Live Review : Slaughter To Prevail + Dying Fetus + Suicide Silence + Annotations Of An Autopsy @ O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester on January 17th 2026

Rock 'n' roll is founded on controversy. From Elvis swinging his hips in a sexualised manner, through the Beatles declaring themselves to be bigger than Jesus, the Sex Pistols dropping the F-bomb on prime-time telly and onto Ozzy urinating on the Alamo while wearing one of Sharon's dresses. One of its fundamental tenets is to cause the generation before it to look at their children and say, “don’t grow up like that”. The latest in a long line of controversial acts to shake the moral fibre of the nation are Russian/British deathcore agitators Slaughter to Prevail.

Live Review : Born Of Osiris + Within Destruction + Aversions Crown + Larcenia Roe @ Academy 3, Manchester on January 13th 2026

We are now into the second week of 2026 and we are very much back to business as usual. We start the year in many ways as we ended it with an extremely tasty quadruple bill that illustrates the array of different flavours and textures currently available within extreme music. All four bands represented here this evening in some way galvanise around what we know as death metal, but all four bands come to this musical mecca from incredibly different directions. It is like watching four distinctly diverse interpretations of the same play. There is a shared DNA, but the shells it is housed within are remarkably different.

Live Review : Swallow The Sun + Saturnus + Opia @ Rebellion, Manchester on December 16th 2025

There is a divine beauty in darkness. In the shrouded bleakness, if you look hard enough, you will always find hope, redemption, and immaculate splendour. For respectively thirty-four and twenty-five years, Saturnus and Swallow The Sun have been mining the melancholic gloom for the glimmers of positivity. They both operate in a corner of the doom metal universe that is melodic and tinged with sadness as opposed to sadism. It is doom metal in the fact that it is slow and pendulous in its delivery, but it has an emotive and poignant core, focusing on affairs of the heart instead of the more fanciful and fantastic.

Live Review : Crobot + Ingénue + Lute @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester on December 10th 2025

How do you get more intimate than the sweat box that is The Deaf Institute upstairs room? The answer is plain and simple, you can move the whole shebang downstairs into the main pub. This evening's event has the feel of having a band play your Nan’s front room. It's claustrophobic, in places it is shambolic, and you're not going to find any self-respecting cat getting itself swung round this place. But it embodies the true spirit of rock n‘ roll. You can take your arenas, you can take your Apollo's and you can shove your Academies up whatever orifice you fancy; this is where our music thrives, this is its foundry and this is its source.

Live Review : Conan + Chained To The Bottom Of The Ocean @ Rebellion, Manchester on November 26th 2025

If you strip metal back to its molten core, you will find Conan. They synthesise the base element of ungodly weight that makes metal, metal and celebrate the simplistic beauty of that gnarly heaviness. There is something ritualistic and primal about their approach; by removing all the elements that have aided metal's evolution, they reboot everything to a point where it is all about the heaviness.

Live Review : Halestorm + Bloodywood + Kelsy Karter & The Heroines @ AO Arena, Manchester on November 24th 2025

There is prestige in becoming an arena-level act. It signifies a shift from making it to having made it, a sense of sustainability. It is a badge of honour to be able to fill cavernous rooms, a status symbol. It is a state of affairs that many bands aspire to, but few actually achieve. Halestorm are one of a number of acts attempting to make that jump from theatres to enormodomes. In many ways they achieve the feat unscathed and with their integrity intact.

Live Review : Svalbard + Cage Fight + Knife Bride @ Rebellion, Manchester on November 20th 2025

Svalbard may well cover unsettling subject matters, but they always had an element of joy about them. The music they choose to accompany their treaties on depression and isolation has consistently had a euphoric element to it. It uplifts as opposed to grinding down the listener. Whilst Serena Cherry cheekily welcomes us to their funeral, tonight's final performance in Manchester before they call it a day, has an air of celebration as opposed to commiseration. Serena herself is positively bouncy and comes across as being in a particularly healthy state of mind. It is obvious they are very proud of everything the band has achieved, but that they are also very aware of when to step away. As Serena declares midway through the show, “We are ending like we started, with passion in our hearts and no money in our bank accounts”.

Live Review : Wednesday 13 + The Soap Girls + The Nocturnal Affair @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on November 5th 2025

Like a pumpkin left on the porch, Wednesday 13 is here to provide Halloween vibes after the big day has come and gone. Now whilst Wednesday 13 may have long ago decided the UK is a lucrative market for shock horror rock 'n' roll antics, this is his third tour of this isle in twelve months and there is a distinct whiff of diminishing returns. The 1,500 capacity Ritz has shifted 350 tickets, and ...

Live Review : Coheed and Cambria + And So I Watch You From Afar @ Academy, Manchester on October 20th 2025

Coheed and Cambria have always been a very interesting and difficult-to-pigeonhole proposition. But when you get down to it, they are essentially classic rock for hipsters. Their sound is slick, immaculately produced and eminently sing-alongable to. What elevates them, though from being yet another band with catchy choruses and melodic hooks is the intellect and concepts behind their material. Every track is part of a massive, multifaceted, fantastical tale.

Live Review : Testament + Obituary + Destruction + Nervosa @ Academy, Manchester on October 10th 2025

Tonight, Manchester is metal city, but there is a distinct air of age demarcation going on. If you are under 35 then you are off to Co-op Live to witness Architects' ascension to greatness in Europe’s biggest arena. However, those of the disposition of being over 35 you are heading to the Academy for a stunningly retro celebration of a musical art form that is now well into its fifties. This iteration of Thrash of The Titans brings together all the distinct flavours of the flash in the pan movement that steadfastly refuses to die. We have new blood from South America in the shame of Nervosa, teutonic terror from Destruction, old school thrash/death hybrid from Obituary and a headline stint from a band that should be king, the almighty and still thoroughly underrated Testament.

Live Review : Paradise Lost + Messa + High Parasite @ New Century Hall, Manchester on October 9th 2025

It is now de rigueur to describe the early 90s UK metal scene as a bit of a desolate wasteland laid bare by the cataclysmic influence of grunge and American alt-rock. Whilst Seattle’s influence was far-reaching, in West Yorkshire, something quite incredible was forming. Whilst Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride (and Anathema over on Merseyside) were aware of each other, their brands of Gothic metal developed independently of each other. More a collection of bands with shared influences than a scene, it still proved that not every new act wanted to sound like they came from over the pond.

Live Review : Blood Incantation + Oranssi Pazuzu + Sijjin @ Albert Hall, Manchester on October 8th 2025

This evening is all about expectation. Blood Incantation blew everyone away last year with an album that challenged the very core of our music. “Absolutely Elsewhere” topped every end-of-year chart going (including our own), and the furore started to build about seeing these songs come to life in a live context. The size of venues on this tour is a massive step up for a band that has previously haunted the tiny but legendary Nambucca in London (now horribly gentrified). The expectation is both how the astonishing Tablet suite (that makes up the whole album) is reproduced in the flesh and also how Blood Incantation cope with their sudden, but well-deserved, transfer to the big league.

Live Review : Refused + Quicksand + Shooting Daggers @ O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester on October 2nd 2025

Prophetically, Refused’s 1998 third record “The Shape of Punk to Come”, has become the most important punk album since “Never the Bollocks” careered into our collective lives. However, at the time it was a commercial bomb and was scorned by the band’s ferment fanbase. It was so ill thought of, that the derision sent the band into a tailspin that they never recovered from. They partially limped through a traumatic American tour only to implode during an internal flight to Atlanta, Georgia. It was only after their demise that people started to see the astonishing depth of this unparalleled prog punk masterpiece.

Live Review : Nekrogoblikon + Allegaeon + Party Cannon + Grief Ritual @ Club Academy, Manchester on September 25th 2025

A euphoric crowd can make a show. The audience becomes the twelfth man, enhancing the performance and turbocharging the atmosphere. Tonight is one of those instances. It might be a Thursday night in that very Mancunian of seasons, second summer, but those in attendance are ready to party like it's 1999. It is a smorgasbord of goblin masks, pointed ears and party hats. Rather than become a cauldron of repulsive toxic masculinity, the pit this evening is a fabulous, inclusive maelstrom of energetic fun. There are Push-ups, rowing, and whale rides in this wild communal orgy of ridiculousness. The geniality and good-natured preposterousness is intoxicating and resonates far out across the venue, attaching everyone and every act to its gravitational pull.

Live Review : Earthtone9 + Sugar Horse @ Academy 3, Manchester on September 20th 2025

There are albums that are born out of time. Records that are created in one era but steadfastly belong in another time period. Recordings that feel as if they have fallen through a hole in the space-time continuum. Earthtone9’s seminal third offering “Arc Tan Gent” is one such effort. Unveiled in 2000, it was birthed into a world where metal was back but was obsessed with “Nookie”, papercuts and smashing a baseball bat against a steel drum. “Arc Tan Gent” was slight, cerebral and highly intelligent. It married metal, prog and hardcore into an unholy trinity of sound that resonated righteous anger but was thoughtful about its disdain.

Live Review : Portal + Impetuous Ritual + Abduction @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 18th 2025

Good things come to those who wait, or more literally, cacophonous, impenetrable noise comes to those who wait. Portal are a veritable enigma. The Australian noise mongers have existed in some form for over 30 years, yet visits to these shores have been few and very far between. The last time they were here (in fact, the only other time they've been here) was for the late lamented Temples festival in 2015. With some acts, this lack of physical contact would breed contempt or even apathy, but with Portal their absence has added to the mythology and expectation.

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…

Live Review : Deftones + High Vis @ The Piece Hall, Halifax on June 24th 2025

The Deftones have always existed in a rather interesting netherworld. They emerged during the reign of nu-metal, but they were always too experimental and cerebral to be fully integrated into that scene. The frankly extraordinary “White Pony” and the 2003 self-titled fourth album, thrust them into arena land and festival special guest status, but try as they might, subsequent releases never seemed able to push them any further. That is, until now. After looking like, they were cursed to always be the bridesmaid and never the bride at a total of four Download and one Sonisphere, this summer finally sees them headlining open-air shows in the country.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas26 June 2025The Piece HallDeftones, Piece Hall, Halifax, 2025, Live Review, Stewart LucasComment

Live Review : Iron Maiden @ Co-op Live, Manchester on June 22nd 2025

The fluidity of fame and fortune is incredibly fickle. We describe Iron Maiden’s late eighties period as “The biggest metal band on the planet”, as “Their Imperious Phase”. However, let’s be honest, they are more popular now than they ever were at their peak. Iron Maiden have transcended being a band and are now an institution, a cultural phenomenon. A national treasure with their own beer, stamps and merch that is sold in ASDA as part of its Father’s Day range. The Co-op arena is an inter-generational melting pot of different creeds, colours and cultural backgrounds. This selection box of diversity shares one uniting thread; they love Iron Maiden with a passion.

Live Review : Dark Angel + Schizophrenia @ Academy 2, Manchester on June 9th 2025

The prevailing wisdom is that when thrash emerged in the early 1980s, it was a unified entity. A unitary sub-genre with a singular sound and context. This fits the narrative of thrash as the rejuvenative power that transformed metal, but if we are honest is more myth than solid historical fact. The truth is that thrash was a broad term used to describe an emerging hodgepodge of styles that shared a belief that metal was becoming too bloated, comfortable, and mainstream. Some purveyors hitched themselves to the emerging hardcore punk scene whilst others mined the back catalogue of NWOBHM luminaries Diamond Head, Satan and Venom.