It’s been a very long time since we had a gig in the Liverpool Academy 2 and thus take as much time organising our entrance as we would for a gig in Manchester.  It’s this size of gig that is particularly fascinating.  Smaller more visceral bands with a more engaged audience are a ROCKFLESH favourite, although the room to photograph get increasingly silly as the room decreases. I’m now onto sickness number three for the month and starting to feel quite Dickensian. 

Video Nasties are Liverpool based four-piece.  They have an aggressive and muscular sound, with a vocal style similar to one of Liverpool’s most memorable metal acts Carcass.  In their short set they pumped out four or five songs each of equal intensity, tearing up the small crowd.  A number of songs prefaced with eighties horror intros added an atmosphere of menace to an already heavy sound. The tattooed and topless singer gave an energetic performance. Video Nasties are well worth witnessing live and have a brilliant atmospheric delivery of heavy hypnotic metal.

PIST are one of the North’s more notorious bands and have a great live reputation.  Their recorded offerings, “Rhythm and Booze” (2015) & EP “Riffology” (2014) are heavy riff laden rock albums geared towards an hyper energetic live performance. They don’t disappoint, with a simple but effective sound they churn through their set, dragging the crowd through a beer filled onslaught of rock and metal.  If anything the set is a little short, I feel crowd could have had a little more.  PIST has the small auditorium pogoing and moshing for a little over half an hour.  It’s a short brutal set punctuated by drawn out, phased guitar parts that add a dynamic to the ferocious music. PIST are definitely worth catching up with.

Orange Gobiln veer somewhere between Black Sabbath and Motorhead, they have their very own swagger that sets them slightly apart.  Their synchronised bass and guitar parts lend a modernity to Goblin’s music.  Live they are relentless, with 25 years of experience under their belt, Ben Ward on vocals whips the crowd into a moshing frenzy.  The small sweaty venue pulses to their brand of doom-laden metal.   Goblin have a galloping pace for the majority of the set, ‘Sons of Salem’ is the first song that strikes you, the crowd bounce in time.  The fever is unrelenting. ‘The Wolf Bites Back’ takes the music in a more stoner direction with a simple and mesmerising chugg. The chorus is eminently singable and I find myself nodding along. ‘Some You Win, Some You Lose’ has by far the simplest and catchiest of the nights songs and the crowd shout back in time to the chorus. 

The best track of the night is ‘The Fog’, a swollen bellow of heavy rock taken from their 2012 album “A Eulogy For The Damned”.  The song builds with the most Sabbath like riff, it gets the whole crowd on it’s haunches and the place throbs to the huge guitar part. The size of the Academy 2 is perfect as they destroy any semblance of life out of the crowd.  Orange Goblin are relentless and pummel the Liverpool crowd with a non-stop night of headbanging glory. 

If only most nights could be like this, local rock bands of the highest calibre playing to small but fully appreciative crowds. The Academy 2 lets itself down on beer prices with drinks going as high as £5.80 for a pint when there was beer actually available to buy.