Live Review : Gideon + Grove Street + Xile + Still In Love @ Rebellion, Manchester on January 28th 2026

There’s an anticipation for tonight’s hardcore gig showcasing four very hungry bands. There’s London’s bleeding‑heart hardcore, New Zealand’s beatdown exports, Britain’s thrash‑soaked troublemakers, and Alabama’s genre‑smashing heavyweights all crammed into one room. It’s a conflation of sub-styles and attitudes, and the crowd filtering in seems fully aware they’re about to be thrown around by every single one of them. Nights like this don’t ease you in, they grab you by any part they can catch and drag you straight into the deep end. 

I’m barely through the door that Still In Love kick into action. Hardcore always carries a certain weight, but these London guys twist it into something sharper, something that feels like it’s bleeding out in real time. Their blend of hardcore and post‑hardcore is emotive and vulnerable, yet raw and aggressive enough to rattle your skull. The lineup for this band reportedly includes former members of Dead Swans, Throats, Brutality Will Prevail, and Last Witness – and that pedigree shows.

Every scream feels torn from a place of genuine passion and release. Every melodic break lands like a bruise you’re weirdly satisfied to receive. It’s gripping and cathartic. They’re the kind of opener that forces the room to collectively delve head and feet first into the evening - if that’s possible, and tonight’s stage diving says it is!

Next, Xile step up and the atmosphere thickens instantly. The lights don’t dim but the mood does, in a deliciously furious manner, like the room knows what’s coming. The first riff lands like a roundhouse kick to your torso from one of the guys in the pit. Hailing from Grafton, New Zealand, they’re knocking about in the North West of the UK for a few years and suitably blend European Beatdown and Death Metal into their own brutal, polished ‘Kiwi HardStyle’.

Their tone is monstrous with pinched harmonics squealing out of a deep, growling undercurrent, very heavy hardcore thrash with that Great American Ghost meets RSJ flavour. They deliver their heavy take on American hardcore with the swagger of a band who know exactly how devastating they are. The pit detonates on cue. Two-step dancing erupts in full, unhinged action, bodies moving like they’re being yanked around by delirious spirits. If they’re here to start spread their Kiwi HardStyle worldwide then judging by the carnage in front of me tonight, the UK is more than ready.

Grove Street are tonight’s main support and the mood shifts again from pulverising heaviness to pure, infectious fun. That thrashy hardcore we know and love from them comes roaring out immediately, all groove and grit and that unmistakable bounce that makes even the most stubborn statue in the room start nodding and bouncing along. They’ve carved out their own distinct crossover sound - accessible, dynamic, melodic thrash with a backbone shaped by Suicidal Tendencies and Biohazard, but filtered through a British sensibility that gives it a cheeky, street‑level bite.

Tonight, they’re electric. The overdriven, phased guitar tone is delicious, thick enough to chew on, and Ben “Sully” Sullivan stalks the stage with the confidence and swagger of someone who’s studied Kublai Khan and Anthrax and decided he can match that energy pound for pound. They strike that perfect balance between nostalgic thrash and something fresher, something that feels like it belongs to right now. You can see the trajectory forming in real time.

Then Gideon take the stage as headliners with a heavy, charged snap of energy that tells you they’re not here to close the night politely; they’re here to own it. Delivering a nu‑metal‑hardcore‑rap‑metalcore hybrid that shouldn’t make sense but absolutely does when they’re the ones delivering it. Alabama grit runs through everything they do, dragging 90’s hardcore punk into the present with a sound that feels both familiar and violently current. Those early melodic metalcore roots flicker at the edges, but mostly they’re leaning hard into the hardcore brutality tonight, channelling that Madball and Lionheart lineage with a confidence that gets the crowd reacting before the first breakdown even lands. Tyler Riley’s guitar tone is a veritable weapon, thick, crunchy, dripping with power, yet delivered with a precision that slices clean through the mix. Every riff feels like it’s been sharpened beforehand.

Up front, Daniel McWhorter prowls the stage with his Stetson fixed in place and predatory intent glistening, scanning the room like he’s daring us to blink. His vocals are raw, unvarnished, a bark that feels urgent and unyielding, cutting through the noise with a kind of feral clarity. Their blend of melodic hardcore and metalcore is seamless, switching from groove‑laden passages to crushing breakdowns without losing momentum for a second all fused with that unmistakable hardcore swagger. The room responds throughout with wide smiles, heads banging, bodies flying, and a collective joy at watching a unique band deliver what they’ve promised for so long.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Gideon + Grove Street + Xile + Still In Love