Live Review : Defects + Knife Bride + Profiler @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 31st 2024

The spooky season is here in full effect in this old Mancunian town. For those who are up for a night of haunting melodies there is plenty on offer. Horror metal aficionados Wednesday 13 are plying their wares with a Murderdolls heavy set over in the academy (see review from Chester here). Modern day vampires Creeper are providing the scare jumps at the Ritz and electro pop troubadour John Grant is having a whale of a time with fake blood at new century hall. But we at ROCKFLESH towers have plumped for a ghoultastic evening of thoroughly modern metal here in rebellion with Defects touring their recent album “Modern Error” with the Bloodlines tour and they’ve brought along Knife Bride and Profiler to join in the fun. 

Openers Knife Bride, describe themselves as ‘Nu-Gothika metal’ and are no strangers to us at ROCKFLESH having seen them play a support slot to Wargasm in Academy 2 as well as a slot at the 2023 instalment of the No Play Festival over in Liverpool. Musically they give very heavy vibes of bands such as Jinjer and Spiritbox and you never know what kind of vocal will come out of Mollie Clack’s mouth whether it be angelic soft cleans or harsh screams. They fly through their 7-song set and even introduce us to a new single entitled ‘Territory’. They get some head nodding at the front and the slowly growing crowd take to them nicely earning a cheer and a round of applause as they leave the stage.

Next up are Profiler, who earlier this year played as support to Slipknot wannabes Vended. It’s a very different crowd here tonight, which by this point fill roughly half the venue, but a majority seem to really like it. There’s no mosh pit but plenty of head nodding and a few phones getting some video memories or to spread the word of this band. Musically they certainly wouldn’t feel out of place in early 2000’s nu metal with bounce parts mixed in with some heavy riffs. With the right support slot or release these could get massive and gain a lot of fans. By the end they have stolen many a heart as you can hear chatter about them echoing around the room. 

Last but not least are Defects. It would be a lazy journalism to call them a supergroup after all they contain alumni from Raven Age and the late lamented Shvpes. However Defects manage to resist the gravitational pull of that moniker by being very much more than the sum total of their parts. They also put in a serious amount of hard yards over the last couple of years traversing every highway and byway of this country. They first came onto our collective radar when they opened for In Flames over in Liverpool and then more recently at both Bloodstock and Download Festivals. Their previous headline show here in Cottonopolis was at the tiny (compared to Rebellion) Satan’s hollow and they only recently played a support slot here with Orbit Culture) and now they’re here to make their mark as a headliner. That's a serious amount of shoe leather.

They take to the stage in full costumes (fitting being Halloween) and fly straight into the two big hitters of ‘End of Days’ and ‘Scapegoat’ before Tony Maue removes some of his costume in this super sweaty venue. Some of the crowd have also got dressed up for the occasion, potentially enticed by the promise of a competition of best costume. Their version of metalcore has the emphasis very much on emotional fragility. It heavy and biting but it is completely devoid of the masculine toxicity that can seep into the genre. Instead you get a band comfortable in their vulnerability and adept at showing their true selves. When Tony sings it is obvious that he is reciting tales that are close to his band members and his heart. This is music as a form of cathartic bloodletting and whilst the audience is not large it is blindingly obvious that what Defects are preaching is speaking volumes to those listening.

By the end of the 11 song set at least half the band have completely lost their costumes and consumed numerous bottles of water. The theme of the evening continues to be connectivity. This is a band in tune with their fan base and more than happy to step out of the fourth wall. In fact, that's exactly what they do for final track, ‘Recurring’. They exit the stage and play the song slap bang in the middle of a vibrant circle pit. It is a sight to behold as they grind out the track with a plethora of plucky youngsters hurtling around them. There is even a wall of death with the band slap bang right in the middle.

For those who have made it this evening this is a band that completely understand what it's like to be young in the hectic mind funderling world of the early 21st-century. They understand that we don't want our rock stars to be sat on an impenetrable pillar anymore. We want them to be real and to feel the same anxieties and trinkets of doubt that we do and most important to be able to articulate those apprehensions in song. Defects speak to those legions plunged into disenfranchised angst and the way that they go straight from performing to undertaking meet and greet duties down at the front shows that they understand the importance of that bond.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Defects + Knife Bride + Profiler