Live Review : Avatar + Alien Weaponry + Witch Club Satan @ Academy, Manchester on February 15th 2026

Avatar: noun; (from Hebrew) a manifestation of a deity or released soul in bodily form on earth, an incarnate divine teacher. Ho hum. Also a rather stunning melodic death metal band from Sweden whose iconic corpse-painted lead singer probably imagines that he is all of the above! Here on this earthly plane his bodily form (and those of his bandmates) is celebrating some 25 years and 10 albums of Avatar by doing what they do best – getting out there and playing live in front of an enthusiastic crowd to bring their erratic and fun-filled show to the masses. With that in mind let’s draw back the red velvet curtains – come with us now to Avatar country and let’s see what goes on there…….

First up tonight on the somewhat hazy Academy stage are Witch Club Satan. They self-describe as avant-garde feminist Norwegian death metal, and to be fair they look and sound so scary that I am not minded to argue with them! This is music Jim, but not as we know it. These three Norse lasses first come on stage in devil masks and torn nighties to a suitably spooky intro tape and then – something happens. I’m not sure if it’s music exactly, there are drums, there are discordant guitars and buzzing bass and there are noises. Not vocals, noises. Devilishly raspy, fiendishly shrieking, ethereal spoken word, they weave a sound that is simply extraordinary. The masks come off to reveal the standard corpse paint and long, witchy black hair but that’s the only thing that is remotely connected to “normal” about this trio.

It’s a cacophony of visual and aural intensity. Apparently the lyrics are political but you can’t tell because they are also almost totally incomprehensible. They wring sound from their instruments like they are torturing them, especially when the bass is played with a bow at one point, and in the meantime the unearthly screeching continues to assault our ears. But don’t go thinking that this is bad, because it may be unusual but it’s also compelling, mesmerising. The closest comparison I can make is to the musical output of Yoko Ono – it makes no sense at all but it’s so theatrical that you just can’t turn away from it. We are baffled and battered, and as they leave the stage after just 20 short minutes the whole crowd is wondering what the hell just happened, and was it real or just an incoherent nightmare?

After that we were poised to expect the unexpected but a Maori haka performed by Alien Weaponry’s drummer was most definitely not on the bingo card! However, this New Zealand-based power/thrash trio proceeded to exceed all expectations with a set that completely blew most of the assembled masses away. The way they combine hard, fast, loud metal with traditional Maori folk chants and melody is simply stunning.

The sound is crystal clear, the vocals range from clean to harsh and the times change more often that a weathercock in a hurricane. All of this combines to give a set that has everything you could want and more; it’s raw and primitive, but also clean and polished. It’s fast and fierce but also melodic and emotional. The vocals are superb, with a special treat being them singing along to a tape of Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe’s growling vocals on ‘Taniwha’ from their 2025 album “TeRe”. The crowd embraces them fully, forming a couple of pits here and there and even throwing up a couple of crowdsurfers towards the end. They scream “Manchester ARE YOU READY?” and Manchester is indeed ready, couldn’t be more ready in fact. So many bands of this genre can get lost in a wall of noise but not Alien Weaponry, they managed to blend subtlety with ferocity perfectly and the only possible complaint about their set was that at just 5 songs it was way too short.

The house lights dim, and there is thunder and lightning on stage to herald the entrance of headliners Avatar. Not ones to stint on theatrics themselves, the drum kit parts (a neat trick not seen before) to allow the robed figures of the band to enter centre stage through a red velvet curtain. Frontman Johannes Eckerstrom holds a large lantern aloft as the band launch into….erm, a sea shanty? Yes, opening song ‘Captain Goat’ has definite pirate overtones despite its meaty riffs and helicopter hair parts. That kind of sums this band up really, you should expect the unexpected. If you try and pigeonhole them, pin them down to a particular genre or style, the answer is always yes and no. Are they Black Metal? Yes, the corpse paint, lyric content and fixation with death and horror would say so. On the other hand, a song like ‘In The Airwaves’ has a definite disco/pop feel to it that the Swedes manage to weave into their rock so well. Are they Glam? The changing costumes, each one more colourful and jazzier than the last and the inclusion of ‘Death and Glitz’ says yes, but then the harsh vocals and dark goth of ‘Colossus’ that could be a Sisters Of Mercy song says no again.

They reinvent themselves constantly, not just from album to album but from song to song within the live environment. One minute Johannes dons his Piano Jacket to give us the plaintive and emotional love song that is ‘Torn Apart’ before the band return in yet another set of military outfits to march to ‘Legend Of The King’. There are moments of humour (a roadie in a crash helmet becomes an extra cymbal when the drumkit is split to allow the movement of band and props through the centre of the stage, because the drummer can’t reach the one he needs), moments of pathos (the aforementioned solo piano spot) and moments of power (pretty much all the rest of it).

The theatre is drawn from the likes of Alice Cooper or Wednesday 13 but the music is entirely their own. Both dark and brooding and upbeat and fast, it carries you along on a wave of excitement that is hard to beat. Johannes has an incredible vocal range, the band are tighter than a gnat’s chuff and the whole spectacle just works for both band and crowd. We bounce and stomp, clap and sing and become a part of the show. Johannes is delighted, he feeds off the crowd response like a vampire and tells us continually how happy he is to be back in Manchester, how it holds a special place in his heart and how he is thankful that (unlike the previous night in London) the stage electrics have not tried to kill him this time!

The main set ends with ‘Tonight We Must be Warriors’ with it’s military beat and tin whistle refrain, but of course that’s not the actual end. First a balloon wafts dolefully across the stage by itself before they come back on to give us the Ghost-like ‘Don’t Go In The Forest’ which was the lead single from their 2025 album of the same name. This is followed with perennial favourite ‘Smells Like a Freakshow’ which sees another circle pit in the crowd and a couple of surfers crossing the room over our heads. Just when we think it might be over, the confetti cannons boom and they launch into Hell Is For Broccoli – wait, what? Oh no, of course it’s “Hail The Apocalypse”! It’s actually more a case of Hail Avatar, kings of power metal done with skill, passion and humour, has anyone got a map to Avatar Country handy?

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Avatar + Alien Weaponry + Witch Club Satan