Live Review : Ogun + Devils Henchmen + Autopsya + Scare Tactics @ District, Liverpool on October 19th 2024

When OGUN returned after a fourteen year hiatus a couple of years ago, it might not have been in anyone’s minds that it would take them to their first studio album. But it has, and tonight sees the culmination of their hard work and efforts. This show at District in Liverpool serves not only as a headline gig for the band to launch their album “World of Hate”, but also allows us to see some of the best thrash that the area has to offer, as well as a progressive treat in a band we’ve not seen for a while.

Live Review : Mallory Knox + Call Me Amour + HRTLSS @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 18th 2024

Sometimes you just want a melodic alt-rock band that delivers soaring clean vocals and catchy sing-along tunes – enter a reunited Mallory Knox. A ten-year anniversary tour of album ‘Asymmetry’ has come on the back of reunion dates at SlamDunk, and tonight gives the Manchester fans another chance to dance and sing along to all the classics from the Cambridgeshire rockers.

Live Review : Tailgunner + Battle Born + The Rattlebacks @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 17th 2024

The 80s are calling, and the Rebellion has answered. A night of heavy metal is in store, pious and pure, with studded leather, red bandanas and leopard print leggings the uniform tonight. This is one of the most glittering crowds to date at this Manchester main-stay venue, you could pluck any punter at random, throw them on stage with a microphone or guitar, and they’d look the part at least.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Liv Winter18 October 2024Tailgunner, Battle Born, The Rattlebacks, Rebellion, Manchester, 2024, Live Review, Olivia WinterComment

Live Review : Alice Cooper + Primal Scream + The Meffs @ AO Arena, Manchester on October 17th 2024

For all his household name and national treasure status, Alice Cooper is still very much an enigma. There are two distinct personalities at play. On the one hand, he is a Vaudeville showman, hawking around his macabre freakshow designed to shock and scare in equal measure. On the other hand, he is the custodian of probably one of the finest musical songbooks of the rock 'n' roll era. An Alice Cooper live performance is a fine-tuned balance between the two. As he sings in ‘Hello Hooray’ (sadly AWOL from tonight’s setlist) “Ready as this audience that's coming here to dream, Loving every second, every moment, every scream”. You go to Alice Cooper for a Circus of Horrors but packed with tracks that have perminated themselves into the rock lexicon. He is a living legend, with the musical credits to back up those credentials.

Live Review : Eleine + Ignea @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 13th 2024

Creeping around the dark corner into what feels like a witches cave, this vespertine exhibition of siren songstresses is just getting revved up and already the venue is filling out. The merchandise is set up in its usual space facing the bar, patrons peeking over their shoulders to marvel at the display of artwork as they wait in line for a beer.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Liv Winter15 October 2024RebellionEleine, Ignea, Rebellion, Manchester, 2024, Olivia WinterComment

Live Review : The Ghost Inside + Gideon + Boundaries @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 12th 2024

There’s a notable and eager queue outside the venue as they patiently wait for the doors to open on The Ghost Inside headlining in Manchester once again. The whole bill tonight is a mixture of variations on hardcore and metalcore, and for each band there are elements that set them apart from their peers stylistically and visually.

Live Review : Geoff Tate + Kim Jennett @ Academy 3, Manchester on October 9th 2024

Nostalgia is a potent force. It’s your own personal Time Machine, allowing us to revisit the sounds and the essence of our past exploits. It also has highly redemptive and restorative powers. It allows the whitewashing of career indiscretions and focuses on the highs, while simultaneously burying the lows. Queensryche are case in point, as the 80’s morphed into the 90’s they seemed poised to join Maiden and Metallica in the really big league of metallic heavy weights. “Operation Mindcrime “had position them as the thinking person’s metal band and follow-up “Empire” increased tenfold their commercial clout, thrusting them into arena status. For a short smidgen of time they had the Midas touch and could do no wrong. Then grunge happened.

Live Review: Takeaway Thieves @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 6th 2024

Blackpool’s favourite rock n roll rabble-rousers Takeaway Thieves return to their spiritual home, to celebrate the launch of their long-awaited second album “Diamond Point”. The Waterloo’s Sunday Service feels like an apt way to kick off this next stage of the Takeaway Thieves career as we all come together to worship at the altar of good-time rock n’ roll in the company of some of its greatest disciples…

Live Review : Visions of Atlantis + Illumishade + Seraina Telli @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 5th 2024

It’s a crisp evening in Manchester, and the crowd are eager as they queue outside Rebellion with hopes of setting sail on a voyage led by symphonic-pirate-metallers Visions of Atlantis. The headlining band are fundamentally known for their captivating symphonic metal inspired by tales of the sea, and have been selling out venue after venue on this tour with their nautical nights of symphonic-metal dynamism. It’s another full-house tonight and the place is buzzing with anticipation, a palpable sense of musical narrative adventure hanging in the air.

Live Review : Arch Enemy + In Flames + Soilwork @ Academy, Manchester on October 4th 2024

Swedish melodic death metal, that most geographically defined of subgenres. It arose in the mid-90s when our music was at its lowest ebb. Grunge, "alt-metal” and the early spectre of nu-metal have swept away the more traditional confines of our world. Metallica seemingly had turned their back on everything they had built and had started wearing eyeliner and trying to sound like Alice in Chains and a Bruce-less Iron Maiden couldn’t even get themselves arrested.

Live Review : Xander and The Peace Pirates @ Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool, on October 3rd 2024

It’s a Thursday night in Blackpool, the weekend is almost within touching distance and what better way to bring a busy week to a close than to spend an evening in a great venue with an equally fantastic band providing some delicious rock n soul goodness. And no, that’s no typo, I did mean to type rock and soul; for that’s what Xander and the Peace Pirates deliver; music to provide a balm to the heart and mind and all points in between.

Live Review : Bucovina + Finsterforst + Firtan + Countless Skies @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 3rd 2024

Embarking on an evening of dark bewitchment, Rebellion Manchester hosts four enthralling metal bands with Romanian rockers Bucovina at the helm. The essence of the night is Folk Metal, with mystical melodics taking centrestage, charming medieval quirks, and the undeniable stench of the Scandinavian metal spirit, blackening the night.

Live Review : Duff McKagan + James and the Cold Gun @ Academy 2, Manchester on October 3rd 2024

Let's be honest with ourselves, in a band as cool as Guns n’ Roses (and there was a good chunk of time in the late 80’s when they were as cool as fuck) Duff McKagan was the really cool one. When we were miming in the mirror to our bootlegged copy of “Appetite for Destruction” he was the one we wanted to be. Whilst the others came from the lineage of glam metal, Duff with his short hair and snarl was 100% punk. He brought the aggro, he brought the attitude, he was the linchpin that stopped Guns n’ Roses from being yet another Los Angeles vanity project.

Live Review : Barns Courtney + The Struts + James Bruner @ Albert Hall, Manchester on October 1st 2024

Whilst on the face of it this tour may come across as a bit of a hodgepodge of a package, there is a defining factor that links all three acts. That is highly charismatic front men. James Bruner, Luke Spiller and Barns Courtney may all exist in their own distinct musical universes, but they share a compelling magnetism that is absolutely captivating. When each of them are on the stage they are like attention hoovers wielding a gravitational pull that sucks all the interest towards them. They all have the innate ability to hold an audience in their hands and it is that allure that makes this evening so fascinating.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby3 October 2024Albert HallBarns Courtney, The Struts, James Bruner, Albert Hall, Manchester, 2024, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Apocalyptica + The Raven Age @ Albert Hall, Manchester on September 29th 2024

Apocalyptica have spent over 25 years refusing to be typecast. Starting life as a classical style Metallica tribute act, their 1996 debut “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” remains one of the most stunningly unique albums ever released. A further eight albums over a nearly 30-year career has seen them bring in a drummer and vocalist, write their own material and firmly break out of the mould of novelty cover act. All of which makes the decision to record a second Metallica cover album and tour it with a set list made up of exclusively Metallica covers both baffling and bold.

Live Review : Harbinger + Dekaytah + Dacara @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 28th 2024

Harbinger top the bill in what is otherwise a showcase of local talent for this all-dayer at Rebellion. There’s a mix of styles on display, but at the core if it all is metal, and some unique and fresh takes on various sub-genres at that. It’s an early start, and we’re told the venue has plenty of footfall from the mid-afternoon doors until the evening when we land at the venue.

Live Review : Cannibal Corpse + Municipal Waste + Immolation + Schizophrenia @ O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester on September 27th 2024

Having an addiction to live music is not a cheap pursuit. Club gigs are now coming in at around twenty quid and to see a more “name act” in either an Academy, Apollo or various O2 establishments is probably going to set you back the best part of fifty notes. If you are parting with that much hard currency for a night out, you want dependability. You want to be reassured that you will have a good time and are getting adequate bang for your buck. Cannibal Corpse are nothing but dependable.

Live Review : Monster Magnet + Margarita Witch Cult @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on September 22nd 2024

If Kyuss are Stoner Rock's Beatles (universally revered, rather pretentious, and no longer with us) then that makes Monster Magnet its Stones. There was always something a bit more organic, primal and downright sexy about Dave Wyndorff's crew that made them stand out from the other purveyors of mind-expanding space rock. Tonight is the start of a jaunt to celebrate 35 years of psychedelic riffs and cosmic baselines.

Live Review : Tyketto + Little Caesar + Dan Byrne @ Academy 2, Manchester on September 20th 2024

If ever there was a band made of teflon, you would probably call it Tyketto. For over 30 years the lineup changes have come and gone, the fashion for their kind of music has circled around, and the great and good have risen past them only to fall by the wayside. Yet through it all this band remains solid, powerful, uplifting and entertaining. If there have been Issues they just slide away like a freshly-fried egg in a well-seasoned pan. Tonight they are back in Manchester for the umpteenth time, bringing both a local(ish) lad and a not-often-seen band as support.

Live Review : Osiah + Draconian Reign + Beyond Extinction + Existentialist + To Obey A Tyrant @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 17th 2024

Tonight the inaugural UK deathcore tour organised by promoter Dead Species rolls into Manchester after starting off in Newcastle last week. As a Brucey bonus Draconian Reign have been added to the roster after having to miss the first date due to illness within the band. First to take to the stage are Bournemouth’s To Obey A Tyrant.