It was never going to be an easy gig for A Fire Inside (“AFI”) as they performed tonight in London to a mostly sold-out Deftones show at Alexandra Palace in North London. The Californian alternative rockers were playing their first show in London since 2010’s Crash Love Tour in support of their January 2017 self-titled release (also known as the ‘Blood’ album).

Guest review by Geoff Vader

If the crowd wanted blood, well they got as, when the crowd’s chant of “through are bleeding, we are one”, (a homage to the band’s 1999 Strength through Wounding) was interrupted by the familiar opening chords of the 2003 hit ‘Girls Not Grey’.

The band’s limited ‘special guest’ support slot was quickly filled up with popular hits from their highly successful 2003 ‘Sing the Sorrow‘ album, forming 6 of the band’s 11 songs.

Interestingly the band avoided playing any of the songs off the mixed response ‘Crash Love’ album (2009) and only played their two singles off Burials (2013); the melancholic ‘I Hope You to Suffer’ and radio-friendly ’17 Crimes’.

The ‘Sing the Sorrow’ songs were positively received by the largely Deftones audience over the poppier hits off the new album ( ‘Snow Cats’ and ‘Aurelia’). It is easy to forget that the band has released four albums since ‘Sing the Sorrow’ with the new album being their tenth.

The show closed on a high note with the crowd pleasing 2006 December Underground ‘Miss Murder’, a hit amongst all in attendance.

Whilst old-school fans may be disappointed with the absence of their earlier material, Davey Havok continues to prove his vocal versatility with flashbacks to his earlier hardcore roots, with strong support from Jade, Hunter and Adam.

Definitely worth catching them on the tour!