Posts tagged Johann Wierzbicki
Live Review : Unleash The Archers + All For Metal @ Club Academy, Manchester on July 9th 2025

Well, hats off to Unleash the Archers. Their one-off London show back in February was completely sold out, but instigated the usual online comments of "Why only London?” or “There is more to the UK than just the capital” or simply “Come North!”. Now most other bands would see these sorts of interactions as collateral damage and occupational hazards. But with Unleash the Archers, it struck a particularly empathetic chord. Hailing from the wastes of British Columbia, they were used to having to travel miles and miles to Vancouver or even over the Border into Seattle to see the bands that mattered to them. So, they listened to the impassioned pleas to come to Nottingham, Glasgow and Manchester, found three spare days in the middle of their European Festival trek, hired a cheap and cheerful van and headed North…

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Live Review : Rival Sons + Creeping Jean @ Mountford Hall, Liverpool on July 2nd 2025

When you have a week to spare sandwiched between Guns ‘N Roses support duties and a prestigious slot at the “Back to the Beginning” Birmingham mega-show, what to do with yourselves? Well in Rival Sons case you get out on the road and pound some of the streets that rock shows sometimes forget. Last night was Bournemouth and tomorrow night is the rock n' roll capital of Stockton-on-Tees, but this very evening they have decided to prove that the North West rock scene protrudes much further than Manchester. Hard rocking shows by name artists are hard to find in Liverpool and the Scouse rock aficionados have done Rival Sons proud by filling the joint.

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Live Review : King Diamond + Paradise Lost + Unto Others @ Academy, Manchester on June 30th 2025

It’s not every night that you get the chance to watch a traditional heavy metal band deliver a slice of Vaudeville horror theatrics, but that’s what King Diamond provide us tonight at the Manchester Academy. In support they have the always outstanding gothic-metal veterans Paradise Lost and gothic post-punk rock outfit Unto Others.

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Live Review : Rosen Bridge + Eschalon + PULSE + Winter Hotel @ Lions Den, Manchester on June 20th 2025

I know I’m not the only one who really misses Tech Fest, and tonight’s gig is filled with familiar faces both in the crowd and on the stage. In fact, Tech-Fest founder and mastermind Simon Garrod is up on the stage tonight in his band Eschalon. It gives us a first chance to see them live and to say we’re excited would be a massive understatement. Add to that the varied lineup of Winter Hotel, PULSE and headliners Rosen Bridge and we’ve got a night of alternative-tech fit for any venue.

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Live Review : Power Trip + Tortured Demon @ Academy 3, Manchester on June 18th 2025

The untimely demise in August 2020 of Power Trip frontman Riley Gale was tragic for two reasons. Firstly, the avoidable death of someone that young (he was 34) and that talented is always tragic. But secondly, Power Trip were on the verge of something truly special. Their second record “Nightmare Logic” had set the world on fire with its fresh and rejuvenating take on thrash. Live performances were equally lauded, and their mid-morning Bloodstock set was continually extolled as something rather special indeed. Riley’s death derailed a trajectory that looked unstoppable, and for a number of years it looked like the band would be buried with him.

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Live Review : The Southern River Band + The Clan @ The Tivoli, Buckley on June 14th 2025

The Tivoli’s 100th birthday celebrations continue with a bit of a coup. Billed as “For One Night Only” this show is, as the name suggests, The Southern River Band’s only UK date outside of their appearance at Download Festival so it was a privilege to be able to go along and be a part of it. 

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Live Review : Combichrist + Extize + Crimson Veil + Esoterik @ O2 ACademy 2, Liverpool on May 22nd 2025

Combichrist have been a massive name on the industrial metal scene since the early 00’s and they haven’t let up in recent years. This current UK/EU tour gives the lucky punters a further chance to see the aggrotech industrial metallers deliver their pounding electronic beats and thrash-heavy guitars, while dancing hard and passionately all night long.

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Live Review : Make Them Suffer + Resolve + Conjurer + If Not For Me @ Academy 2, Manchester on May 10th 2025

Genres like metalcore and deathcore actually cover such an eclectic range of bands that it’s sometimes hard to find a balanced bill. Tonight, we have as close as you’d get to that balanced bill, with four exciting bands that while slick and cohesive, are all different in their own way. Make Them Suffer have evolved from a deathcore band to something much more creative, and headliner tonight’s offering with a couple of ROCKFLESH favourites Resolve and Conjurer in tow. All the bands tonight have evolved but never skimped on passion and raw energy. 

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Live Review : Decapitated + Cryptopsy + Warbringer + Carnation @ Club Academy, Manchester on May 8th 2025

When is an undercard not an undercard? When the supporting bill seems to receive as much, if not more, love and adoration as the main feature. Tonight in Manchester doesn't feel like a typical package tour with several make-do filler acts leading up to the central event. For all intents and purposes, it has the air of a triple headliner affair as Warbringer and Cryptopsy are treated with the same level of reverence as nominal stage closer Decapitated. This doesn’t mean the Polish legends get short shrift, it means that every one of them receives a reaction fit for a canopy-topping act.

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Live Review : Hippotraktor + Cobra The Impaler + Abdicator @ Future Yard, Birkenhead on April 18th 2025

Sometimes you get the chance to attend a gig that throws up a new band for you to experience live. Sometimes it can be a couple of bands that you get to experience fresh. But rarely do you get to see two fantastic new bands in a brilliant new venue for ROCKFLESH. Tonight, we have the pleasure of not only catching the awesome Belgian prog-metal bands Hippotraktor and Cobra the Impaler - as well as getting to interview both bands (see here and here) - but also we get to cover the gig at the impressive Future Yard in Birkenhead.

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Live Review : Boundaries + Varials + Dagger Threat + No Face No Case @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 11th 2025

There's a theme running through all the bands tonight, and it’s something revolving round the concepts of two-step dancing and jaggedly brutal hardcore. How else should you spend your Friday night than treating yourself to an early gig offering up such joy! Boundaries are the headliners and the undercard is packed with some equally exciting hardcore talent to wet the appetite.

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Live Review : Catch Your Breath + Until I Wake + Of Virtue @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 10th 2025

Catch Your Breath are a modern melodic pop-metalcore band that you can’t sleep on. The venue is sold-out and packed before the first band have even started. Bands that speak to a variety of bases of interest across a wide span of fans are few and far between, but CYB have the tools and backing to be able to make it big. Very big.

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Live Review : The Darkness + Ash @ O2 Apollo, Manchester on March 31st 2025

It's easy to attribute The Darkness’s recent return to cultural relevance to appearances on the Michael Mcintyre show and viral Taylor Swift videos. However, this overnight resurrection is actually 14 years in the making. You see, the rehabilitation of Justin Hawkins and his erstwhile bandmates is the product of hard graft. Since their illustrious return in 2011, they have worked their collective socks off to not only avoid the nostalgia treadmill but also to reclaim the street cred they briefly held aloft in the mid-noughties. Relentless touring has paid off, and here they are at the tail end of a sold-out trek that has seen them reclaim the venues that they last haunted nearly twenty years ago. To top it all, they are promoting a new record that has collectively out-sold everything between it and “Permission to Land” (though as Justin testifies later, it won't be number one due to going up against Mumford and Sons). By the sheer power of never actually going away, The Darkness are back. 

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Live Review : Opeth + Grand Magus @ Albert Hall, Manchester on March 1st 2025

There are shows where the venue plays an integral part in the beauty of the endeavour. It becomes an additional member of the band, adding to the ambience and the majestic nature of the performance. Tonight is one just instance. The Albert Hall is the jewel in Manchester's proliferation of venues. An abandoned Wesleyan Chapel, it had stood dormant for 40 years until it was rescued last decade and restored as a multi-purpose auditorium. It is a fantastic space, surrounded by large ornate stained-glass windows and dominated by an imposing organ. It provides the perfect setting for Opeth’s extraordinarily unique take on metal. There are some compromises to be made, Mikael Åkerfeldt recounts a Spinal Tap moment when they realised that the video screens that had been a focal point of the other shows on this tour were too big to fit and had to be left in the van, but all in all the Albert Hall provides an immaculate canvas for Opeth to unfurl their magic.

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Live Review : Paleface Swiss + The Acacia Strain + Desolated @ New Century Hall, Manchester on February 28th 2025

Move over Slipknot because there are a Swiss band in town that know exactly how to entice your fans into turning up in Manchester on a cold night! Meet Paleface Swiss who fans of the afore mentioned mask-wearing crew and Five Finger Death Punch should check out immediately. Well…after you’ve read this review if you’d be kind.

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Live Review : Kvelertak + Urne @ Academy 3, Manchester on February 23rd 2025

With even the greatest bands in the World, it is quite easy to forget just how good they are. It has been six years since Kvelertak last visited this country (Download 2019), eight years since they last played this city (supporting Metallica at the arena) and nine years since we got anything resembling a headline tour. Tonight is very much a case of "Hello! Remember us?" as they grab us by the lapels and forcefully remind us why they were the band on everybody's lips last decade. This evening also, inexplicably, gives us our first opportunity to witness “new” vocalist Ivor Nikolaisen up front and personal. We say “new” but he has actually been in the band since 2018, but as the stats above illustrate these are his first UK headline shows with the band. Replacing a “name” vocalist is always a Herculean task, but when it is in the colossally charismatic shape of Erlend Hjelvik, you would suspect it would be rather a hiding to nothing. However Ivar Nikolaisen sidesteps the need for comparisons by being a completely different school of frontman with his own energy, charisma and style.

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Live Review : Hidden Mothers + Nylon + Pleiades + Wispmother @ EBGBS, Liverpool on February 21st 2025

Hidden Mothers are a band that really should be bigger than they are. Describing them as blackened post-hardcore is only to scratch the surface of what they deliver. It’s progressive, bluesy, expansive and emotive as much as anything else. Tonight we get to catch them playing songs of their debut album ‘Erosion/Avulsion’ on a bill with other northern bands in what is yet another coup for local promoters No Play.

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Live Review : Tribulation + Livgone @ Rebellion, Manchester on February 18th 2025

In this austere times, we are all looking for value for money in our gigging experience. This would explain the rise in popularity of the package tour as the allure of four bands we have heard of is more of a financial incentive than one. Swedish Goth-metal pioneers Tribulation, have gone for a different approach. For their rather extensive jaunt around Europe and the UK they have bought only one support act with them and in the shape of French/Polish/Swedish hybrids Livgone, it is not particularly a household name. Where they are providing bang for our bucks, is in the length of the set. At a meaty one hour forty minutes hour it towers above the usual hour maximum fair that we are served by bands of our ilk in venues such as Rebellion. It is a luxuriously elongated tour de force, allowing them to effortlessly wander across most of their recorded output (only 2009 debut “the Horror” doesn’t get a look in).

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Live Review : Countless Skies + As The Sun Falls + Opia @ Star and Garter, Manchester on February 14th 2025

Why do we do this? Its Valentine's night and we have left perpetually patient partners back at home to stand in the blistering cold of the upstairs room of a shitty pub (the owner's description, not ours). The reason is that we love this music, eternally, triumphantly and truly. The bands on show this evening love this music, it flows through their veins. The audience that has braved the hostility of a Mancunian winter to get here, love this music. Even the characteristically grumpy owner pumping out classic punk downstairs loves this music. It has enslaved us all and it demands both sacrifice and complete obedience.

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Live Review : Tremonti + Florence Black @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on February 13th 2025

The O2 Ritz is rammed tonight to witness a solo outing from guitar superstar Mark Tremonti. Known as a founding member and songwriter of both Creed and Alter Bridge he also has a parallel solo career that spans some 14 years and six albums. So the question on everyone’s lips tonight isn’t “is he any good?” – that’s kind of a given. It’s more along the lines of “just how good is he?” 

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