It’s always exciting to cover a gig that has a mixture of new and old bands, known and unknown bands, familiar tracks and fresh hits. And so, we find ourselves in such a situation down in Club Academy on a Friday night. A first look for us at Australia’s brutal Diesect, a reconnection with favourites Great American Ghost, a look at the new singer and tracks from Crystal Lake, and all topped off with the metalcore veteran giants Miss May I.

Diesect open the night taking to the stage with no ceremony, no easing in, just a blunt-force declaration that we’re in for a brutal time of it. It’s hardcore, but it is hardcore with a futuristic, caustic metal tinge. The Australian four-piece immediately unleash that Vexed and Graphic Nature guitar tone, the kind of serrated metallic grind that turns even a simple two step into something furious. The beatdowns come thick and ugly, in a very Emmure fashion and the room reacts on instinct. Shoulders tighten, jaws clench, bodies start to move in that dangerous, anticipatory way that only truly heavy music can provoke.

Frontman Damien Bigara steps up and delivers straight up hardcore vocals with a clarity that should not be possible over this much low-end violent riffage. Every bark lands clean, every phrase cuts through the mix. The drummer Jake Camilleri is ill so Great American Ghost’s drummer, Sebastian LR, is playing the entire set with a laptop perched beside him - because he learned the set just hours before the gig. It should be a disaster, but instead you would never know the circumstances and that in itself is awesomely impressive. Occasional drum and bass backing bits flicker underneath to give it a further edge, and flashes of Alpha Wolf style vibrance make the whole thing feel even more volatile. They are damn heavy, and Diesect leave the stage having turned the room into an enthusiastic pit of eager punters.

Great American Ghost take that enthusiastic atmosphere and twist it into something sharper and colder. They open with ‘Hymn of Decay’, guitars squealing in discordant stabs before collapsing into thundering riffs that feel like they are trying to shake the stuffing out of you. Vocalist Ethan Harrison steps up in his enigmatic style and the moment he opens his mouth the air changes. His vocals are an abrasive ripsaw high screech, the kind of sound that feels like it is stripping varnish off the walls, yet there is a strange, sinewy melody woven through it. It is not soothing but it has reassuring precision.

Guitarist Grayson Stewart delivers smooth low clean vocals that should not work alongside all this, but absolutely do, as they interplay with Harrison’s singing as they layer over each other. They sing the same lines, and it has become their signature weapon for choruses, almost their USP. Harrison is as animated as ever, all facial contortions and full body swings, the kind of physicality that makes you feel like he is trying to exorcise something mid-set. ‘Kerosene’ is…well…incendiary, and is a great example of them playing hard rock pushed to its most extreme edges through a metalcore lens - abrasive but never sloppy, violent but never directionless, and the crowd is left buzzing in their wake.

Co-headliners Crystal Lake take the stage and the crowd go off like a detonation. The Japanese five piece (well, four plus their American brother now fronting the band) do not so much start their set as launch it, a tight, professional and bludgeoning wall of sound that hits like a hammer. Everything is percussive though - guitars, bass, drums, even the vocals. It is a full spectrum assault with no gaps or breathing space, a sonic battering that refuses to settle.

At first, the guitars are difficult to make out, more like a texture than a definition – a fog of distortion that leans heavily into tribal, primitive beats rather than melody. It’s hardcore, thrash, metalcore, all mashed together into a bit of a mush of sound, and while the execution is flawless the clarity is suffering. Still, John Robert Centorrino as singer has been a great addition, commanding the stage with a confidence that suggests he has been here far longer than he has.

Then something shifts – it’s a though the final three songs crack open a different side of Crystal Lake entirely. Suddenly there are The Ghost Inside and Parkway Drive-esque anthemic guitar soaring lines, and the set blossoms into something unexpectedly triumphant. ‘Watch Me Burn’ feels like a rallying cry, and ‘The Weight of Sound’ lands with a cathartic punch that reframes everything that came before. It’s a real moment of uplift and hits hard as they close their set to a delirious crowd.

Miss May I step into a room that has thinned out slightly for the co-headliners, but Levi Benton and company do not waste a second worrying about it. They explode straight into their set, delivering metalcore at its most traditional and organic. There is a bouncy, thrashy groove underpinning everything, a sense of swing and swagger that so many modern bands have forgotten how to tap into. Bassist Ryan Neff’s cleans are superb, warm and confident and perfectly placed, and the band’s songwriting instincts remain razor sharp. Where others suffocate their songs with layers, Miss May I give their sound both definition and room to breathe. When they want to hit hard, they absolutely do. When they want to layer melody, they glide into it with ease.

The new tracks carry a very early Bury Tomorrow flavour, but with a freshness that makes their continued relevance twenty years on feel earned rather than nostalgic. The set is a smart blend of hits and new material each song delivered with the kind of conviction that only comes from a band who know exactly who they are. By the time they close with ‘Under Fire’ and ‘Hey Mister’, it feels not just fitting but triumphant. Miss May I prove once again that longevity in metalcore is not about reinvention but about evolution, craft and refusing to let the fire go out.