Live Review : Combichrist + Extize + Crimson Veil + Esoterik @ O2 ACademy 2, Liverpool on May 22nd 2025

Combichrist have been a massive name on the industrial metal scene since the early 00’s and they haven’t let up in recent years. This current UK/EU tour gives the lucky punters a further chance to see the aggrotech industrial metallers deliver their pounding electronic beats and thrash-heavy guitars, while dancing hard and passionately all night long.

First off we have Esoterik and their vibrant brand of US darkpop, affectionately dubbed Pagan-Synth. Comprised of the infectiously engaging Allison Eckfeldt and Brady Bledsoe, they add a bit more of a rock bite to the 80’s synthpop than you often see with these kinds of acts. The crowd might not have made their way to the venue just yet, but the band ensure they fill the room with a thick, pulsating energy to fill any gaps. The bass in particular makes the walls shake and buzz in equal measure – the bricks in the wall almost palpably shaking with the thuds and drubbing. The two-piece keep up the enthusiasm and slickness throughout, and while they sometimes come across as a college project spilt over into adulthood, they are certainly fun and perfect as an opening act.

It's a big change of style and pace with Crimson Veil taking to the stage. The UK-based band blend a delicious mix of rock-metal, progressive, film score style music with a ritualistic, dark, visual aesthetic and esoteric themes. It’s a personal, emotive and unique live show that blends fragile beauty and fierce energy. Visually they are unmistakable and dramatic, with vocalist Mishkin Fitzgerald striking a stunning figure in white that delivers a variety of atmospheric, powerful yet ethereal vocal melodies.

The musicianship on display from every member is impressive, in particular the balance they each manage between passion and precision, raw emotion and delicate harmony. The sound is like a layered jigsaw, with pieces pulled to the fore and then slid into place when needed. They are a pleasant surprise on this bill, and I hope to catch them again soon.

By now the crowd have generally made their way in and the place has a much fuller and livelier feel to it. That bounce is mirrored on the stage as main support Extize enter. It’s a two-piece act of electronics-dj and vocalist, both colourful and excitable characters who seem happy as anyone to be performing tonight. The crowd react in kind, eagerly dancing and encouraging them from the start. Frontman Rapha Hell created this as one of the first cybergoth bands and their sound has remained true to this ethos, despite the act claiming to have evolved into their own genre of Dirt-E-Tronic.

I can’t say I’m as impressed as most of the punters with their offering though, as it seems fairly generic and dare I say cliched version of high-energy fusion of electro-industrial. It’s your standard cybergoth beats and electro stabs, and there’s a lot of elements done better years ago by other acts. One such example is the use of the Mortal Kombat samples that Utah Saints manipulated much better for the film theme back in 1995.

The vocal lines are fairly infrequent in the grand scheme of things, and that’s a blessing as they don’t add much to the overall sound. They’re a flamboyant pair that put their hearts into it, but it really has been done before and despite getting the punters dancing even harder prior to the headliners there’s not much to recommend here.

Headliners Combichrist have been providing dynamic aggro-tech industrial since 2003 and, if anything, they get better and better. That’s probably in large part due to the ever-expanding catalogue of tracks Andy LaPlegua, the Norwegian-born mastermind behind the act, can choose from. This tour in fact is on the back of a further 2024 album, “CMBCRST”, which as a double disc offering has only added even more variety to the potential setlist.

They pound and bounce through high-tempo KMFDM style tracks to a jumping crowd who revel equally revel in the heavier metal tracks akin to Front Line Assembly. LaPlegua’s aggrotech industrial-metal vision always makes for an intense, sweaty gig and like an industrial-berserker, he is the key to tonight’s action. He commands the band and crowd in unison with his brutal, primal vocal lines thrown out like daggers, all the while to a backdrop of thumping, pounding electro-metal and mid-scooped thrash guitar.

The band has always kept a set of signature elements to its sound but has dabbled between genres such as more metal guitar-driven tracks through to pounding electronic dance classics. Tonight’s setlist doesn’t disappoint and brings the full smorgasbord of their excitingly aggressive and catchy industrial music. They are the personification of powerful, aggressive industrial music delivered alongside a caricatured aggrotech dance performance and long may it continue.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Combichrist + Extize + Crimson Veil + Esoterik