Live Review : Wage War + The Devil Wears Prada + Siamese @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 19th 2022

Siamese kick off proceedings with their brand of techy pop-infused metal. They bound onto the stage, owning it like headliners, and the growing crowd take to them immediately. Fans of Normandie and Resolve and the like will love this Danish crew, who have fast become one of my favourite bands. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, I might even move to Copenhagen to see more of their gigs! There is a humble yet confident engagement with the crowd, and their joy and enthusiasm at sharing the experience with us is evident. The sound balance for them tonight is perfect, and their performance matches the elegant yet powerful composition of their songs. I can see loads of the crowd singing along, and the passion and poignancy of heartfelt track ‘Sloboda’ is magical. Every single member of the contributes to the cohesive whole and each demonstrates a technical show and musical understanding. This can be seen clearly with Christian Hjort Lauritzen on his signature ‘The Joker’ violin which cleverly and organically takes the space that other bands might put synth strings in. They’re simply awesome, and genuinely offer something for everyone whether it be catchy pop lovers or breakdown heavy metallers. 

The Devil Wears Prada are a band I’ve never managed to catch live, and I take to them within a a couple of songs. They mash together elements of hardcore, metal and melodic punk to create a musical animal that would appeal to Every Time I Die and Pierce The Veil fans equally. The interesting part is that rather the entire band mixing these elements, you almost feel that each member brings a very distinct genre and style to the overall sound. There are schizophrenic guitar riffs and surprising changes in direction from one guitar, and then driving melodic metal from the other. The drums are pounding and intense metal, with hardcore harsh vocals layered against almost pop-punk cleans. I guess you might put these guys alongside a band like A Day To Remember, but this crew seem more fluid and primal in their delivery, which is exciting and enthusing. Needless to say the crowd absolutely love every second, and these are a must see live.

Wage War have undoubtedly become a metal juggernaut, and tonight they’re proving it with the move up to a venue like O2 Ritz. They take to the stage with backlit red lights, and that backlit approach affording often only silhouettes of the imposing band is a theme throughout. They are slick, professional and produce some deliciously heavy modern metal up there with the likes of Bury Tomorrow and Bleed From Within. The Florida band prowl the stage as they open with the dynamic ‘Relapse’ which highlights perfectly everything they offer – mid-scooped metal guitars, visceral biting harsh vocals from Briton Bond, soaring cleans from guitarist Cody Quistad and that catchy electronic-tinged swagger until the massively stompy and heavy closing breakdown. This blueprint serves them well as they move through a great set of around fourteen songs, closing the main set with ‘Circle the Drain’ which sees the crowd go even crazier (if that’s possible!) as it seems almost the entire standing audience gets caught up in a massive moshpit. Can that be beaten? Yes, the band come back out for just one more song – ‘Stitch’. That lets everyone unleash one more time, and everyone leaves exhausted but with a massive grin.

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