On paper the billing for this evening’s show feels distinctly skew-whiff. Fit For An Autopsy are on a quite impressive upward trajectory. They have broken free from the confines and the preconceptions of Deathcore and have cemented themselves a berth in the one-to-watch category. Pairing them as a co-headliner with Sylosis on the face of it feels mismatched because, well Sylosis have been around forever without ever really making their mark. It's hard to imagine a British metal scene without Sylosis plugging away in its lower echelons trying to make a name for themselves. Don't get us wrong, we at ROCKFLESH Towers love Sylosis, it's just that we've never ever envisaged them as being of a Ritz headliner status. Add to all that the fact that the much-fancied media darlings Heriot are sat slap bang at the bottom of the bill and the whole structure feels a little, odd.
Read MoreSpite kick-off the evening and immediately set the scene for the heavy deathcore night ahead. Despite it being an early doors there’s a more than decent sized crowd here for the openers. We’re also not waiting long for a double-kick drum onslaught. They’re a heady mix of brutal hardcore and nu-metal melodies mixed with vicious tech-metal. The guitar tones are meaty, djenty and have that deliciously techy sound.
Read MoreIt’s an early Sunday evening start for a very heavy night at Rebellion, and New Jersey progressive metalcore crew Sentinels are first up. They prowl the dark stage in sinister fashion with a mysterious electronic backing-track before exploding into an exciting, high energy set. The best way to describe them is a tech-metal Malevolence, but they cover way more bases than that suggests.
Read MoreSunday 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.
Read MoreThis tour is a true barometer of where the extreme end of heavy music find itself in 2019. You have four bands that share a love of Death Metal but present that central influence in four highly distinctive ways, you have four continents represented, you have a diverse crowd made up of a cross section of extreme music's many distinct tribes (with scissor-kicking hardcore kids and head nodding trad-metallers both out in force) and you have a pretty decent turnout for a Sunday night where every single act gets an appreciative pit and their lyrics screamed back at them. Overall this feels much more like a package tour of acts of a similar stature as opposed to a headliner and an undercard of also ran's, there only to make up numbers.
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