Day 2 Link to heading
Day 2, the day we are all waiting for, is probably the reason why the trip even happened at all. The day BMTH is the highlight! To commemorate this wonderful day, we all decided to follow in the footsteps of our favorite BMTH frontmen, Oli Sykes. Of all the good examples he could have set, being such a huge icon for the metalcore scene, he decides to wear a maid costume.
We don’t exactly have a maid costume, but instead a close enough gothic black dress, which I bought along the way. Unfortunately, they all backed out, especially Mr. Empty Promises, whom I had the highest hope for.
Mr. Empty Promises would soon have karma caught up to him as he loses most of his money in the casino we visited in Sofia. Of course, that isn’t even remotely close to what he deserved, and more is yet to come… (if u are somehow reading this, jk i still love u)
Walking to the venue with my brand new maid identity was an interesting one, where ever I turn I could catch a glimpse of people staring or pointing their phone towards me. But of course, after some giggles/judgement, they just go on about their day. The adage “people care less than you think” usually holds true, use it to your advantage!
At the venue, we saw someone wearing the exact maid costume as Oli (I knew it; I can’t be the only one!). Several people also asked me for a photo; maybe I should have just charged $$ per photo.
The pre-band before BMTH was Imminence, who is known for their unique blend of violin with metalcore. It’s probably the only band you would see screaming into a violin/using an electric guitar as a violin live.
BMTH was amazing as always, even though I basically watched the same performance twice (similar setlist as Dublin). It was here that I witnessed biggest and wildest moshpit ever, to the point that it’s dangerous to go in. We have a cool Bulgairan choir that did a opening for Parasite Eve, Antivist being performed by a little girl, which I thought was pretty cool even though it lowkey spoiled our Antivist, and my favorite song from their Next Gen album being played live.
Day 3 Link to heading
We don’t know any of the bands on day 3. We slept in, ate burgers, drank from the usual boba shop, then proceeded to play Kahoot with many questionable topics, unintentionally(?) missing the first 2 bands.
Sprinkled throughout our trip were cute little calls with our favorite Indian, Yash Gupta. But it was at this point, that we fully realized the true extent of emptiness in our hearts due to his absence. In order to fill the impossible void in our hearts, we decided to write him a poem (definitely not generated by chatGPT):
Arriving at the venue, we didn’t enjoy the bands that were playing and wanted to get out of the venue for some food and come back for the highlight for day 3: Amon Amarth. That’s when we discover the catch—we can’t. No re-entry is allowed, and we are stuck inside, with their overpriced food being the only option (not cool, Hills of Rock).
We contemplated taking the risk of going out and being denied entry, risking Amon Amarth. It may have worked for my friends, but being the outstanding one in the whole area, the security had to be blind in order to miss that one random Chinese guy trying to sneak back in. It doesn’t help that random people recognized me from yesterday and asked what happened to my dress too.
Thankfully, we gave in to their overpriced food, as Amon Amarth was a blast. They have an insanely high production value, comparable to BMTH. It’s a very different style of music (viking music?), mainly lower-sounding growls as opposed to those mid/high screams found in metalcore. Anyway, we all enjoyed it and had a great workout from the circle pits.
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