I had heard about the Never Say Die tour, created by merchandise website and staple brand Impericon, for years, but had never found a line up that catered to my interests at the moment it was around - until the 2015 edition, that is. It is headlined by Australian metalcore outfit The Amity Affliction and also features an excellent collection of hardcore bands - Defeater, Being As An Ocean, Cruel Hand, Fit For A King and Burning Down Alaska.

The doors of the mighty Koko open at 5:30 sharp and a long line of people, freezing in the November wind, get in. The festival atmosphere is obvious as ticket holders navigate in between the merch tables and few people are stuck to the barrier - quite differently to your average gig, really. Fifteen minutes later, Germany based Burning From Alaska takes the stage in front of a relatively small crowd, but an attentive one. Their hardcore driven music goes down a treat and sets the tone for the evening as the first moshpits and circle pits make the beautiful venue shake. What should also be noted is the quality of the quintet's music - it is catchy enough to make an entire venue react and Tobias Rische's vocals are impressive for such a young vocalist. In my opinion, Burning Down Alaska is a name we're going to hear quite a lot in the future. At least, I hope so.

Second band on is American Christian metalcore outfit Fit For A King. I for one have never heard of them before, but they have a fair share of fans among the London crowd, as shows the number of people sporting Fit For A King t-shirts or windbreakers. The Americans' music is closer to the likes of the headliners (contrary to most of the other bands who belong to the hardcore end of the heavy music spectrum) and the crowd is extremely responsive. Once again, moshpits and circle pits are legion and we can hear the very first singalongs of the evening. Fit For A King is a band I'm very likely to give another listen to for I have been very impressed by their qualities and the ability they undoubtedly have to drive a crowd insane.

The third band to grace the stage is another American group, Cruel Hand, from Portland, Maine. The crowd has sadly thinned a bit and, if I'm honest, the quality of their performance deserved a much bigger amount of people and a much better reaction. They are, quite simply put, excellent. Their hardcore music reminded me of letlive., whom I adore, and if a tour featuring those two outfits hasn't happened, in my humble opinion, it needs to. Chris Linkovich's energy seems endless and his stage presence is impressive. Next to me stands a girl who sings along to every word with the biggest of smiles on her face and I wish I could join her - and, to be fair, I wish I was standing in a sea of people who acted like her, because that's what I feel like Cruel Hand's performance deserved. Here's another band I will give another listen to, and hopefully see in a smaller venue with a crowd absolutely crazy for them.

In this day and age, it is next to impossible going to a gig without seeing someone donning Being As An Ocean merch. In a very short amount of time, they have become a staple in our scene and it seems like everyone owns one of their famous fox t-shirts. I had never seen them before last Sunday but had listened to their music and I have been thinking about checking them out live for a long time now. Now the occasion has arisen, I am very happy to report that the band lives up to the hype around their name and that their live performance was simply flawless. Joel Quartuccio (vocals) gets up close and personal with the crowd for the entirety of the band's set and the only moment when he is on stage is before he jumps into the crowd. Frontflip, crowdsurfing, interacting with the audience - you name it, he's done it. The viewer's reaction is just as intense as the band's performance and I am surrounded by over a thousand people singing along to every word Joel shouts and trying to get as close  tothe band's frontman as they physically can. Just before playing last track This Loneliness Won't Be The Death Of Me, Joel encourages us to raise our phone lights in the air if we have suffered from depression, self harm issues, if we've thought about suicide or if we know someone who has gone through (or is still going through) these problems. His poignant speech and the amount of lights in the venue was enough to bring tears to my eyes and give me goosebumps, and that was a beautiful ending to an emotionally intense performance. Being As An Ocean have definitely earned themselves a new fan.

Another band that would have deserved a better crowd is main support Defeater. The American outfit from Boston, Massachusetts, despite being a staple name in our scene and having a ten year long career behind them, see the audience in front of them thinning after Being As An Ocean. Last hardcore band of the evening, they are nevertheless impressive and for the fans that remain, they go down a treat. Derek Archambault's vocals are extremely powerful and every single word he shouts hits you right in the feels. On top of the vocalist's strong performance and charisma, the rest of the band and their energetic and technically excellent performance prove why they are the main support and why they have been around for a decade. Quite frankly, as impressed as I have been by all their qualities, I think they are a band who would benefit from being seen in a smaller venue with a crowd that knows them and isn't just patiently waiting for the headliner, one of a very different genre at that, to come on stage. I just have to learn every word to their songs and patiently wait for them to come back to the UK, now.

I'll admit this is a horrible, horrible picture, but it seemed like an important one.

The reason why I have started listening to The Amity Affliction is quite similar to the reason why I have fallen in love with Beartooth. My story with the Australian mob has started during the summer of 2014, also because the vague ex-boyfriend thing was a fan and had dragged me to see them at Download. He then proceeded to leave me and I mended my broken heart with Let the Ocean Take Me, which has quickly become an album I adore. Before the Never Say Die Tour, I had seen The Amity Affliction live three times - at Download, in Paris in 2014 (where they were headlining a tiny venue and I even got lucky enough to meet Joel and Ahren) and supporting Of Mice & Men in March 2015, once again in Paris. I now spend my time eagerly waiting for them to announce Europe dates and I was ecstatic to find out they were playing the UK in November.

They open an hour long set with a track extracted from their 2012 album Chasing Ghosts - none other than the poignant Open Letter. The famous "Let me give you my heart, let me give you my tears, let me give you my life, let me give you my fears" is sang along by an adoring crowd - one that will not waste any time in opening up circle pits and walls of death and in repeating every word sang by co-vocalists Joel Birch and Ahren Stringer. The band's performance is incredible and very intense and it is easy to see why their career on the old continent is on the way up at the moment. They have surely gained a great number of fans whilst supporting Of Mice & Men on their biggest tour to date, and it is easy to see why. Every song resonates ten times as intensely in the venue and the vocals are to die for. When the band performs fan favourite Death's Hand, every person in the room screams and shouts the now classic "Hey death, get fucked" at the top of their lungs. The encore, composed of the Australians' most famous songs, Pittsburgh and Don't Lean On Me (both from 2014's Let the Ocean Take Me), is the perfect conclusion to an equally perfect set.

Another thing that should be noted about the Never Say Die tour is the presence of non-profit organization Hope for the Day, which fights for suicide prevention. They get a few minutes on stage (before Being As An Ocean and before The Amity Affliction) to talk about what they do and what they stand for. I think it is one of the main reasons why we should talk about that tour and I think the music press should say a little bit about them in that regard. The Never Say Die tour is not just "moshing central", it's also a collective of bands who fight hard to support charities and break the stigma around mental health issues and suicide, it's a collective of bands who aim at supporting young people and we should definitely remember that. A heavy show is not just a long series of moshpits. There's a heart in this scene, and we should talk about it - especially in this day and age when all we hear is the horrible stories and all the glorification goes to the people who make you pay for meet and greets and the likes. Let's all just give five minutes of our time to people who fight to make the world a better place.