be on stage – I’m not sure if this was their first show back since ‘the thing that happened last year, happened’ or if it was his usual reaction to being on stage but it was fantastic to watch, and they sounded incredible.

The main tour support was Liverpool’s Death Blooms. It was my first time seeing them and they blew me away. They are absolutely ferocious and in your face with a vicious aggressiveness that draws you in completely. The straightforward attack of “Shut Up”, with its repetition of “Shut the Fuck Up” is bloody fantastic, catchy as fuck and absolutely the kind of noise you want to slam on in the car and belt out full blast as you drive around. They’re the reason you should always check out support bands because for every 5 that are shit or forgettable there’ll be a Death Blooms that pop up and knock you for six.

It seems the standard thing to do at the Parish is to leave the venue and head to the bar downstairs in between bands. All was well and good, but by the time Blood Youth took to the stage, it felt like a chunk of the crowd had not realized they were coming on or decided to stay there as the room felt to have emptied slightly.

The band was great but, for me, was a bit of a let-down, especially after the ferocity of Death Blooms before them, it felt like they didn’t have a connection to the crowd or were really giving it everything they had. It may have been down to this being the final show of the tour, or down to me being a complete dumbass and misreading the whole thing. Either way, I left with my ears ringing, heart pumping and a new potentially favourite band to check out. All in all a great Sunday in the Parish.