Live Review : Arcaeon + Where Oceans Burn + Cut Short + False Hope @ Jimmy’s, Liverpool on July 28th 2021

It's my first time in Jimmy’s, and my first metal gig back following the lockdowns of the pandemic. I like the vibe in the venue – the staff are welcoming, offering me their own Jimmy’s brews, all served beneath the neon signs and lava lamps flooding the walls. It has the feel of a rock bar, and that’s something you don’t actually see that often these days. Meeting up with Rockflesh overlord Johann, we move downstairs into the gig venue. It's certainly intimate, and has an awesome DIY punk feel to the whole place. I leave Johann to dash down the front as I set-up shop at the back of the room…about five people from the front of the stage still!

Gig ReviewAuthor : Matt Fraser4 August 2021Jimmy'sArcaeon, Where Oceans Burn, Cut Short, False Hope, Jimmy's, Liverpool, 2021, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Those Damn Crows + Empyre + These Wicked Rivers @ The Tivoli on July 30th 2021, A Welsh Government Pilot Gig

16 months! 16 months since the Tivoli closed its doors and was then not able to open them again until this show. It feels like forever. But hey ho, here we are, and after imposing seated limits on the Tiv that would have meant they couldn’t break even, the Welsh Government have allowed tonight’s show to go ahead unrestricted as a pilot. This means that everyone who came had to show proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within the last 24 hours, and also bring photo ID. Masks had to be worn whilst queuing outside the venue but once we were in it was business as usual.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby4 August 2021The TivoliLive Review, Those Damn Crows, Empyre, These Wicked Rivers, The Tivoli, 2021Comment

Live Review : Party Cannon + Crepitation + Twitch of the Death Nerve + Visions of Disfigurement + Coprocephalic Mutation @ the Star and Garter, Manchester on July 23rd 2021

As Douglas Adams once wrote “We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem”. This is Manchester’s first Metal show since the so-called Freedom Day. It falls to this Slam Metal package tour, topped by party slam uberlords Party Cannon, to, well, bring the party. For the uneducated Slam Metal is Death Metal’s feral younger sibling. Whereas Death Metal can be reserved and sophisticated when it wants to be, Slam is a puerile art form that reveals in being uncouth and unsanitised.

Live Review : Download Pilot @ Donington Park on June 18-20th 2021

Ok lets cut to the chase, last weekend’s Download Pilot (or Diddy Download as every bugger and their aunt are calling it) was probably the most pleasant experience I have had in the eighteen years I have been making an annual pilgrimage to Donington Park. Let’s put all the emotion aside of this being the first one back and concentrate on what worked, which frankly was its size.

Live Review : Pist + Mastiff @ the Manchester Academy on June 11th 2021

On March 11th 2020 I went to see Employed to Serve at one of the smaller rooms here at Manchester University Student Union’s sprawling Academy complex. I consider this place a second home. I went to university here, so been attending gigs in its four venues for thirty years. I did my finals in the Academy (and was only halfway through my additional time when the Indigo Girls came onto soundcheck, but that’s another story). Hell, the main security guard on the door welcomes me with a hug. What I didn’t know that night as I cycled off was that it would be my last visit for fifteen months.

Live Review : Shining Blackjazz Streaming Show on June 6th 2020

Live streams are evolving. Bands are realising that there is an opportunity to make “event” shows. Shows that stretch the boundaries of what performance actually is. Tonight “gig” is about as far you can possibly get from the usual fare of rock star strumming acoustic versions of their hits in their designer kitchen. It is a taut, claustrophobic and hypnotic experience that discombobulates as much as it entertains. Shining have always trod the left-hand path and have made a career out of being challenging and often contrary. “BlackJazz”, the record being celebrated here tonight, is the last word in free form jazz reimagined as Black Metal. It is a monumental piece of work.

Live Review : Amorphis 30th Anniversary – Stream From The North Side on June 4th 2020

It must be lousy to have a landmark birthday or anniversary in 2020. All those carefully laid plans scuppered by this bugger of a pandemic. This is exactly the situation that Amorphis find themselves in. This year is the 30th anniversary of their formation and they had grand designs of how to mark this momentous occasion. Sadly lockdowns and the fact that none of us are going anywhere quick has put paid to all of that. However, instead of being downhearted they have decided to jump on the live stream bandwagon and perform two special commemorative shows from their home town of Helsinki.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas6 June 2020KaapelitehdasAmorphis, Stream, 2020, Review, Stewart LucasComment

Live Review : Dropkick Murphys Live Stream at Fenway Park, Boston U.S.A. on May 29th 2020

How do you do a socially distanced gig when you have eight members? You play on a sports field! Not a stage set up at the end of a stadium but literally on the field of play. Tonight is by far the most ambitious and large scale live stream event that has been attempted. The Dropkick Murphys are never one to do things by halves and here they are playing on diamond at the Red Sox home …

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas30 May 2020Dropkick Murphys, Bruce Springsteen, Red Sox, Fenway Park, Boston, 2020, StreamComment

Live Review : Insomnium Winter's Gate's Live Stream on May 29th 2020

Ok! We have the man that wrote a whole blog about not doing live streamed gigs doing a live stream (well to be honest two in one night but let’s stick with the first one first). The reason is that it would take something really special to coax me into the streamed show fad and put simply, “Winter’s Gate” is that something special. A single forty minute long melodic death Metal masterpiece ...

Live Review : Tony Wright + Takeaway Thieves from my living room on March 19th 2020

Gigging In The Living (Room) - A New Reality? How Live Music Might Survive Covid-19
Featuring Tony Wright, Takeaway Thieves

Mamama my corona….. yep, that damned virus is really taking hold of the world now, and unfortunately a major side effect of social distancing is that gigs are getting cancelled and venues are having to close their doors all over the place.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby5 April 2020Tony Wright, Terrorvision, Takeaway Thieves, The Waterloo, GoFundMe, 2020, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : Tragedy + Attic Theory + Mr Ted @ O2 Academy 2, Liverpool on March 12th 2020

When your show is part gig and part theatre, it must be quite hard to find an appropriate support act. Tragedy tonight gave us a couple of local bands, kicking things off with the scouse humour and somewhat weird sound of Mr Ted. I’ll be honest, watching all the man-buns and hipster beards nodding along to their rather strange mishmash of sound made me feel really old. It was a bit avant-garde, a bit, well, odd really.

Live Review : Employed To Serve + Palm Reader + Cruelty @ Academy 3, Manchester on March 11th 2020

There are those who feel that the extreme end of our music all sounds the same. They just see and hear a blanket of over-whelming white noise and don’t get the subtleties and textures. To the unacquainted, all three bands here tonight could be accused of being noise for noise sake, but actually there is far far more to them.

Live Review : Phil X & The Drills + Collateral + Western Sand @ Rebellion, Manchester on March 7th 2020

I’m still buzzing from interviewing Phil X as Ryan and I rock up to Rebellion for tonight’s gig so, rum in hand, I settle down for what I expect to be a good night of rock. I’m not disappointed either.We start the night with Western Sand, a band I’m not familiar with. They play upbeat southern blues, in a ZZ Top kind of style. Their songs are catchy and hummable, and the drumming is superb. There was a standout track, a cover of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” that I particularly liked, and although this is not my favourite genre they were really good at what they did and I enjoyed watching them.

Live Review : The Sisters Of Mercy + A.A. Williams @ The Albert Hall, Manchester on March 7th 2020

There was a lot of discussion in the virtual ROCKFLESH office (essentially a messenger thread) about whether we should be covering this show at all. There were those that argued that Goth was separate to our world and those (me) that put forward the alternative opinion that Goth and Metal have had an entwined relationship over the decades and whilst separate genres, do have a symbiotic connection. There has been metalheads that have dabbled in the forbidden (and better dressed) pleasures of goth (including myself) and goths that have crossed the divide over into Metal.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas8 March 2020Albert HallSister Of Mercy, Albert HallComment

Live Review : Testament + Exodus + Death Angel @ Academy, Manchester on March 7th 2020

Last Saturday night, the Unholy Trinity of the Bay Area Thrash Scene descended upon an enthusiastic and energetic Manchester crowd. The event made history as it was part of The Bay Strikes Back Tour, which saw bands Testament, Exodus and Death Angel touring together for the very first time.The gig was sold out and the entire venue was packed to the brim from start to finish, with many people even having to stand outside the main hall – leaving you just enough room in front of you to headbang.

Live Review : Anvil + Ragdoll Sunday + Electus @ The Tivoli, Buckley on March 6th 2020

Anvil. Could a band name actually be more heavy metal than Anvil? A band from Canada that have been going for some 40 years through good times and bad. Some times so bad in fact that someone made a documentary about them. Yeah, this band is special alright. But more about them later, first let’s have a quick look at the two supports.

Live Review : Alcest + Birds In Row + Kælan Mikla @ Gorilla, Manchester on March 5th 2020

Kælan Mikla are an interesting proposition. This Icelandic trio come across as a mismatch of Fever Ray, Bjork and the Perturbator. Its all dark, synthy and haunting. Like the soundtrack of some forgotten eighties Vampire movie. The rapidly filling Gorilla take to them instantly and the audience reaction grows as the sold out crowd file in from the cold Mancunian night.

Live Review : Monuments + Heart Of A Coward + I Built The Sky @ Rebellion, Manchester on March 3rd 2020

I’m delighted that this two-date stop-off in the UK for Monuments is taking in Manchester, especially as they have Heart Of A Coward in tow, with both being in my list of favourite bands of recent times. This is in fact the second to last date of a pretty gruelling tour, including across Europe for the past month. There’s little sign of weariness from any of the acts though, as they bound around the venue checking out each other’s sets and soaking-up the atmosphere. They all seem buzzing to be here for tonight’s gig, and the anticipation from the crowd matches that atmosphere.

Live Review : Beartooth + The Amity Affliction + Higher Power @ The Academy, Manchester on February 28th 2020

Beartooth’s Disease tour has finally landed in Manchester, and it’s an exciting prospect to see them on such a big stage for their own headline show. Add to that the chance to see The Amity Affliction, and the UK’s very own up-and-coming hot property Higher Power, and you’ve got a real treat for a cold and blustery Friday night in February. As I make my way to Academy for tonight’s gig I’m shocked at the length of the queue. I knew the gig was sold out weeks ago, but I’ve never seen such a massive queue for a gig at Academy before – for all those saying Metal and Rock is dead, then tell that to all the mainly young metallers stood freezing in the cold tonight!

Live Review : Terrorvision + Attic Theory @ the Grand Central Hall, Liverpool on February 27th 2020

Last time I went to watch Attic Theory I managed to miss most of them due to parking issues. This time I was there for the whole set but I might as well not have been. it was somewhat spoiled by some serious sound issues. They came on dancing, but despite there being 3 guitars on stage I couldn’t really hear them distinctly, it was just a wall of noise. I moved about the room a bit and it did improve, but not enough I felt for me to be able to get the full Attic Theory experience.