Live Review : Evergrey + Fractal Universe + Virtual Symmetry @ Academy 3, Manchester on September 20th 2022

We are still in catch up mode. Evergrey were meant to visit these shores just as Covid first reared its ugly head. They then made another doomed attempt last Autumn as the pandemic’s tailwind still thrashed around the world. But finally, over two years late we are on. However, so much water has passed under the bridge they are now here to promote not one but two new records produced during the global slumber. Selective appeal is tonight’s watch word. Academy 3 is not particularly heaving but everybody here seems to both know and revere all of the three of the acts on offer.

Live Review : Polaris + Alpha Wolf + Great American Ghost + Stepson @ Academy 2, Manchester on September 18th 2022

It’s a Sunday evening, and a fairly early start at that. But that doesn’t stop the crowd filling up quickly for first-on support Stepson. The Brisbane, Australia based hardcore band set about their work with enthusiasm and vigor. Elements of Touché Amoré and Our Hollow Our Home can be seen in their sound, and their jagged guitars provide the perfect backdrop to Brock Alan Conry’s raw emotive vocals.

Live Review : Battle Beast + Future Palace @ Academy Club, Manchester on September 16th 2022

Another day, another Finnish band to go and watch, hurrah! Tonight is another step outside my musical comfort zone, I’m not familiar with either band although I have seen and enjoyed a band connected to the headliners via their former guitarist, so I settle into my usual spot at the back and get ready to have a good old listen. This is because Club Academy, although a decent size and with decent sound, is a basement venue with a low stage and a lot of random pillars dotted about the place. The chances of a short person like me actually seeing much of the band is fairly minimal, although I do occasionally catch a glimpse of the tops of their heads!

Live Review : Cassyette + Kid Bookie @ Academy 3, Manchester on September 15th 2022

Walking up to the Student Union Building I can see a ridiculously long queue and am momentarily perplexed. I push my way to the front, noting the support band are due on in five minutes and as I enter the building can see swathes of young whippersnappers on their way to Academy 2 for something obviously less palatable than the delights on offer upstairs.

Within minutes Kid Bookie takes to the stage. It is loud, louder than any other gig I have been to in here for a while, heavy, obnoxious and sweary. Described as rap rock (also trap rock – anyone?

Live Review : Blind Channel + Lost Society @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 14th 2022

It’s Wednesday night, hump day as some like to call it. So what better way to get over that hump than to head off to Rebellion and watch some Finnish Eurovision hopefuls? Yep, you heard that right. Finland’s 2021 entry are here tonight in a club that for some bizarre reason seems to get smaller every time I visit it. This time the comfy seats at the back so beloved of my Grumpy Husband have disappeared, there’s a maze-like screened bit to get in, and they appear to have demolished the toilets. No, really. Two large off-corridor loos are now steps down to a couple of cubicles and the outside. Don’t even get me started on the queues, for a moment I could have been in London waiting to see the Queen (RIP)!

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby15 September 2022RebellionBlind Channel, Lost Society, Rebellion, Manchester, 2022, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Cancer Bats + Witch Fever + Graphic Nature @ Arts Club, Liverpool on September 12th 2022

Opening tonight’s proceedings are Graphic Nature. Stepping in for XL Life on the tour, the Kent metallers are very much in the modern vein of metalcore tinged deathcore. On record they are definitely worth checking out by fans of new nu-metal bands like Blood Youth and Death Blooms, but it’s live that this five-piece come to life. Harnessing the brutal guitars and bass of Emmure, and mashing that with harsh metal-hardcore vocals akin to Loathe, they are a splendid and invigorating assault on the senses.

Live Review : Machine Head + Amon Amarth + The Halo Effect @ AO Arena, Manchester on September 12th 2022

If you want proof that the cost-of-living crisis is beginning to bite, then you need not look further than the woeful attendance for tonight's show. Both Machine Head and Amon Amarth are titans in our world, yet once-in-a-lifetime pair up has sold less than 5000 tickets for a twenty-two thousand-capacity arena. The underpopulation and unadvertised early start mean that the Halo Effect are shoved out in front of a bare handful of people. This is a crying shame as they are absolutely astonishing this evening.

Live Review : Lonely the Brave + VLMV + The Throwaway Scene @ Academy 3, Manchester on September 9th 2022

Arriving late (I know there is a theme emerging) I only caught the end of The Throwaway Scene. The venue is quite empty, but it is early, and it has been a surreal day after the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth yesterday. This trio are rock/ emo comprising a rather smartly dressed singer, a bassist, and drummer. Having no guitarist is weird, so we get a stripped back sound, but it works; a mix of clear, angsty but energetically delivered vocals with a heavy accompaniment. They have recently added the video for ‘Conscience Alley’ to YouTube, so give them a listen.

Live Review : Crippled Black Phoenix + MØL + Impure Wilhelmina @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 9th 2022

Being a devotee of an underground and under appreciated band is rather like being a fan of a third-division football team. For one there is an awful lot of tedious travel involved. My incredibly unscientific poll (I heard a smattering of Scouse accents and spoke to people from as far afield as Leicester and Lancaster) showed that people had travelled from all over the northwest (and further) for tonight's show. Secondly, there is that gnawing loneliness caused by the fact that most of the time nobody else seems to really appreciate what you see in them.

Live Review : Reckless Love + The Treatment + Collateral @ Hangar 34, Liverpool on September 3rd 2022

It’s a funny sort of night tonight. This is one of a long line of covid-hit gigs, originally scheduled to be Reckless Love and Dan Reed Network co-headlining, with Mason Hill supporting. Then covid happened, and it all got postponed, and rescheduled, and postponed again, then things happened in the Dan Reed camp and he dropped out, the dates didn’t work for Mason Hill, the original venue (grand Central Hall) closed down and we began to wonder if any tour at all would happen.

Live Review : The Interrupters + The Skints + The Bar Stool Preachers @ the Academy, Manchester on August 29th 2022

Arriving fashionably late I miss part of The Barstool Preachers set and hover at the back, disappointed with myself as the few songs I caught, including ‘When This World Ends’ and ‘Barstool Preacher’ have the place buzzing. I have heard good things about the band and have heard a few tracks on the radio, but until tonight I know very little about them.

Live Review : Death Angel + Thrown Into Exile + Reaper @ Rebellion, Manchester on August 15th 2022

If Uada provided a stiff Aperitif for Bloodstock, then Death Angel is the perfect lengthy digestif. And I put the emphasis on lengthy, as even though the UK dates are right in the middle of a continental festival trek, Death Angel resist the temptation to just give us their mid-afternoon set and instead serve up a whopping two-hour plus show. We even get a decent undercard with much fancied Liverpudlian thrashers Reaper opening up proceedings. There is something wonderfully endearing about watching a bunch of kids, who weren't even around when thrash first happened (hell, whose parents probably won't even around) play this music with such conviction and obvious enjoyment.

Live Review : Uada + Panzerfaust @ Rebellion, Manchester on August 9th 2022

Tonight, serves as a cheeky aperitif to the impending metalageddon that is the Bloodstock festival. However, the one question that it does raise is why the hell our Vicki didn't manage to snare either of these bands for her jamboree of noise. You see both Panzafaust and Uada are part of a new generation of Black Metal bands that are determined to leave the genre’s constricting templates behind. Rather than embroil themselves in decades-old conventions and constructs, they use Black Metal as a launchpad to explore other sonic landscapes.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas17 August 2022RebellionUada, Panzerfaust, Rebellion, Manchester, 2022, Live Review, Stewart Lucas, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Comeback Kid + Spaced + XL Life @ The Bread Shed, Manchester on August 2nd 2022

I think it's fair to say that we don't get masses of hardcore gigs passing through the North West, so it’s a real treat to have a band with the calibre of Comeback Kid headlining a gig in Manchester. The Bread Shed offers everything you need to make this kind of gig work, with that underground vibe and close-up intimate stage. In fact, as would be hoped at a hardcore gig, there’s no barrier tonight - something our photographer is a bit nervous about it’s plain to see!

Gig ReviewAuthor : Matt Fraser6 August 2022The Bread ShedComeback Kid, Spaced, XL Life, The Bread Shed, Manchester, 2022, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Dropout Kings + Borders + In Depths @ Satan’s Hollow, Manchester on July 26th 2022

There’s nothing like walking through the streets of Manchester on a sunny day...on your way to Satan’s Hollow for a gig! Just as i’m strolling to the venue I spot ROCKFLESH’s very own Dark Lord himself (Johann), complete with a an injured hand. Ensuing jokes about me possibly having to take the photos of tonight’s gig, as well as writing the review, serve only to make me chuckl and smile more. Spolier – Johann did take the photos and did and amazing job working through the obvious pain in hand, ever the professional and champ. As we make our way up to stairs into the venue we can hear that openers In Depths have already started and in full flow.

Live Review : Myke Gray + Ashen Reach @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on July 24th 2022

It’s hard to imagine sometimes exactly where the last 30 years have gone isn’t it? If we think back to those days, say every time we listen to Planet Rock, it immediately transports you back through time and the music we listened to, or probably still listen to, and how it has woven in and out of our lives through the good, the bad and the indifferent times.

Live Review : The Struts + Cardinal Black @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on July 19th 2022

My first gig was Queen at Wembley Stadium. In equal measure majestic and ethereal, the image of Freddie Mercury is forever imprinted on my brain. He seemed to be hyperreal, burning off the stage in a flurry of kinetic energy. There was something magical about the way he held eighty-odd thousand people in the palm of his hand. I was transfixed and forever smitten.

Live review : The Prodigy + Jaguar Skills @ Mounford Hall, Liverpool on July 14th 2022

The last time I saw The Prodigy was also in Liverpool. I’d spent a lonely afternoon day drinking after nobody turned up at the agreed time, rocked up at the arena after a few shots in Bar Ca Va, and had a fight with a guy because his trainers were worth £400 and what was I doing dancing near him… mate I am living my best life, good grief.

It was also the last time I saw Keith Flint.

Live Review : Gatecreeper + Cryptic Shift + Celestial Sanctuary @ Rebellion, Manchester on July 9th 2022

It's officially the hottest nights of the year. The atmosphere is stifling, and you can feel the heat sizzle off the pavement. This is a night for smooth tunes and a gentle summer breeze. So where am I, I hear you cry? Well, I'm melting in a sweltering and heaving Rebellion to witness a trio of corrosive Death Metal bands, where else would I be? The fact that the place is so packed speaks volumes about a) how desperate we are to get back to live music (it still feels like a forbidden fruit that could be snatched from us at any given time) and b) the power of word-of-mouth.

Live Review : Vulvodynia + Pintglass + Auraboros @ Star and Garter, Manchester on July 6th 2022

Late opening doors, list confusion, a surplus of photographers and the distraction of a political meltdown happening down in Westminster, all mean that I only catch the dying seconds of Auraboros. What I do see is simultaneously chaotic and cathartic. They are a blur of kinetic energy, hurling fistfuls of distorted metalcore into the crowd. Very much one to put on my "need to arrive earlier" list.