Photo Credit: Press

With a new record under their belt, FOUR YEAR STRONG made their first headline appearances in the UK since their 2017 “Rise or Die Trying” anniversary shows, with a jaunt to Leeds for a career-spanning set in the Slam Dunk native city.

Mixing a blend of punk, hardcore and emo into their sound, Long Island outfit KOYO made their triumphant return to the UK. Since debuting across the pond back in 2022, their popularity has grown rapidly, and more so since the release of their debut record ‘Would You Miss It?’. Their set heavily featured tracks from the album, with ‘I Might Not‘ serving as the opening track to an already full house that was enthralled from the very beginning. The Leeds crowd responded favourably to ‘Anthem‘ and ‘Message Like A Bomb‘, keeping the 2023’s material alive. Their single ‘Ten Digits Away‘ acted as the final song from their set, and gave fans one more opportunity to let loose before the main event came around.

The crowd were well and truly warmed up with Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’ blasting over the speakers just in time for their grand entrance, FOUR YEAR STRONG made their way on to the stage with a thunderous cheer across the room. Kicking off their set with ‘aftermath/afterthought‘ and ‘bad habit‘ from their most recent record, the latter of the two went down an absolute storm. While the pop-punk inspired choruses have everyone pointing fingers and singing along, FYS‘s harsher elements continue to stimulate crowd activity with every riff, breakdown and heavier vocals. Returning to their beloved sophomore album, ‘Heroes Get Remembered, Legends Never Die‘ was a pleasant surprise to many within the room, and allowed fans of ‘Rise Or Die Trying‘ to get involved for a brief moment.

The considerably heavier ‘It Must Really Suck to Be Four Year Strong Right Now‘ brought out the best in the Yorkshire crowd, with the breakdown imminent, mosh pits rapidly emerged before regular service refused for the remainder of the set. Further ‘analysis paralysis’ material unfolded, with a mix of ‘Brain Pain‘ tracks splitting up the set list equally, as ‘daddy of mine‘ and ‘uncooked‘ set up the captivating guitar anthem ‘maybe it’s me‘. Dan O’Connor and Alan Day continue to display their shared frontman efforts effortlessly with each song, blending joint vocals with frequent movement and audience connections, nearly 25 years on, it proves that they are skilled veterans in the game

Finally, ‘Go Down In History‘, ‘We All Float Down Here‘, and ‘Wasting Time‘ completed FYS‘s comeback to Leeds, which was sorely needed. Now with eight studio albums under their belt, the Massachusetts quartet continues to produce a set that spans across all of their material, whilst showing no signs of slowing down.