Live Review : Apocalyptica + Epica + Wheel @ Academy, Manchester on February 3rd 2023

With two full headline sets to get through, it’s inevitable that tonight is going to be an early start but being pushed on stage at ten to seven feels particularly harsh on Wheel. The cavernous confines of the Academy are empty, and it only starts to fill up towards the end of their brief 25-minute set. All of this is a real shame as they are favs of us here at ROCKFLESH towers. Essentially if you like Tool you are going to like Wheel and if you don't like Tool, well then you best stay at the bar. For a band playing to a particularly partisan crowd, they really do pull out all stops. Even though the wind is whipping around the venue you can feel the energy pulsating from the stage. The beauty and the enticement of Wheel is that this is a band still evolving. Each time I clasp eyes on them, they have become a little bit more confident, and the sound has become a little bit more complex. Tonight, they were here very much to make up the numbers but that doesn't stop them from being absolutely excellent.

I'm not sure whether they were hiding out in the bar across the road or navigating the train strike, but a highly impressive crowd has gathered by the time Epica hit the stage at ten to eight. It is instantly obvious that for many of the people gathered here tonight, they are the headline act and the reason that they have left their homes this evening. The staging is magnificent, and they make full use of the gigantic video wall. They seem to sidestep any worries that they will be treated as a glorified support act, and we get the full headline treatment. The set list is a majestic journey through their 21-year history and we get tracks from all eight long players. When this tour was originally conceived, it was meant to support the release of 2021 rather spiffing “Omega”, however the inevitable COVID delays have meant that this has all turned into a glorious celebration of their two decades in the business.

With her wonderful mannerism and angelic voice, Simone Simons will always be the focal point and she burns off the stage tonight combining sparkling charisma with elegant refinement. This particular iteration of the band has now been in situ for over a decade and the onstage interactions point at an outfit that is entirely comfortable with itself. There also seems to be a considerable amount of joy at being back doing this. The smiles that beam down from the stage for all six members are infectious and the show takes on an almost euphoric bent. The audience reacts to every raised arm and every call and response. When he is not chucking his keyboard stand around like it was a shopping trolley, Coen Janssen joins Simone in hyping up the crowd. It is a wonderful example of band and fans in perfect harmony and the only point it doesn't quite work is when Simone tries to organise a wall of death. Full marks to her for trying but aside from a couple of chaps upfront it just isn't the audience for it and it fails to gain any traction.

Yes, Epica are more cheesy than a Saturday morning visit to the cheese hamlet and half their tracks could be Latvian entries to Eurovision, but that quite simply is their appeal. This is the bombastic and frankly ludicrously over-the-top fringe of metal and it really is rather wonderful. Frantic versions of ‘Beyond the Matrix’ and the closing number ‘Consign to Oblivion’ bring the whole thing to a pulsating conclusion. The audience are ecstatic and the band are still grinning like Cheshire cats and with inevitable theatrical files they are gone.

I had expected the audience to thin and the attention to wane for Apocalyptica. I couldn't have been more wrong, as nobody seems intent on taking an early bath and the intensity within the venue only builds. The simple fact is that Apocalyptica shouldn't work and shouldn't manage to channel the heavy in the way that they do. For all intents and purposes, they are three cellists and a kick-arse drummer but against all probability, they have managed to mould themselves into a highly impressive heavy metal band. What is most inspiring and noteworthy about tonight's performance is their ability to weave different textures into the music. There manages it to be a huge level of variety and intensity to tonight’s set as they effortlessly shift from heavy pounding numbers into much more reflective tracks. I am shocked by both the versatility of the cello as an instrument but also by their virtuoso abilities as musicians. 

Journeyman Franky Perez is now back in the fold as their touring vocalist, and he makes a number of appearances during the evening to add his gravelly tones to proceedings. Simone Simons also returns to the stage to provide a moving vocal accompaniment to ‘Rise’. However, nothing compares to the reverence that ascends when we reach their impeccable version of Metallica's ‘Nothing Else Matters’. It is an astonishing moment in that everyone in the venue stands in a veil of hollowed hush. The usual hum of conversation for the back of the hall is vanquished and you can hear the resonation of every note as they slide their bows skilfully across the taut strings of their instruments. 

They then manage to flip the atmosphere on its head as they crash into a manic one-two of Sepultura’s ’Inquisition Symphony’ and a closing cacophony of Metallica's (them again) ‘Seek and Destroy’ spliced with AC/DC's ‘Thunderstruck’. There is no need for any guest vocalists as the audience singalong with heartfelt gusto. It is truly extraordinary and just shows once and for all the diversity of this bizarre thing that we call heavy metal. 

The encore provides an even more confounding scene as after a haunting rendition of Farewell, we get the extraordinary tableau of a throng of metalheads banging their heads to Griegs’ In all the Mountain King. Metal has always had a symbiotic relationship with classical music but at this point it moves beyond that and becomes something really quite special. This is one of those nights where both headline acts gave us headline performances. We may well have had to wait two years for tonight’s show, but boy was it worth it.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Apocalyptica, Epica, , Wheel