The Amity Affliction – House Of Cards UK 2026// Silent Planet // Varials // Orthodox // Live Review // O2 Forum – Kentish Town // London
The House of Cards tour brought a formidable mix of metalcore, crushing hardcore, and modern heavy music to North London, with The Amity Affliction leading a bill that left audiences with ringing ears and aching necks. With Orthodox and Varials setting the tone, Silent Planet pushing the intensity into more atmospheric territory, and the Australian headliners delivering their emotionally charged anthems, the O2 Forum Kentish Town was the place to be for a Sunday night of unfiltered heaviness.
The four-band bill offered something more than a straightforward succession of breakdowns. It was a journey through different shades of aggression, from raw, confrontational hardcore to soaring melodies and cathartic choruses that turn a packed room into one enormous voice.
Opening the evening, Orthodox wasted little time establishing the heavier, more abrasive end of the bill. The Nashville outfit have built their reputation on a punishing blend of hardcore, metallic dissonance and unpredictable rhythmic shifts, and their sound provided a suitably uncompromising introduction to the night.
Orthodox’s music has a particularly nasty quality. The riffs feel jagged rather than polished, the rhythms lurch with an almost uncomfortable intensity, and the breakdowns hit with the sort of weight that makes you feel every note in your chest. Rather than relying on flashy theatrics, the band let the sheer physicality of their sound do the talking.
With a relatively short opening slot, there was little room for unnecessary indulgence. Orthodox delivered a concentrated burst of aggression that set a high bar for the bands that followed.
Varials took things further into modern metalcore, bringing a suffocating heaviness that thrives on down-tuned guitars, punishing grooves, and an atmosphere that feels permanently on the verge of exploding.
The Philadelphia band has always made their music feel genuinely hostile without sacrificing rhythmic precision. Their sound is built for physical reactions: heads nodding in unison, bodies colliding in the pit and those split seconds of tension before a breakdown detonates.
Their performance provided a welcome contrast to Orthodox. Where the opening band leaned into jagged unpredictability, Varials brought a more groove-driven brutality, allowing the riffs to settle into the room before unleashing another wave of low-end punishment.
It reminded me how much variety exists within modern heavy music. Both bands operate in similarly aggressive territory, but their approaches are distinct enough to keep the evening moving rather than becoming a monotonous procession of identical breakdowns.
Silent Planet was the next major shift in atmosphere. The Californian metalcore outfit has carved out a distinctive position within the genre by combining crushing heaviness with intricate arrangements, expansive soundscapes and lyrics that reach beyond the usual metalcore vocabulary.
Their music can move from delicate, almost suspended passages into sudden explosions of distortion and percussion. That dynamic contrast is a huge part of their appeal. The quieter moments give the heavier sections room to land with greater force, while the technical intricacy ensures something is always happening beneath the surface.
Silent Planet’s appeal lies in its ability to balance technical musicianship with emotional immediacy. The arrangements are intricate, but they never feel like technical exercises for their own sake. The heavier passages hit hard, while the melodic elements offer release rather than softening the band’s edge.
After two opening acts focused on raw aggression, Silent Planet widened the evening’s musical palette. Their set showed that heaviness isn’t simply a question of volume or tuning; atmosphere, dynamics, and the space between the notes can be just as devastating.
By the time The Amity Affliction took to the stage, the evening had already established a formidable standard. Yet the Australians brought something different to the equation: the ability to turn personal anguish into huge, communal anthems.
Few bands in modern metalcore have made crushing instrumentation and emotionally direct songwriting so central to their identity. Their music thrives on the collision of harsh vocals, soaring clean melodies, and choruses that feel designed to be screamed back by an entire venue.
Opening with “Pittsburgh”, then moving into “Drag the Lake”, “Like Love” and “Bleed”, the band drew from a catalogue that has consistently balanced melody with muscular aggression. These songs are built around contrast: guitars that grind and surge, percussion that drives everything forward, and vocal lines that lift the material beyond straightforward heaviness.
The newer material sat alongside established favourites such as “All My Friends Are Dead”, “Chasing Ghosts”, “Afterlife” and “All Fucked Up”. Each brings its own emotional colour, but the common thread is that familiar Amity formula: vulnerability delivered with an enormous metallic punch.
Hearing this material in a venue full of people who know every word is uniquely effective. The band’s biggest choruses offer a release thatis hard to replicate through headphones. The music is heavy enough to satisfy those drawn to the pit, yet melodic enough to bring the whole room together. That balance has been central to their appeal throughout their career.
The House of Cards tour also gives the band an opportunity to place their newer work in the context of a substantial back catalogue. Rather than relying solely on nostalgia, the set draws a line between the band’s earlier emotional intensity and their continuing development. The result is a performance built around the enduring strength of their songwriting.
The Amity Affliction’s London show was a strong showcase for the breadth of contemporary metalcore. Orthodox opened with an abrasive salvo, Varials brought groove-heavy brutality, and Silent Planet introduced technical sophistication and atmospheric depth before the headliners delivered their emotionally charged blend of melody and heaviness.
The bill’s real strength was its variety. Each band occupied its own corner of the genre, but the transitions between them felt natural, building the evening towards a headlining set that brought together the physical impact of heavy music and its capacity for genuine emotional connection.
At the O2 Forum Kentish Town, the appeal was never simply about how hard the bands could hit. It was about making that heaviness mean something, whether through a punishing riff, an intricate arrangement, or a chorus powerful enough to unite a room full of strangers.
For fans of modern metalcore, this bill understood both sides of the equation. Heavy enough to hurt, melodic enough to stay with you, and varied enough to make every set count.
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Review: Joseph Mitchell
