It is impressive just how far tonight’s line-up of metalcore acts have come to unite to perform at Southampton’s The Brook, travelling from all over the planet to put on a spectacular double-header event, headlined by Crystal Lake and Miss May I.
Crystal Lake @ The Brook, Southampton
Openers Diesect have come all the way from Brisbane, Australia. “It took us about twenty-eight hours to get here, and honestly, we don’t know how we’re gonna get home”, laments frontman Damien Bigara, explaining the extent of their battle to perform their first ever UK show tonight. All flights home are cancelled due to war in Iran.
Despite the dilemma, Diesect are dead set on making the best of the situation – “As you can tell, we like to play big breakdowns. If you mosh in this country, we wanna see it”. The crowd is keen to return the favour. Beginning the night with the title track of their latest EP Hide From the Light, the tone is set by the sound of mechanical clatter and a robotic voice that speaks of inner turmoil and darkness.
This peaks with Four Walls, during which there are unpredictable stabs of squealing distortion, and malfunctioning breakbeats. As the floor rumbles throughout, it is akin to a self-destruct siren, and furious panic as Bigara realises there is no escape from the haunted power plant that is melting down around him. It is about as huge as hopelessness can sound.
According to Ethan Harrison of New Hampshire quartet Great American Ghost, this is as cheery as tonight will get, and the worst of the horror is yet to come – “Are you ready to have a good time with us? That was the last band! Are you ready to have a bad time with us?”. He might be thousands of miles from home, but he is has no issue with finding the next target for his politically-charged lyrics – “This next song is called Kingmaker. It’s about Andrew.”.
Like every other band tonight, Great American Ghost enjoy shaking the room between songs with a volcano-like bass grumble. However, they put it to the most appropriate use with strobing orange and red lights during Kerosene – a horrifyingly direct commentary of universal misery in warfare. Harrison throws the microphone to the ground with the other at the end of Altar of Snakes, having seemingly forgotten that the equipment needs to survive for the rest of the UK tour.
First headliner Miss May I with their more polite name, pride in the most inspirational lyrics, and their dual scream/clean vocals, are perhaps most deserving of the label of “melodic metalcore”. But that isn’t to say that the show wasn’t getting louder still. Miss May I are on their first UK tour since 2018, and it is instantly obvious just how long fans had been kept waiting, as the entire room explodes into motion with everybody punching the air to Masses of a Dying Breed.
Despite the fact that the venue almost seems purpose-built to prevent circle pits, due to its pillars, many fans accept the challenge and run around them like a mosh pit maypole during I.H.E.. After an early evening that dwelt so much on sorrow, it is striking just how much everybody seems to be enjoying themselves. Frontman Levi Benton would agree as he introduces Into Oblivion – “this song is about wanting fucking more!”.
And more everybody gets. There is a big vocal call-and-response during Under Fire, and even at moments when the new material is less familiar (such as new single Die On the Vine, everybody claps along. Drummer Jerod Boyd cannot stop grinning and twirling his sticks, and Benton audibly regrets taking so long to return to the UK – “Thank you for all these years, and cheers to many, many more.”
Second headliners, Japanese metalcore and deathcore group Crystal Lake, must have been well aware of their brutality when they chose their moniker, having chosen to name themselves after the location of the Friday the 13th slasher films. Similarly, with a new album and title single entitled The Weight of Sound, they are well prepared to come down hard and heavy on the UK. Since the departure of previous vocalist Ryo Kinoshita in 2023, new powerhouse vocalist John Robert Centorrino has filled his space very convincingly, even when performing older favourites such as SIX FEET UNDER and Apollo.
“We’ve been touring for four weeks, and I’m tired, but that doesn’t matter. The show must go on.”. Regardless of how weary the band might be, they do not show it for a moment. “Southampton, how the fuck are we doing? Thank you for hanging out with us, but now we need your fucking energy! I need every motherfucker to jump! Are you with me? Jump!”.
If the atmosphere of the night can be defined by one moment, there is a slightly saccharine sense of community, as Centorrino signals to the crowd (or his “hardcore kids”) – “this is not Crystal Lake. We are Crystal Lake. You are the blood.”. He then pretends to mow down the audience with a machine gun, in sync with the punishing double bass drums during BlüdGod.
It is a strange combination that feels as though it could not work anywhere else, and nobody would have it any other way.
Review of Crystal Lake And Miss May I at The Brook, Southampton on 16th March 2026 by Nick Pollard. Photography by Rebecca Cairns.
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