Unfortunately tonight’s advertised headliners Amaranthe have had to pull out due to illness, but the other 3 bands on the bill will continue and play extended sets. Refunds were available, but with it being so last-minute the Ritz is still heaving so I guess that a lot of people decided to just make the best of it.  

We start with Ad Infinitum, a female-fronted power metal band with clean vocals but a lot of echo on them. There are podiums on stage and they make full use of them for a bit of posing and shape-throwing. I am also a bit concerned that the singer appears to have forgotten her pants – it can be cold in Manchester in October you know! Anyhow the ubiquitous-in-euro-bands backing tapes are very much in evidence, which I find a bit of a shame because the songwriting quality is good and she can growl as well as do the operatic style singing. It's well performed and quite slick, and goes down really well with the crowd (evidenced by the massive queue that forms at the merch after the set) At one point they film for a new video for an unreleased song which is quite exciting. She has a great voice and the music is bouncy euro metal with hooks and melody aplenty. I’m not sure where they are from, Germany/Switzerland I believe, but they're quite a new band having only started in 2018. It's not exactly sing along but you are able to clap and join in so it was ok, I enjoyed them and so did everyone else apparently.  

In Butcher Babies we have another female fronted band but this time two singers and a more thrashy, shouty approach. They hail from the US and have been around for a while now although this is the first time I’ve seen them. The sound to start with is very bass heavy and the vocals are quite low in the mix which is a shame as when I can hear them they sound ok. They do a lot of that spinny hair head banging thing and yet again there is a distinct lack of trouser going on on the stage. There's loads of kick drum so the songs are all fast but to start with all I can hear is the drums and bass, there’s no guitar and not much vocal either. Come on sound desk, sort it out please! The crowd seem to like them though so it might just be the acoustics where I am lurking at the back. One of the singers gets in the pit to engage the crowd and that goes well. To be honest the other one seems a bit superfluous, she's doing more backing vocal vocals than lead or dual and isn’t quite so in-yer-face. Finally they turn the guitars up and the sound is improved a great deal but it’s also still a bit wall of noise, a bit style over substance. The band move a lot but it's hard to follow the music when it's this loud. They are good at what they do but it's a bit outside my comfort zone. It’s very aggressive and angry, and I keep thinking “calm down dear”! For the second half of the set (which is extended due to the lack of headliners) they too bring in the old backing tracks and to be honest I find them a little bit better. They are playing a little slower, there’s a bit less shouting and a bit more melody and they do indeed appear to have calmed down. Dare I say that the click-track plays better than the band? No, that would be cruel and untrue, but it does seem to give them a bit of a boost and means that by the end of the set I am smiling rather than frowning. I’m still not really seeing the special though, they go a bit rap metal and I think this one is called ‘Best Friend’? It's all a bit much for me but the crowd are loving it so I’ll give a firm 7 out of 10 to these heavy metal Barbies.

Beyond The Black, although always scheduled to play before Amaranthe, were actually billed as co-headliners so hopefully they will be able to step into the Amaranthe-shaped void without too much difficulty. They brought their own lights, and even a couple of light sabers for the singer to wave and point at people, which is always good. This singer forgot her trousers too though, all these women must have frozen ass-cheeks! They are another female-fronted euro power metal outfit, and they are very very slick and professional with it. Yet again they rely heavily on the backing track for a little extra oomph to the sound, which grinds my teeth a little but I grit them and get on with it. The music is much more to my taste, heavy on melody without losing any of the power, and I am impressed. I love her voice, it's not exactly operatic but she has power and range and the sound and her tone are both crystal clear. The band (two guitars, bass and drums) are good too - if it's them playing haha you never know with the use of the click-track! The crowd is very responsive, it's very punch the air music and easy to get into and carried along with. One of the guitarists does some growly shouted backing vocals which work well as a contrast to her clean lead and it's all very epic and stirring. In places it feels like she's leading us into battle! There's a new album due out in January and several songs off it are trialled. I especially like the one which has some Celtic overtones, it's got a military beat and almost strays into the edge of folk music territory. There is a lovely power ballad, ‘Human’, it has big power chords and lots of emotion, and also antlers. No, I don’t know why either. A random drum appears on stage which she beats and again I'm getting that Celtic folk vibe, although I am pleased because usually when someone is doing something that goes “dum dum dum dum dum dum hey” it tends to morph into the intro to Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ but this one doesn’t! Some roadies turn up on the stage wearing capes and waving flags, and I feel that at this point there probably isn’t a damsel in distress for miles because this music will have inspired them to either be rescued or to escape. There's another costume change and now she's got a big coat on so I'm quite happy that she won't be getting cold after all. I think this one is about Winter so she probably needs it, and I’m pleased that when she takes it off (so she will feel the benefit later of course) someone has found her some trousers at last. There’s another epic song ‘Angel’ during which the lighting effects appear to give her wings, which is nice. Now that all enemies have almost certainly been vanquished we can go to a jumping song which involves lots of air-punching and oi-ing from the crowd and tonight I have joined the ranks of the nodding dog and am enjoying this immensely. So yeah, Beyond The Black were kind of thrown in at the deep end tonight when they had to step up as headliners but they pulled it off. They kept my interest throughout and I will definitely be checking out their back catalogue when I get home because despite the backing tracks they gave us an epic night out.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!