Live Review: Sleeping With Sirens, Storm The Sky

Clad in all black, the slender sextet in Storm The Sky take the stage to the shrill screams of their young female fanbase, playing their blend of not-that-original post-hardcore jams. Their stage presence is impressive and spirited, thanks to their dual lead vocals — Will Jarratt doing cleans, Daniel Breen doing throat — calling and returning through a number of their songs and the band's synchronised throwdowns. Oh Sister is a heavier and more abrasive number which demonstrates Breen's clear veteran screaming technique.

The mosh is packed so tight it looks like a sea of multi-coloured floating heads, swaying in the choppy waters of mosh pit mayhem. 

Sleeping With Sirens are fucking explosive. The six-piece catch so much air in just their first few songs — Kick Me, Do It Now, Remember It Later and We Like It Loud — that it seems that an airborne state is natural for them. Kellin Quinn is as veteran a tenor leggerio singer as he is a screamer and guitarists Nick Martin, Justin Hills and Jack Fowler bound around him, sticking their tongues out at the crowd and swinging their axes like vikings. Their sound is incredibly tight and it's clear they're all seasoned performers with songs like Tally It Up, Settle The Score leaving the crowd in hysterics and probably inducing a collapsed lung or two. Quinn introduces Gold with the dedication, "This one's for everyone here with their best friends" and they rip into a cheesier (the melted delicious kind), bass drum-heavy, acoustic-guitar foray which the crowd just lap up — The Strays follows on in the same vein. Quinn's voice is delicate but strong enough to carry a certain comforting weight, though they slip into acoustic mode with Roger Rabbit and Iris and implore the Roundhouse to share their own voices (but of course it just serves to exacerbate Quinn's own vocals and beatboxing prowess). They fake-end their set with Don't Say Anything, with Quinn throwing his mic on the floor in exit, only to be back minutes later for a chilling a cappella rendition of Ain't No Sunshine. The band rejoining Quinn back on stage for If I'm James Dean, You're Audrey Hepburn and a raucous ending of the scathing If You Can't Hang, they fade into the smoke and darkness.