Live Review : Nervosa + Burning Witches + Bloodyard @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 18th 2022

Its Easter so a good resurrection story is fitting. In 2020 Brazilian thrashers, Nervosa imploded with the rest of the band walking away from founder Prika Amaral. Rather than see this as some sort of sign that she should do something else with her life, she managed to recruit three new members without actually meeting them (we were slap in the middle of a global pandemic). The miraculous part is the amount of chemistry that there is between this freshly reincarnated unit. But more about that later.

Live Review : Static Dress + Jools + The Throwaway Scene @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester on April 16th 2022

The thing that endlessly fascinates me about the modern music scene is the infinite amounts of crossover and genre splicing. Back in my day (here I go again), there were definitive walls and uncrossable distinctions between different scenes. You had pure versions of the distinct musical categories and you didn’t cross the beams. There is an emerging generation that seems comfortable with bending and distorting all those conventions that we felt were sacrosanct. What that leads to is a much more vibrant and fluid music scene where it is Ok to pull influence from a whole host of different aspects.

Live Review : Igorrr + Otto Von Schirach @ Club Academy, Manchester on April 15th 2022

Good Friday? More like unexpectedly muggy Friday, as my CC cream has slid off my face somewhere between Runcorn East and Grand Central. I want to be Queen of the Night but I am afraid I am more Rosy Cheeked Dickhead right now. I can't even blame my usual rushing from work, as I've not even been there today. I literally had all fucking day to get ready and still I messed up and forgot my glowsticks.

Glowsticks which I suspect I could have made good use of tonight.

Live Review : The Mission + Ist Ist + The Rose of Avalanche @O2 Ritz, Manchester on April 14th 2022

Many many blue moons ago, back when I had more hair and more teeth, I was a Goth. My gateway into Goth was The Mission and my introduction to The Mission was via the rather surprising route of the late lamented pop mag Smash Hits. They loved the “mish” (as they called them) and stuck frontman Wayne Hussey on the cover in March 1987. I was entranced by dark romance of the whole thing and spent my accumulated pocket money on their debut album “God’s Own Medicine”. This sent me down a gothic rabbit hole that, whilst I don’t have the hair and clothes anymore, I am still yet to emerge from.

Live Review : Baest + PIST + Atanamir @ Satan's Hollow, Manchester on April 12th 2022

Well, the shows are coming thick and fast. Tonight, is the utter antithesis of my previous engagement with Ghost at the arena. This is metal in its most gnarly cellar-dwelling form. Harsh, anti-social, un-commercial and utterly unrepentant. Liverpudlians Atanamir are first up, and whilst Satan’s Hollow is not in any way full, they pull a good crowd for this time of the day. They trade in doom laced thrash, which results in a really interesting intertwinement of the formers lethargy and the latter’s pulsating canter like nature.

Live Review : Ghost + Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats + Twin Temple @ AO Arena, Manchester on April 9th 2022

The rise of Ghost has been stratospheric. Eleven years ago I saw them open for a In Flames and Trivium double bill. They weren’t the slick flamboyant show-people that they are today, but the foundations were there. Press fast forward, and on the back of the fastest selling album of the year they are starting their campaign for global dominance here in Manchester. The arena is a seething mass of merging tribes. Ghost have attracted a heady mix of grizzled metallers, one-show a year trendies, goth nuns and curious bystanders. What these diverse groups share is a desire to be entertained. Ghost have tapped into that pent up need for escapism and showmanship.

Live Review : Therapy? + Enola Gay @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on April 10th 2022

Two gigs in one weekend? Yes. It’s good and bad now everything is back up and running again, feels like everything is coinciding and not sure I can keep up. However I wasn’t going to miss this gig for anything as I bought my ticket back in 2019 and after 3 or more postponements we are finally here! We arrive early and the place is quiet, much quieter than expected. I do not know if this is due to all the rescheduling or because it’s Sunday night, but by 8pm the place is starting to fill up for tonight’s support band.

Live Review : Skunk Anansie + Gen and the Degenerates + Holocene @ O2 Warehouse, Manchester on April 8th 2022

Taxi traumas... 30 minutes late and with much swearing… it finally turns up and I arrive slightly disorientated and not in the best mood. I grab a drink and can hear Holocene, a singer-songwriter and guitarist aka Sian Kelly sounding great, but sadly she finishes as I am about to watch. Having caught up on YouTube I’m really disappointed to miss her as I’m sure she gave a brilliant performance; powerful vocals (think slightly Taylor Momsen-esque from The Pretty Reckless), melodic guitars, all a bit reminiscent of a chilled version of Garbage.

Live Review : Devil Sold His Soul + Urne + Forlorn @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 8th 2022

It’s been a long nine years since emotive metalcore heroes (emocore if you like), Devil Sold his Soul last headlined in this city (they did remember we exist back in 2017 but that was to support Skith). Well in support of their rather excellent “Loss” (their first album in nine years and number 73 in our 2021 countdown) they are back, and they have brought the rather wonderful Urne (probably ROCKFLESH’s fav new band) with them. However first up are Forlorn. Sadly, this is not the legendary but now defunct Nordic Viking metal forebears, this Forlorn are from various places in the South of the Country (essentially not the North).

Live Review : Dark Tranquility + Ensiferum + Nailed To Obscurity + Brunhilde @ Academy Club, Manchester on April 7th 2022

Another day, another quite astounding metal package tour. Anyone would think that live music got canned for two whole years and that bands are busy trying to make up for lost time? A stacked bill means an early start time and those early doors means that we supposedly miss Brunhilde, then we later learn so did everybody as they don’t show.

Live Review : Fucked Up + Sacred Paws + Tuka @ Gorilla, Manchester on April 5th 2022

“David Comes to Life” is the greatest album that you have never heard of. It is an art punk masterpiece. It takes the most maligned of musical forms, namely the rock opera, and reclaims it. Gone is the bloated pretention and instead we are presented with an intricate and fascinating narrative stretched across eighteen stunningly minimal and melodic punk rock songs. It is punk in its primal three chords beauty. Stripped of all its nihilism and vulgarity, this is punk as a beautiful minimalistic art form. Short, evocative tracks that capture the power and magnitude of rock ‘n roll.

Live Review : Less Than Jake + Skinny Lister + The Toasters + Millie Manders and the Shutup @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on April 3rd 2022

A gig? What on earth?! Yes I’m reviewing a gig for the first time in 2022. I have managed to see Creeper and Paradise Lost so far this year, but now it’s good to be back actually reviewing… though truth be told I probably should not be out at all. Saturday morning I was in hospital at 8am having a chunk of flesh, ROCKFLESH no doubt, removed from my body and come Sunday night I am still feeling tired and sore…

Live Review : FM + Grand Slam @ Academy Club, Manchester on April 2nd 2022

British AOR rock Gods FM are back in town in support of their new album; the recently released “Thirteen”, and with Grand Slam supporting, there promises to be somewhat of a classic and AOR rock party to look forward to, and with a wonderful blend of old and new material from both bands, it was certainly a case of value for money for a Saturday evening in Manchester.

Live Review : Killing Joke + The Imbeciles @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on April 1st 2022

I’ve not reviewed a gig at the Liverpool O2 Academy before, even though I’ve been many a time as a punter, so as we climb the never-ending staircase I feel like I’m taking in everything new and afresh. In fact that’s an experience we’re all still coming across as we venture to more and more gigs following the return to live music with the reduction in restrictions from the pandemic. I honestly didn’t know if I’d get to see Killing Joke live every again in all honesty, so I’m eager and excited to be at a gig for one of my favourite bands ever.

Live Review : Decapitated + Signs Of The Swarm + Harbinger + Where Oceans Burn @ The Bread Shed, Manchester on April 1st 2022

It seems during the dramatic full stop that was lockdown, we seem to have reassessed our relationship with live music and we have realised that we potentially took it for granted. Three years ago, in those heady pre-covid times, I saw Decapitated in a barely quarter full Academy 3 (the smallest of the Academy venues). Tonight, the Bread Shed, a venue around the same size, is sold out, as have been most of the other shows on their elongated trip around the UK. It is if that hiatus has made us realise what is important, which is to actually get out there and support the bands we profess to love. Touring is the only way that acts make money in this new all-streaming no-purchase world and tonight’s capacity crowd shows that the message of see them or lose them is getting through.

Live Review : In Flames + Vexed + Defects @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on March 26th 2022

In Flames may not be the draw in this country that they are over on the continent, but even by their standards this is an intimate run of dates. They have gone for small venues in towns that they don’t usually visit and the faithful have rewarded them by selling out every date. This ‘up close and personal” tour was meant to happen two years ago, but you know what got in the way. Rather than chuck it under the bus, In Flames have honoured their commitment and these shows are on.

Live Review : While She Sleeps + Led By Lanterns + Coping @ Rebellion, Manchester on March 25th 2022

During the pandemic While She Sleeps launched a members subscription service called Sleeps Society via the Patreon platform. The intention was to further the band’s intention to take back the music industry for the bands and fans, and as such the service affords the bands the ability to connect directly with their fans and in turn the fans can contribute, have access to exclusive content, merchandise and in this case the first ever members only gig. Later in the night While She Sleeps frontman Lawrence ‘Loz’ Taylor will proclaim the importance of being part of a metal and punk community, and that WSS was always meant to represent more than a band, it was meant to be a community, and tonight it feels like the culmination of those intentions.

Live Review : Tailgunner + Arkham Witch @ The Outpost, Liverpool on March 25th 2022

Nestled in the back of a Pizza Parlour/Craft Beer style bar, The Outpost is the definition of a hidden gem. I’d been coming to Liverpool for years, walked past it many a time, even worked about 4 or 5 doors down for a little while, but I could never have guessed a place like this existed. It was tiny, it was sweaty but some of the best venues often are.

Opening proceedings were Arkham Witch. I was under the impression that these guys may have been an instrumental act, a long, slow, Sabbath like intro kept the crowd slowly banging their heads before vocalist Simon took to the stage, that’s when it really kicked up a gear.

Live Review : Napalm Death + Raging Speedhorn + Crepitation @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on March 19th 2022

Napalm Death are a national institution, maybe a national treasure. How many other grindcore bands does yer gran not only know the name of but can make a fair stab at describing what they sound like (‘the nice man goes “groahhhhhhhhh” and the songs sound like someone pushing over a trashcan’). Over forty-one years they have built a reputation through hard graft and a no compromise attitude. Their mammoth European trek that was going to keep them occupied for most of the first half of this year was pulled by a promoter unsure how to navigate the different covid regulations still in place across the continent. Instead of being downhearted they declared bugger that for a game of soldiers, asked Raging Speedhorn if they fancied coming out to play and booked a UK tour.

Live Review : Creeper + VUKOVI + James and the Cold Gun @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on March 19th 2022

The O2 Ritz is not quite firing on all cylinders this evening. To say that they are having teething troubles as we head back to normality, would be kind. Due to the tickets from the previous incarnations of the show (it had been postponed on four separate occasions before this evening ultimately successful staging) not scanning, a large proportion of the audience are left queuing outside for a large proportion of the evening. This leads to a massive logjam at the ticket office, which in turn causes our always punctual snapper to miss his regulatory three song quota for opener James and the Cold Gun. Sorry guys you will have to make do with my words to paint the pictures.