Live Review : Silveroller + Penny Fade + The Dead King Company @ The Outpost, Liverpool on October 13th 2023

First visit to Outpost for me and it’s a nice little venue. Front of house is a bar (with a decent selection of craft beers if that’s your Thing) and the gig room is at the back. My heart sank a little as the stage is just another bit of the floor; note to self: wear platform boots next time!

The Dead King Company started the night off for us, and they are a young trio who play stripped back indie rock. The drummer was a bit manic and they played well, with a little banter between songs.

Live Review : Annisokay + Shields + Fixation @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 14th 2023

Tonight is a rather odd mix of fan bases. It is obvious from the off that a large proportion of the audience have come to see German’s Annisokay on the back of their impressive stint supporting Electric Callboy last year. However, there is also an almost equal proportion who are here for reformed metal core also-rans Shields, who have decided to put aside their differences and make another attempt at trying to make it. All this means that the only unknown element here this evening are Norwegian openers Fixation.

Gig Review©Ryan Hickson16 October 2023RebellionAnnisokay, Shields, Fixation, Rebellion, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Pain + Ensiferum + Eleine + Ryujin @ Rebellion, Manchester. on October 11th 2023

Over on the continent, this billing makes perfect sense. You see Pain may be a side project of Hypocrisy main man Peter Tägtgren but its success in mainland Europe has in many ways eclipsed that of his day job. Over here it is a different story and whilst folk metallers Ensiferum are billed as a “very special guest” on UK soil this has become very much a double header and there are far more Ensiferum shirts to be seen upon entering the building.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas13 October 2023RebellionPain, Ensiferum, Eleine, Ryujin, Rebellion, Manchester, 2023, Stewart Lucas, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : KK's Priest + Paul Di'Anno + Burning Witches @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on October 11th 2023

Until tonight I didn’t know a lot about Burning Witches. I knew they were all female, and I knew most of them were very tall as I once shared a lift with them (don’t ask!) but in terms of their musical output? Nada. In my head they looked a bit like Vixen so I was kind of expecting some lightweight froth rock. Nope. These girls have come to us from the Doro School of Rock.

Gig Review©Jo Crosby13 October 2023O2 RitzKK's Priest, Burning Witches, O2 Ritz, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Darren Birch, Paul Di'AnnoComment

Live Review : Devils Henchmen + Ogun + Reclaim + Junta @ EBGBS, Liverpool on October 6th 2023

EBGBs is tonight packed wall to wall with enthusiastic metal fans here to eagerly celebrate the release of “The Deaf Choir” by tonight’s headliners Devils Henchmen. I believe it may be a sold out affair, and rightly so. The night promised to showcase some of the best and brightest rising stars of the Merseyside Metal scene and it did not disappoint.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Sarah Cummings12 October 2023EBGBSDevils Henchmen, Ogun, Reclaim, Junta, EBGBS, Liverpool, 2023, Live Review, Sarah Cummings, Alex StuartComment

Live Review : Better Lovers + Blanket @ Brudenell Social Club, Leeds on October 7th 2023

Brudenell Social Club is an institution, known across the nation as one of the remaining best independent venues for alternative music in the country. I've not been to a gig here for a few years now, but that feeling of familiar comfort mixed with excitement immediately hits as I walk through the door. It's been a crazy hot and sunny day, which made the matinee performance sweaty enough but, if anything, this evening it's a more intense heady mixture of humidity and anticipation.

Live Review : Municipal Waste + GEL + Undeath @ Rebellion, Manchester on October 8th 2023

Municipal Waste could quite easily have taken the easy route. They could have stuck a couple of identikit, but inferior, thrash revivalists on their undercard and jobs a good un. But not only is there a real desire to provide, in these troubled times, real value for money but Municipal Waste are more than happy to be given a run for their money each and every night of the UK tour.

Live Review : The Winery Dogs + Scarlet Rebels @ Academy 2, Manchester on October 6th 2023

What do you call a supergroup made up of members of other supergroups? Well it turns out that the answer is The Winery Dogs. For the uninitiated, this is what Ritchie Kotzen, Mike Portnoy and the legend that is Billy Sheehan do when they are not noodling around with other projects. It is very much a muso's project, pitched at those who like their rock complex, luscious and full of virtuoso flourishes.

Live Review : The Supersuckers + Warner E Hodges Band @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on October 6th 2023

It’s Friday night at the Waterloo and there’s a real buzz in the air for tonight’s co-headline show, that delicious electric anticipation you get before a night of rock n roll, this time round with a Southern edge.

Two of the most precious commodities in the rock world are credibility and authenticity. Ephemeral but vital, like trust they’re hard to gain and easily lost. Warner E Hodges has consistently had both across his entire career, whether it be with Jason & The Scorchers, Homemade Sin, The Bluefields (still in the top ten of all the gigs I’ve witnessed) or, as tonight, with his own band.

Live Review : Tortured Demon + Red Method + Unburier @ Academy 3, Manchester on October 5th 2023

When I revealed to my kids that the band I was reviewing this evening was less than a handful of years older than they are, there were much cries of derision and solemn predictions that I would be the oldest person in the room by a good few decades. The actual truth is Metal's evolution is a funny old beast and alongside teens worshipping at the altar of artists old enough to be the Grandparents, it is also as usual to find a room full of seasoned metallers getting rather overexcited about a bunch of younglings chronologically able to be their grandchildren. Tortured Demon have both outgrown and discarded the novelty tag.

Live Review: VEGA + Kim Jennett @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool, 5 October 2023

I last saw Kim Jennett a mere couple of months ago on this very stage, supporting local Blackpool legends A’priori. On that occasion it was a much more understated acoustic set, but tonight backed by a full band, she seems firmly in her natural environment of full-on rock star and relishing every second.

Taking to the stage with a ferocious intensity, Kim is a whirling dervish, a blur of movement, colour and vocal histrionics. The Myke Gray penned ‘Psycho’ is an apt opener, Kim’s almost manic energy firmly in line with the lyrical content. It’s a heavy riffing number, Kim snarlingly delivering the lyrics, whilst poised on and over the barrier, pulling the audience into her orbit almost literally at times as she is within touching distance of the front row.

Live Review : Party Cannon + Street Soldier + Odysseus @ The Bread Shed, Manchester on September 30th 2023

You know when you are in for a good night when members of the audience are bringing in plastic bags full of foam penises. There ain't no party like a Party Cannon party, and the dedicated followers of Slam are proudly wearing their party hats and tooting their party blowers like their lives depended on it. For the northern leg of the very short “Partied in Half tenth anniversary tour" (as Scots it must pain them to call Manchester the northern leg) they have plumped for a distinctly Northern undercard.

Live Review : North Atlas + JACKALS + Telling Secrets @ Satan’s Hollow on September 28th 2023

Another first for me tonight, a gig at Satan’s Hollow and not just a gig, reviewing a gig no less. I haven’t stepped inside this venue since probably 2010/11 after Jilly’s Rockworld closed and those years have certainly flown by. I even got asked for ID last time I came here, though the Jilly’s membership card was the giveaway that I was definitely over 18 (and over 21, and over 30)!!!

Live Review : Tiberius + Prognosis + Divided By Design @ The Peer Hat, Manchester on September 25th 2023

We make our way into the bar and down the stairs into the basement, a fairly tiny room by all accounts where we are greeted by Divided by Design noodling through their impressively technical instrumental proggy-tech-metal (despite some early technical issues). There’s an array of impressive guitar-work on display here, with fretboard skimming and blisteringly fast tapping, but it never seems to become overindulgent and the whole demonstrate an energetic stage presence.

Live Review : Angel Dust + Powerplant + T.S Warspite @ District, Liverpool on September 17th 2023

Originally a supergroup comprising of members of Hardcore icons Turnstile & Trapped Under Ice, Baltimore collective Angel Du$t have undergone their fair share of lineup changes since its inception in 2013. Turnstile’s monumental rise from scrappy basement dwellers to the Grammy nominated mainstream behemoth they are today has meant that original Angel Du$t members Pat McRory and Daniel Fang have had to put their Angel Du$t commitments aside to fully focus on keeping the Turnstile Machine ticking on further.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Alex Stuart21 September 2023DistrictAngel Du$t, Powerplant, T.S Warspite, District, Liverpool, 2023, Live Review, Alex Stuart, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Romeo’s Daughter + White Skies @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on September 16th 2023

A thudding drum beat and great washes of keyboard herald the arrival of White Skies to the hallowed Waterloo stage. A band I’d never seen before, (or to be honest, knew a great deal about), they are purveyors of melodic rock in the grand tradition of soaring vocals, big riffs, and even bigger choruses. ‘What Do You Know About Love’ is a great start to the set with all of those three elements firmly present and correct, with tonight’s crowd very receptive and obviously firm devotees of the genre (as becomes even more apparent later on when Romeo’s Daughter perform).

Live Review : Highly Suspect + The Picturebooks @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on September 16th 2023

Well, I’m going to cut to the chase… the highlight of the night happens within the first hour. The Picturebooks, tonight’s support act are outstanding. I suspect the sizeable crowd that have already gathered at the earlier than normal time of 7pm, have anticipated this too. This dynamic duo from Germany have 6 album and having only ever heard them on the radio, it is a delight to see them tearing up the stage tonight with their blues/ rock n roll goodness.

Live Review : As Everything Unfolds + Lake Malice @ Academy 3, Manchester on September 12th 2023

We manage to grab some quality interviewing time with As Everything Unfolds (here) and Lake Malice (here) before the show. Both interviews are both fantastically fun and interesting, but it does mean we end up missing tonight’s openers Tropic Gold. By all accounts their set went down great with the sold out crowd though, so we’ll be sure to catch them next time.

Live Review : Obituary + Pest Control @ Club Academy, Manchester on September 10th 2023

The template for a UK tour by a stateside metal icon is a tentpole London show and then, if we are lucky, a couple of reconnaissance trips into the provinces. Obituary have, as ever, decided not to play by the rules and since late August they have been haunting every byway and layby of this fair country. We as fans have responded to their commitment by getting out of the house and getting down in front.

Live Review: Gypsy Pistoleros @ The Pub, Lancaster on September 8th 2023

A suitably cinematic sunset is casting its final rays over Lancaster as I finally set foot in The Pub (despite the best efforts of Friday night M6 traffic and Lancaster’s circuitous one-way system). The only things that could have made it even more appropriate would have been a pair of swinging saloon doors, a spittoon by the bar, a table of disreputable poker players and a dodgy honky-tonk piano player, for an evening spent in the company of the Gypsy Pistoleros.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Craig Wilkinson12 September 2023The PubGypsy Pistoleros, The Pub, Lancaster, 2023, Live Review, Craig Wilkinson, Darren BirchComment