Live Review : Delain + CyHra @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on February 7th 2020

Being an absolute In Flames fanboy I was very enticed by the prospect of CyHra as they contain not one but two former members of, in my humble opinion, Sweden’s greatest gift to metal. However, my anticipation was rather deflated when I discovered that not only had Peter Iwers actually left the band back in 2018 to start brewing beer in the suburbs of Gothenburg (teach me not to read the promotional material), but the legend that is Jesper Strömblad is also AWOL apparently taking an extended sabbatical from live performances. I therefore go into tonight’s show with rather low expectations and then preceded to have them blown to pieces.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas9 February 2020O2 RitzDelain, Cyhra, O2 Ritz, Manchester, 2020, Live Review, Stewart Lucas, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Anti-Flag + The Creepshow + Maid Of Ace @ Academy Club, Manchester on February 5th 2020

Gigs at Club Academy are always interesting, as the venue itself is pretty unusual. It’s the shape of the venue – it’s a club. Sounds obvious, but it does sometimes pose a conundrum to bands who don’t know how to bring the crowd together from various perching points on the stairs/ramps all the way down to the moshpit. No such problems for opening act Maid of Ace who are four sisters from Hastings that make full-on punk-rock. And they’re damn good at it.

Live Review : 3TEETH + PIG @ Rebellion in Manchester on February 3rd 2020

I love nu metal, and death metal, and metalcore, and grunge, and Tori Amos, and drum and bass.

But what I really really love is Industrial.

And with a queue snaked around the corner of Rebellion on a Monday night at 7.30pm, you just know all the finest and freakiest Manchester has to offer are here for one of THE most exciting industrial bands in the world. There is also one bloke from Kent I discover as I stomp down to the venue. He went drinking with the headliners once. My fangirl heart withers a little in its jealous cage, but I remain cool and composed with this info. I'm fine.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Sarah Cummings6 February 2020Rebellion3TEETH, PIG, Rebellion, Manchester, 2020, Live Review, Sarah Cummings, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : The Wildhearts + Backyard Babies + CKY @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on January 31st 2020

Do you know who CKY are? I didn’t. I vaguely remember their logo and had them firmly placed in my head as being part of the post-grunge American punk explosion of the late 90s. Not familiar with their output but doing my homework like a good little reviewer I thought they would be loud, shouty, brash, fast-paced and funny. After all, the drummer is Bam Margera’s brother, so they had to be a little bit Jackass, right?

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby3 February 2020O2 RitzThe Wildhearts, Backyard Babies, CKY, O2 Ritz, Manchester, 2020, Jo Crosby, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Sleep Token + Exploring Birdsong @ The Arts Club, Liverpool on January 27th 2020

The Arts Club in Liverpool often feels like a miniature amphitheater, what with its steeply stepped forum and decorated auditorium, so it seems a fitting venue for such a theatrical band as Sleep Token to bring their mysterious act to bear.

Local act Exploring Birdsong are an intriguing addition to the prog scene. The late 2019 release of their EP “The Thing With Feathers” has pushed them more explicitly into the limelight, and support slots of this stature will only serve them well.

Live Review : Twin Temple + The Violent Hearts @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester on January 27th 2020

You can’t help but feel sorry for Brummie support act the Violent Hearts. Their brand of goth inspired post-punk is really rather dandy and brings to mind a halfway house between Orange Juice and the Chameleons but this is so not their audience. In fact, I am rather nonplussed what or who this audience actually is. It is a about 25% curious metalheads, 25% Wicca and 50% hipster (the immaculately manicured beards and the pints of Porter (the new IPA) are a plenty).

Live Review : Thy Art Is Murder + Carnifex + Fit For An Autopsy + Rivers of Nihil + I Am @ Academy 2, Manchester on January 26th 2020

Sunday night is never a good night for a gig. I'd have maybe even got a little drunk on a Saturday. Prescription strength folic acid and vitamin D washed down with several pints. Doctor says I'm severely lacking in the essential nutrients to keep me functioning. Tonight should be fun then.

Extreme tiredness and unreliable Sunday public transport aside, I have managed to make it to Manchester Academy 2 for tonight’s fuckery. And it's fuckery in its finest form... Thy Art Is Murder are in town tonight and they bring with them an incredible line up. The line-up is 5 ferocious bands, all with their own thing to offer a Metal hungry audience.

Live Review : Revival Black + Scarlet Rebels + Attic Theory @ Jimmy's, Liverpool on January 24th 2020

First gig of the year and I am starting my review, as usual, by complaining about the traffic. Well actually not so much the traffic this time as the parking. Jimmy’s is a cool little basement venue under a bar/restaurant just on the edge of Liverpool’s China Town, which means that there is limited on-street parking nearby which was all full, and an incomprehensible one-way system of little streets that saw us drive past 3 times before we finally found our way to a pay and display within walking distance. Sadly this meant that my enjoyment of openers Attic Theory was restricted to their last song. This was frustrating because on the strength of said song they appear to be a decent band. They have two vocalists, some nice whoa-oh-oh chorus and a hint of Chilli Peppers. Hopefully I will be able to check them out properly at some point.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby25 January 2020Jimmy'sRevival Black, Scarlet Rebels, Attic Theory, Jimmy's, Liverpool, 2020, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : Insomnium + Conjurer @ Academy 3, Manchester on January 20th 2020

We, at ROCKFLESH Towers have pretty varied tastes. However, there is one thing that we do all agree on, Conjurer are on the cusp of something very special indeed. Every time I witness them live, they have moved on another few notches in their journey towards greatness. They seem to be in the throes of a fast-tracked evolution, growing and morphing in front of our very eyes. They are no longer Black Metal (in fact it is arguable if they were ever actually Black Metal in the first place or whether it was just a convenient label to give them). They have transformed into something that defies genre definition. It is heavy, crushing and filled with precise driving riffs and blistering blast-beats. But it also has its own unique fragility.

Live Review : Slipknot + Behemoth @ MEN Arena, Manchester on January 16th 2020

Mainstream Metal tends to keep Black Metal at an arm's length. It is reluctant to invite its it's uncouth younger sibling to prestigious occasions, for fear that they will say the wrong thing (like hail Satan in old Norse), burn a couple of churches down or attempt to sacrifice the pet cat. Behemoth however seem to have got in under the wire and are viewed as the acceptable (corpse painted) face of the extreme genres, without actually in any way tempering their approach. They maybe playing one of Europe’s biggest arenas as the opening act for the hottest show in town, but they are still one hundred percent a nasty venomous Satan worshipping machine.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas19 January 2020Manchester ArenaSlipknot, Behemoth, MEN Arena, Manchester, 2020, Live Review, Stewart LucasComment

Live Review : Enthroned + Schammasch + Caronte + Argesk @ Rebellion, Manchester on January 7th 2020

The baubles are barely down from the tree and I am still finding pine needles every-frickin-where, but the resumption of ROCKFLESH duties signals that the holiday period is well and truly over. Tonight is a masterclass in the avant-garde corners of extreme Metal. Much fancied local melodic Black Metallers Argesk are openers and that is as much as I can tell you as they go on at around half six and to be honest I haven’t even left the house yet. Apparently, according to my sources, they were really rather good, with lush keyboard inserts and commanding vocals. It’s just a shame they were shoved on so bloody early.

Live Review : Absolva's Christmas Party @ Academy 3, Manchester on December 21st 2019

I’m starting this review in a slightly different way – with an apology. You see it’s now been a month since I trotted down to the Academy 3 to attend this little seasonal shindig, so you’re probably wondering why you’re only reading about it now? Nope, I don’t know either. Life, the universe and everything got in the way and although I kept meaning to sit down at the laptop and start scribbling, somehow it just didn’t happen. So I’m sorry you’ve all been kept waiting for so long. Normal service will shortly be resumed!

Right! Now that’s out of the way, what did I actually get to see on the night in question? Well, a stonking night of traditional British Metal to be fair.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby26 December 2019Academy 3Absolva, Vice, Stormrider, Academy 3, Manchester, 2019, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : Cats In Space + Hand Of Dimes @ the Tivoli, Buckley on December 20th 2019

Sometimes you can go to watch a band and they sound really similar to someone else, and you go “Oh they are just like <insert band name> aren’t they”? Whereas sometimes you go to watch a band and they have captured a genre just right, and although they don’t sound exactly the same as anyone you can definitely hear their influences and get where they are coming from. Hand Of Dimes fall into that second category.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby24 December 2019The TivoliCats In Space, Hand Of Dimes, The Tivoli, Buckley, 2019, Live Review, Jo CrosbyComment

Live Review : FM + GUN + Dan Reed Network @ Academy 2, Manchester on December 20th 2019

Way before the days of all things grunge and everything else since, there was a time that we all remember rather fondly. Well, the ones like me that are now above a certain age do anyway. Back in 1989, music was just as strong as it is now, especially if you where a rock and metal fan. It was the tail end of the ‘Hair or Poodle Metal’ days, the land of big shoulders, long sparkled coats, mullets, denim, leathers, cowboy boots, sequins and blokes applying make-up playing pink pointy guitars.

Aah, those where the days!

Gig ReviewAuthor : Phil Beswick23 December 2019Academy 2FM, Dan Reed Network, GUN, Academy 2, Manchester, 2019, Live Review, Phil Beswick, Gregg HowarthComment

Live Review : Bury Tomorrow + Employed To Serve + Blood Youth @ Academy, Manchester on December 20th 2019

My last gig of 2019 sees me catching one of my favourite bands for some festive metal shenanigans at Manchester Academy. We get there nice and early, following a few expensive beers elsewhere, to make sure we don't miss what are some excellent support bands. This limited venue tour from Bury Tomorrow is very much a purists offering. The two bands they have supporting them aren’t necessarily the most immediately accessible or mainstream acts, but instead they are young up and coming bands that are unique and exciting – hence presumably why Bury Tomorrow are giving them this platform.

Live Review : At The Gates + Nifelheim + Deserted Fear @ Academy Club, Manchester on December 18th 2019

None of us here at ROCKFLESH towers are professional journalists. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we are all enthusiastic amateurs with day jobs in areas as diverse as educational administration, ICT, accountancy and Mental Health (the last one is me). We do this for the love of the music and frankly nothing else. Because of this, our reviews tend to be more passionate and less objective than the ones you would get in Metal Hammer, NME, Kerrang etc. We talk about bands that we adore and the reasons why we adore them. We describe how the shows make us feel. We also choose which shows we cover (none of us get paid for this and half the time we have to pay to get in with the rest of you) so we tend to end up at gigs of bands that we already are extremely emotionally attached to.

Gig ReviewAuthor : Stewart Lucas23 December 2019Academy ClubAt The GatesComment

Live Review : The Darkness + Rews @ O2 Academy, Liverpool on December 18th 2019

REWS are a three-piece pop/rock band hailing from London despite there being a distinct Norn Irish twang about the vocals. They are bubbly, with catchy songs, and the female vocals are OK. There’s nothing that reaches out and grips me about them, but nothing I particularly dislike either. They do sound a lot like Scotland’s Amorettes though, to the extent that from my position at the back I had to squidge a bit closer to the stage just to check that this wasn’t them under another name. (It wasn’t).

Gig ReviewAuthor : Jo Crosby22 December 2019O2 AcademyThe Darkness, Rews, O2 Academy, Liverpool, 2019, Live Review, Jo Crosby, Johann WierzbickiComment

Live Review : Winter Rocks @ the Corporation, Sheffield on December 7th 2019

Sheffield. City of steel, birthplace of my favourite band in the world ever, and a bit of a pain to get to for an all-day festival if you live on the other side of the Pennines to it! Accordingly I manage to arrive at The Corporation just in time to totally miss the first two bands, sorry. This is my first visit to the venue and I am impressed. It’s normally a nightclub, and is a bit of a rabbit-warren of a place with one big main room and several smaller ones. Today one of the smaller ones was put to use as a merch room, and one of the upstairs ones was the site of the second stage. Stage times were staggered so there were no overlaps which was great, if a little tiring trying not to miss anyone!

Live Review : John Corabi + Tony Mitchell @ the Waterloo Music Bar, Blackpool on December 11th 2019

It’s another bleeding Wednesday gig, bah. Sometimes I think the Universe conspires against me, other reviewers get to go and do nice no-need-to-juggle-work weekend gigs but for some reason all the best gigs that I get to go to are on Wednesdays at the moment. I do cheat a bit tonight though by accepting a lift from my ROCKFLESH colleague and ace photographer Johann, so at least I don’t have to tackle the M6 again and I can have a couple of rum & coke for *ahem* medicinal purposes when I get there. The Waterloo itself when we arrive is warm and welcoming. It’s really starting to take off as a venue now and some class acts are queueing up to play here. Ian and his team have done a superb job of making it into a venue that’s a good experience for both bands and fans, and if someone you like announces a gig at the Waterloo I highly recommend that you pop along and see for yourself. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with the décor, the atmos, the sound or the bar prices!

Live Review : Hundred Year Old Man + E-L-R + Ba'al @ Rebellion, Manchester on December 8th 2019

Fifty years on from Heavy Metal’s inception it is heartening that bands are still obsessed with how far they can push its boundaries. All three of tonight’s acts are deconstructing and subverting the templates of our genre and experimenting with its confides. The only cloud in the (winter) sky is only about fifty or so people have wandered up on this cold winter’s evening (made even more maddening by the fact that a mere stone’s throw away at the Ritz a sold out crowd is watching the insipid goth metal by numbers of Motionless in White).