Harbinger top the bill in what is otherwise a showcase of local talent for this all-dayer at Rebellion. There’s a mix of styles on display, but at the core if it all is metal, and some unique and fresh takes on various sub-genres at that. It’s an early start, and we’re told the venue has plenty of footfall from the mid-afternoon doors until the evening when we land at the venue.
Read MoreWe've managed to catch Harbinger this summer headlining Tech Fest and putting on a killer main stage performance at Radar. Tonight, we get the treat of a much more intimate affair with our favourite tech-metal boys. They're on fire once again, and each of them is clearly revelling in the chance to play to the ever enthusiastically rabid Slamchester crowd.
Read MoreWhen I was young the package tour was the preserve of the golden oldies’ sixties brigade, hoisting Marti Webb and the Tremolos from provincial town to provincial town. It’s certainly had a facelift as a concept as Rising Merch’s Faces of Death tour is a multi-coloured promenade through Death Metal’s more elegant avenues. Originally scheduled for last November, there is a culpable sense of relief from all involved that a) it’s happening at all and b) that so many people had remembered that they had booked the darn thing in the first place. Not even a World Cup home nation derby is enough to put people off, as the place is stuffed to the rafters from the off.
Read MoreIt seems during the dramatic full stop that was lockdown, we seem to have reassessed our relationship with live music and we have realised that we potentially took it for granted. Three years ago, in those heady pre-covid times, I saw Decapitated in a barely quarter full Academy 3 (the smallest of the Academy venues). Tonight, the Bread Shed, a venue around the same size, is sold out, as have been most of the other shows on their elongated trip around the UK. It is if that hiatus has made us realise what is important, which is to actually get out there and support the bands we profess to love. Touring is the only way that acts make money in this new all-streaming no-purchase world and tonight’s capacity crowd shows that the message of see them or lose them is getting through.
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