Live Review : Unleash The Archers + All For Metal @ Club Academy, Manchester on July 9th 2025

Well, hats off to Unleash the Archers. Their one-off London show back in February was completely sold out, but instigated the usual online comments of "Why only London?” or “There is more to the UK than just the capital” or simply “Come North!”. Now most other bands would see these sorts of interactions as collateral damage and occupational hazards. But with Unleash the Archers, it struck a particularly empathetic chord. Hailing from the wastes of British Columbia, they were used to having to travel miles and miles to Vancouver or even over the Border into Seattle to see the bands that mattered to them. So, they listened to the impassioned pleas to come to Nottingham, Glasgow and Manchester, found three spare days in the middle of their European Festival trek, hired a cheap and cheerful van and headed North…

They are not alone in this impromptu frolic around the provinces. As support, they have hitched up the rapidly accelerating star that is All For Metal. They are a bingo card of heavy metal clichés: Masks – check, bulging biceps – check, S&M bondage gear – check, self-referential choruses – check. This is metal as pure halcyon nostalgia. It harks back to the days before self-awareness and emotional openness. A time when men wore leather britches and women were bedecked in off-casts from Victoria’s Secret’s kinky collection. There is not a whiff of irony to be found; this is straight-faced ridiculousness, and it is really rather wonderful.

This is metal full of playful passion. It feels timeless in its pure, unadulterated entertaining nature. The choruses are big; the chants are big, and hell, the singers are big. It is the perfect antidote to all that insular self-reflection. There is no navel-gazing reality here (though to be honest, most of us are at naval gazing height when it comes to the man mountain Tim Schmidt), instead their tracks are about daring deeds, goddesses and the all-conquering splendour of metal. It is fantastically opulent, and the quality of the musicianship stops it from sliding into the realms of silly. They return to our shores next month for Bloodstock (sadly, Guitarist Jasmin Pabst's last show with the band), or quite frankly, be there or be a wimp. 

Whilst their music may well be extravagant and ornate, Unleash the Archers are a very DIY outfit. Their first two records were independently released and to this day singer Brittney Slays (Hayes on her days off) and her partner and drummer Scott Buchanan handle all band business matters. As she tells us when we speak with her pre-show (link here), none of them are in this to get rich or even to make a profit. Unleash the Archers is a labour of love and that genuineness just flows through this evening. They are here in Manchester (their first visit since 2017) because their fans demanded it, and not for any financial gain. This love and respect is reciprocal and the Club Academy is absolutely heaving with a cross-section of northern power metal connoisseurs that in many cases have travelled great distances to be here.

The set is fascinatingly structured as each of their last four albums is dealt with separately in its own cryogenically sealed segment. The “Abyss” is showcased first, then “Apex”, then “Time Stand Still” and finally “Phantoma”. Whilst not dealt with in a strict chronological order, you can see the development in their sound as they take us through their different incarnations. The “Time Stand Still” section is filled to the brim with raw, untamed energy. ‘Tonight We Ride’ and ‘Test Your Metal’ are fabulously playful but now feel like staging posts in the band's evolution. Brittney declares they are about to get the decade-old album remastered with the help of Jason Hansen, mastermind behind their subsequent releases and it will be interesting to see how an additional polish augments the sound.

When we reach the concluding “Phantoma” section, it becomes clear what a seismic leap in style and substance it is from their previous releases. The sound is denser and more contoured. There are fewer rough edges, and the musical textures are heightened and additionally defined. The four tracks aired tonight feel like the pinnacle of years of hard graft, like they have entered another stage in their musical journey. ‘Gods in Decay’ is an astonishingly well-groomed slice of precision power metal. The chorus is luxuriously opulent, and the guitar work is so meticulously constructed. Brittney describes it as her favourite from the album and laments that she was voted down from having it as a single.

The brevity of the stage production this evening proves that you don’t need bells and whistles to be a fantastic live proposition. Aside from the barest of technical equipment, there is nothing onstage aside from the band and their monolithic talent. Brittney’s voice is astonishing in both its range and its resilience. She races through octaves with the scantest disregard for the feats she is undertaking. But she isn’t just soullessly showboating. There is a warmth to her presentation, and she oozes charisma and charm. The rest of the band also hold up their side of the bargain. As we said at the start, it is clear that they are doing this because of love and dedication to the cause. It may be a Wednesday night smack in the middle of festival season, but Unleash the Archers have proved the Kevin Costner conundrum of “Build it and they will come” is indeed true. It is hoped that other bands that view the confines of this country ending somewhere just above the North Circular take note. Unleash the Archers listened to cries of “why not my town?”, made the effort, and the crowds showed up. Hats off to them indeed.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Unleash The Archers + All For Metal