As December Falls

Nottingham beginnings and a D.I.Y. vow

As December Falls formed in Nottingham in 2014, grafting early on with self-released EPs and weekend shows that taught them stagecraft as much as songwriting. Those first releases — A Home Inside Your Head (2014) and When You Figure Out You’re Wrong, Get Back To Me (2016) — set a template: big choruses cut with sharper, more emo-leaning edges, recorded on their own terms and paid for out of pocket. An early break came via festival slots and local champions; by the time they were packing out hometown rooms, the band were already talking openly about staying independent, building direct lines to fans and reinvesting gig money into recordings and bigger tours. That approach hardened into principle rather than necessity: they run without a traditional label or manager, and have used platforms such as Patreon and a tightly run merch operation to fund recording and touring.

The records that did the heavy lifting

The self-titled debut album landed on 8 February 2019 and gave them a national calling card. Follow-up Happier. arrived on 6 August 2021 and pushed them further into UK rock’s conversation, teeing up a breakout third LP, Join The Club, on 21 July 2023. Reviews picked up on a leap in focus and execution, and the record did the business: in the Official Albums Chart week of 28 July 2023, Join The Club debuted at No. 11 nationwide and also arrived high on the vinyl and record-store charts — a data point that mattered for a band selling their own records at the merch desk as well as through indies.

That third album period closed with The Live Album, a touring document released on 6 September 2024 and trailed the day before by Rock Sound with a detailed account of how the band recorded shows across the run and got the record out via a self-release. The feature also crystallised the group’s D.I.Y. stance and the role of their growing fanbase in bankrolling ambition. By then, the UK industry had already taken notice: the band won Best UK Breakthrough Artist at the Heavy Music Awards on 26 May 2023.

Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine followed on 15 August 2025 and went higher again, peaking at No. 8 on the Official Albums Chart for the week ending 22 August 2025. Press around the album — including reviews at Kerrang!, Distorted Sound and Punktastic — highlighted how songs like Angry Cry, For The Plot, Fall Apart and Bathroom Floor sharpened the punch of Join The Club without flattening the band’s pop sensibilities. Singles continued to arrive through the album cycle: Flametide landed on 31 October 2025 with an official video, and Anymore appeared in early 2026, keeping new material in the set while they toured.

2026: breaking America, then straight back out

Spring 2026 was the moment As December Falls finally cracked the U.S. circuit at scale. Black Veil Brides confirmed a 24‑date North American headline tour for April–June 2026 with From Ashes To New, TX2 and As December Falls in support; that run carried them through arenas and large theatres from Salt Lake City on 30 April to New York on 28 May, and across the Midwest and South through May. Local coverage tracked the shows: reviews and photo galleries from Utah, Nebraska, Texas and New York repeatedly noted the Nottingham band’s impact in a short opening slot, with crowds arriving early and reacting to the newer songs. A Norfolk (UK) review on 4 July 2026, days after they flew home, explicitly framed the Tabernacle-and-Palladium-scale U.S. rooms as a turning point before a quick reset to British club stages.

The machine barely paused. By late summer they were back in UK and European venues, with a September 2026 stretch mixing standalone headline dates and a support run with Dance Gavin Dance. Ticketing pages listed As December Falls on the DGD bill at O2 Academy Birmingham (6 September), SWG3 Galvanizers in Glasgow (8 September) and O2 Forum Kentish Town in London (12 September), alongside their own headline shows in Poland — Kraków’s Klub Zaścianek (17 September) and Warsaw’s Klub MECHanik (18 September). Their concert feed also trailed further European dates, including an 10 November 2026 slot in Lyon on a bill with Future Palace.

Where they stand now

Two things define As December Falls’ place in the scene in 2026. The first is completely practical: they’ve proved that a rock band can chart nationally and scale touring off their own steam. In July 2023 the Official Charts Company singled them out as a Top 20 debutant with Join The Club at No. 11, and their follow-up reached the UK Top 10 a year later without a major-label push. Across interviews through 2023–2025, they’ve been explicit about the economics — “no one bankrolling this band” — and there is evidence to back the claim: The Live Album arrived via self-release; their merch and VIP meet‑and‑greet lines after support sets have become part of the night for fans; and their Patreon and direct-sales model has been running for years.

The second is cultural. Winning Best UK Breakthrough Artist at the Heavy Music Awards in May 2023 put them on the radars of festivals and agents; the download‑day tents that once looked aspirational were followed by a first U.S. tour in 2026, and then by a European autumn with dates both as headliners and as support to an American post‑hardcore mainstay. Reviews from the Rock City headline in Nottingham on 1 November 2025 took note of the step up at home, too: a city that had hosted them in smaller rooms only a year earlier now watched them take Rock City’s stage as a self-managed quartet and sell it like a homecoming.

What the show feels like in 2026

Two distinct formats have defined their year. The U.S. support slot on the Black Veil Brides tour typically ran to around 25 minutes; doors tended to open before 6pm, with As December Falls starting soon after. Contemporary reviews and attendee reports describe them firing through a half‑dozen songs, leaning on the 2025 album and the Join The Club era: Angry Cry has been a frequent opener this year; Everything’s On Fire But I’m Fine and For The Plot kept the front rows moving; Carousel and Therapy often tidied the short set. Crowds unfamiliar with the band have been reliably converted, if the local press write‑ups and venue galleries are a guide.

Back at the top of the bill, they stretch out. Setlist statistics for 2026 show an average 15‑ to 16‑song headline set, roughly an hour or a touch more, with the core spine of the 2025 album and the best-loved Join The Club cuts in the middle. Therapy is the piece most often used as a closer; Angry Cry and Flametide have been early‑set markers; Bathroom Floor and Ready Set Go arrive later on. Production is simple but effective — backline tight to the lip of the stage, lighting flares at the vocal peaks — and the pace leaves little dead air. In British clubs in June and July 2026 the band returned from the States carrying that momentum; a Norwich review on 4 July caught them two days after they landed and remarked on the crowd’s pull towards older tracks such as Ride while the new songs drew as much noise. By September, stepping onto UK academy stages ahead of Dance Gavin Dance, they were back in the sprinting mode honed all spring.