I love nu metal, and death metal, and metalcore, and grunge, and Tori Amos, and drum and bass.

But what I really really love is Industrial.

And with a queue snaked around the corner of Rebellion on a Monday night at 7.30pm, you just know all the finest and freakiest Manchester has to offer are here for one of THE most exciting industrial bands in the world. There is also one bloke from Kent I discover as I stomp down to the venue. He went drinking with the headliners once. My fangirl heart withers a little in its jealous cage, but I remain cool and composed with this info. I'm fine.

All my most fond gig memories were usually at industrial gigs. Like becoming BFFs with some woman from Sweden who follows Peter Tagtgren everywhere he plays with Pain, or Trent Reznor playing ‘Sunspots’ and making it sound 1000 times more penetrating than ‘Closer’, or being less than 2 metres away from a certain German industrial front man whilst he sprayed foam from a pretend penis. These were all captivating wonderful moments, but the music itself has held me in a steely grip from my teenage years onwards. I have always felt such a deep passion for the genre.

There are droves of fans here, although perhaps less than the last time I saw them (which was a Friday night, which may explain why). So many gothic types, kitted out in ripped fishnets, death hawks, and fiercely smudged black make up.

“Sarah, there's girls here with black down their chin"

Mate, if I thought I could pull that look off I would be doing it all day every day. The Operational Finance department wouldn't know what hit them.

Openers and sole support comes to us tonight in the form of PIG.

This was my first time seeing PIG and to be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. If you were to listen to latest offering “Candy”, you would be met with a Laibach-esque album full of Raymonds (Watts – frontman/sole member) take on popular songs that may normally be considered mundane. Raymond transforms the brightest of pop into the most sorrowful and menacing dirges. I love it but I imagine it’s an acquired taste. Armed with only this knowledge, I wondered if tonight’s set will be something along the same kind of experimental theme. I then wondered how our Dark Lord Johann is going to take this. I decide to keep my mouth shut.

PIG live were about as far removed from that album as I could have imagined. It was very full on, heavily electronic, and very camp, every pose exaggerated to the max. And yet through the provocative theatrics, there was some pretty powerful music. Stand out tracks were ‘The Chosen Few’, spitting the vitriolic lines “We don’t want Heaven crammed with the likes of you” and KMFDM’s ‘Juke-Joint Jezebel’, which turned out to be a real crowd pleaser.

PIG were incredibly enjoyable for me, but I think that’s down to how much I love what they are doing. I don’t think my drum and bass friends would understand it really. It’d be like me trying to understand avant-garde black metal. Or pop punk. Horses for courses my lovelies. Will definitely endeavour to see them again anyway.

PIG at Rebellion in Manchester on February 3rd 2020 ©Johann Wierzbicki | ROCKFLESH

Tonight’s headliners should be huge! And I mean HUGE. When chatting last week with Scott from Carnifex (interview here), he was telling me how well their joint upcoming tour of the USA is selling.

The band storm the stage, frontman Lex a fierce and dynamic force. Again, like Pig before them, it’s rich in the imagery and theatrics and poses, but with none of the campness that came in the set before it. It’s brutal and angry, and way more Metal than I remember last time I was watching 3TEETH. I’m also way less drunk than the last time, so bonus points to me for being able to fully appreciate everything in the room tonight.

3TEETH have such a big sound, opening with ‘Affluenza’ from last years “Metawar”, and then proceeded to play like… most of that album? Maybe I’m exaggerating, but it was a very Metawar-heavy set to begin with. The set did eventually return to the first two albums, visiting the likes of ‘Chasm’, and ‘Pit of Fire’, and of course ‘Master of Decay’. I would have mixed the set up a bit more, but I’m not a real musician and my keyboard is broken and I don’t really know anything. That’s my only real criticism and it’s not a criticism, just an opinion. “Metawar” was a stunning album anyway and it was excellent to hear the tracks played live.

Having toured in the past with the likes of Rammstein, HIM, Primus and Tool, and basking in the glow of 2019’s “Metawar”, 3TEETH are undoubtedly a very special band who have already achieved so much in their careers. I for one would love to see them make the leap into larger venues, not as a support slot, but as the headlining act they so very clearly are.