Live Review : The Bites + Deshine @ The Jacaranda, Liverpool on December 4th 2023

I arrive at the Jacaranda in a bad mood. It’s been the day from hell at work, the weather is terrible and the last thing I feel like doing on a grim dreary Monday is heading to an unknown venue to watch an unknown band from California. However, there’s a real buzz going around about The Bites at the moment. Rumour has it that they are on the verge of being the next big thing in rock, but rumour and truth are not always perfectly synchronised. So when, a couple of days after they went down really well at Winter Rocks Festival, they came to Liverpool to play a tiny cellar venue in front of maybe 20 people I dragged myself down to watch, even if moaned about it all the way there.

Live Review: Tyketto + This House We Built @ The Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 3rd 2023

It’s very busy early doors at the Waterloo, seemingly with much of tonight’s Sold-Out crowd having already claimed a premium spot long before openers, the unusually monikered This House We Built, have played a single note. I must confess to being unfamiliar with this Yorkshire four piece before tonight’s gig, so wasn’t sure what to expect, but whatever those expectations might have been they would have been unexpectedly (and pleasantly) confounded by tonight’s performance.

Live Review : Lorna Shore + Rivers Of Nihil + Ingested + Distant @ Academy, Manchester on December 2nd 2023

Distant start the show and immediately slam the early eager punters with their relentless Dutch deathcore sound. Their approach is delightfully brutal, seamlessly blending the most savage elements of tonight’s headliners with others such as Whitechapel and Thy Art is Murder, with the added gritty hardcore undertones reminiscent of Malevolence.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Matt Fraser4 December 2023Lorna Shore, Rivers Of Nihil, Ingested, Distant, Academy, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Matt Fraser, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Smash Into Pieces + Cyan Kicks @ Club Academy, Manchester on December 2nd 2023

Another night, another pair of Scandi bands – it’s a hard life writing for ROCKFLESH! Tonight’s bill is somewhat different to my usual fare though, and looking around the crowd it’s a very different demographic. This is not a metal crowd. It’s very stylised, rather eclectic and for the most part very young. In fact I think this is the first time I have ever seen actual children at a Club Academy gig.

Live Review : The Almighty + Balaam And The Angel @ Academy, Manchester on December 1st 2023

There is an alternative universe where Andrew Ward never died, Mother Love Bone never split up and therefore Pearl Jam never came into being. “Nevermind” was a commercial flop that saw Nirvana ejected from Geffen records and to this day muso's still talk about it in hushed whispers as one of the lost gems of the 90s. In this universe, The Almighty never had the lure of grunge to compete with and went on to Maiden-level imperialism, headlining festivals and stadiums across the land. This evening we get a sneak preview into that parallel dimension as the original line-up reunites for the first time in thirty-three years to give us an Almighty (pun definitely intended) dose of might-have-been.

Live Review : SKYND + Zetra @ Academy 2, Manchester on November 30th 2023

Main support on this tour are Zetra, and to be honest they have a tough slot to go on before such a dynamic and unique headliner…but they themselves are no ordinary band. The London two-piece are nominally Adam (guitar and vocals) and Jordan (synths and vocals) and they’ve been knocking about since 2018. In that time they’ve gathered a collection of supporters from successful bands across the scene, including Sammy from Employed to Serve.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Matt Fraser3 December 2023Manchester Academy 2SKYND, Zetra, Academy 2, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Matt Fraser, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Extreme + Living Colour @ Academy, Manchester on November 30th 2023

Ahh funk metal that most interesting of anomalies that reared its ugly head in the late 80s. It was, to quote Steve Coogan, the moment that the white man learnt to dance. In many ways it was a bit of a catch-all term used to pigeonhole anything vaguely metallic that had a thumping funky bassline. So in went Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers and woefully undervalued Atom Seed and Mind Funk. Extreme were an interesting addition to the party in that they were a lot more commercial and a lot less heavy than their compatriots. Essentially they took Van Halen's template and just funked it up little bit more. What they did have though was Nuno Bettencourt, one of the purest guitar talent to have ever walked the earth.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas2 December 2023Extreme, Living Colour, Academy, Manchester, 2023, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Michael Schenker Group + Night Demon @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on November 28th 2023

Phew. A clash of happenings sees me dash to the Ritz just in time to catch the last couple of songs from Californian trad-metal trio Night Demon. This is a shame, because based on their self-titled set closer and the half a song I saw before it they are pretty damn good. They have flying vs, flying hair and a shirtless drummer. The sound is very solid early 80s British-influenced rock.

Live Review : Holding Absence + Thornhill + Dark Divine @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on November 22nd 2023

Arriving fashionably late as usual… what can I say I’ve only been back from Australia a week and jetlag has been kicking my ass… Dark Divine are already on stage and a small crowd are here to witness what this hard rock quintet has to offer. Visiting these shores all the way from Orlando Florida, Dark Divine formed in 2021, have recently toured with the likes of VV and Black Veil Brides and released their debut album “Deadly Fun” in September this year.

Live Review : Impericon Never Say Die Tour: King 810 + Nasty + ten56 + Left To Suffer + Fox Lake + Reduction @ Club Academy, Manchester on November 22nd 2023

German hardcore-beatdown masters Reduction take to the stage as opening act for this year’s edition of the annual Impericon Never Say Die tour. Despite the early doors, a rapidly growing crowd is immediately engaged by Reduction's relentless sonic assault, with a late afternoon circle pit even managing to erupt mid-set (featuring the first glimpse of an eccentric banana-clad participant).

Live Review : Green Lung + Boss Keloid @ Gorilla, Manchester on November 23rd 2023

One of the many interesting aspects about tonight’s show is the fact that the audience is, in the main, considerably older than the band. There is a latent desire within a true metalhead's DNA to continually search out the next exciting emerging talent. It is like a form of attention deficit disorder. As soon as an act has penetrated the mainstream, we need to discover whatever is going to succeed.

Live Review : Massive Wagons + The New Roses @ Hangar 34, Liverpool on November 21st 2023

We were having a discussion at ROCKFLESH Towers the other day, wondering which band we have reviewed the most since we started. General consensus was that as we are a local website for local people, it would probably be a local band. In the end we decided it was likely to be Massive Wagons, who seem to have stayed true to their local roots too despite achieving not just national but international success in recent years. Tonight we are just up the road from their hometown, so I settle in my usual position lurking at the back to see how they are doing these days.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby22 November 2023Hangar 34Massive Wagons, The New Roses, Hangar 34, Liverpool, 2023, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Jason SamuelsComment

Live Review : Greta Van Fleet + Mt. Joy + Hannah Wicklund @ AO Arena, Manchester on November 19th 2023

There is a new messiah in town. Whilst we have all audaciously argued about who are the next festival headliners in our world, Greta Van Fleet have ascended to an arena-bothering level with little or no fanfare. They exist in that really interesting intersection between heavy rock and indie that you can trace the linage of all the way back to John Squire living out his Jimmy Page fantasies on ‘Love Spreads’. The arena is inhabited by a really interesting and predominantly young bevy of Merrymakers that are in the main, not your ordinary rock show attendees. The audience is far more likely to have spent time this summer at the Leeds Festival than they are to have inhabited the hallowed grounds of Donington Park.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas21 November 2023AO ArenaGreta Van Fleet, Mt. Joy, Hannah Wicklund, AO Arena, Manchester, 2023, Live ReviewComment

Live Review : Harakiri For The Sky + Ellende + Fen @ Rebellion, Manchester on November 16th 2023

It is quite rare for me to be faced with a review assignment that offers the Holy Grail, namely a band that I have yet to witness in a live environment. Harikari For The Sky have existed in some form or other since 2011 however they only really pricked our collective consciousness with their astonishing 2021 effort, “Mӕre”. The superlatives were tossed around like confetti, but since we were still deep in the non-touring days of the pandemic, they had little or no opportunity to get out on the road to cash in on the extraordinary level of newfound interest.

Live Review : The Answer + Kira Mac @ Club Academy, Manchester on November 15th 2023

Another day, another genre of that great musical cauldron we call rock. This time I am exploring the world of country blues and an evening of Southern-tinged rock n’ roll awaits. Well kind of. I mean support band Kira Mac are from Manchester, which is distinctly Northern, and last time I looked there was little in the way of deltas in Belfast where The Answer hail from. But still, let’s set the atmosphere. You can almost smell the whisky burning down Oxford Road tonight…..

Live Review : Pretty Boy Floyd + The Midnight Devils + The Clan @ The Tivoli, Buckley on November 12th 2023

I may take on assignments that take me all over metal’s glorious multi-verse of genres, but my home will always be the scuzzy outlier that is sleaze rock. Pretty Boy Floyd are an original 80s purveyor of the art form (despite there only being one original member left) and The Midnight Devils are upstart pretenders to the glam rock crown, so tonight I can breathe a sigh of relief and bask in the musical familiarity that surrounds me.

Live Review : Elder + Slomosa + Steak @ Gorilla, Manchester on November 12th 2023

I'm not sure whether it's the weather, this being the first weekend of the Christmas markets or the draw of the undercard; but Gorilla is absolutely heaving from the get-go. Reopen after a nine-month hiatus for urgent renovation work, there are people spilling out all every orifices of the venue from the moment the doors swing open. There is certainly anticipation in the air and it becomes very clear that this is not just for the headline act.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas14 November 2023GorillaSteak, Elder, Slomosa, Gorilla, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Stewart Lucas, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Corey Taylor + Oxymorrons @ Academy, Manchester on November 11th 2023

Who would have thought back in the late 90s when Slipknot first oozed out of the primeval slime of rural Iowa, that one day their shouty vocalist in the ugly mask would become a living legend? Being honest, bar a couple of songs, I am not a big fan of the boiler-suited weirdos, however when a friend introduced me to a band called Stone Sour a few years later I was astonished. “THIS is the same singer?” I proclaimed.

Gig Review©Jo Crosby13 November 2023Manchester AcademyCorey Taylor, Oxymorrons, Academy, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Ryan HicksonComment

Live Review : Creeper + Save Face + The Nightmares @ Academy, Manchester on November 9th 2023

The Nightmares are a band destined to open for a band like Creeper. They fit the bill in every possible way to compliment the mystique and expectation of what a night with Creeper should be like. They are a dark, Gothic synth heavy indie pop band which whilst being a mouthful is the only way I can possibly describe them.

Live Review : Deathstars + Priest + Liv Sin @ Rebellion, Manchester on November 9th 2023

Tonight I am in Rebellion to watch one of my favourite genres of music – bands from Sweden, Ok ok I know that’s not a genre, but the fact is that although bands from Sweden come in all kinds of musical varieties they all have one thing in common - they know how to entertain an audience. This evening’s bill is no exception, even if it is quite a big step away from my usual favourite Swedes with big hair and guyliner.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby11 November 2023RebellionDeathstars, Priest, Liv Sin, Rebellion, Manchester, 2023, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Ryan HicksonComment