Live Review : Signs Of The Swarm + Varials + Cabal + To The Grave @ Club Academy, Manchester on October 26th 2024

It's fascinating how the entire inference of a tour can be altered by the simple switching of billing. The Pins and Knuckles’ sponsored Faces of Death tour was originally conceived as a co-headlining affair between Progressive metal core legends Veil of Maya and hotly tipped deathcore mainstays Signs of the Swarm. It was a nicely balanced mixture of genres that appeal to those who like to a bit core in their life. But then sadly Veil of Maya inconveniently went on immediate hiatus, Signs of the Swarm were promoted to singular headlining status, much fancied Danish deathcore proponents Cabal were given a berth and suddenly, Bob's your uncle, this tour leans much more towards a deathcore fan base.

Live Review : Lacuna Coil + Blind Channel @ Academy, Manchester on October 20th 2024

The reverential position that Lacuna Coil now holds has been achieved through the complete antithesis to overnight success. Formed 30 years ago in Milan asSleep of Right they have slowly but diligently built a unified fan base. This is their ninth visit to this fair city and on each excursion to our beloved northern outpost they have subtly but significantly increased the amount of people present. This evening's patronage is to herald the arrival of their 10th studio album (and first in six years) which will see the light of the day early next year.

Live Review : Alice Cooper + Primal Scream + The Meffs @ AO Arena, Manchester on October 17th 2024

For all his household name and national treasure status, Alice Cooper is still very much an enigma. There are two distinct personalities at play. On the one hand, he is a Vaudeville showman, hawking around his macabre freakshow designed to shock and scare in equal measure. On the other hand, he is the custodian of probably one of the finest musical songbooks of the rock 'n' roll era. An Alice Cooper live performance is a fine-tuned balance between the two. As he sings in ‘Hello Hooray’ (sadly AWOL from tonight’s setlist) “Ready as this audience that's coming here to dream, Loving every second, every moment, every scream”. You go to Alice Cooper for a Circus of Horrors but packed with tracks that have perminated themselves into the rock lexicon. He is a living legend, with the musical credits to back up those credentials.

Live Review : Geoff Tate + Kim Jennett @ Academy 3, Manchester on October 9th 2024

Nostalgia is a potent force. It’s your own personal Time Machine, allowing us to revisit the sounds and the essence of our past exploits. It also has highly redemptive and restorative powers. It allows the whitewashing of career indiscretions and focuses on the highs, while simultaneously burying the lows. Queensryche are case in point, as the 80’s morphed into the 90’s they seemed poised to join Maiden and Metallica in the really big league of metallic heavy weights. “Operation Mindcrime “had position them as the thinking person’s metal band and follow-up “Empire” increased tenfold their commercial clout, thrusting them into arena status. For a short smidgen of time they had the Midas touch and could do no wrong. Then grunge happened.

Live Review : Arch Enemy + In Flames + Soilwork @ Academy, Manchester on October 4th 2024

Swedish melodic death metal, that most geographically defined of subgenres. It arose in the mid-90s when our music was at its lowest ebb. Grunge, "alt-metal” and the early spectre of nu-metal have swept away the more traditional confines of our world. Metallica seemingly had turned their back on everything they had built and had started wearing eyeliner and trying to sound like Alice in Chains and a Bruce-less Iron Maiden couldn’t even get themselves arrested.

Live Review : Apocalyptica + The Raven Age @ Albert Hall, Manchester on September 29th 2024

Apocalyptica have spent over 25 years refusing to be typecast. Starting life as a classical style Metallica tribute act, their 1996 debut “Plays Metallica by Four Cellos” remains one of the most stunningly unique albums ever released. A further eight albums over a nearly 30-year career has seen them bring in a drummer and vocalist, write their own material and firmly break out of the mould of novelty cover act. All of which makes the decision to record a second Metallica cover album and tour it with a set list made up of exclusively Metallica covers both baffling and bold.

Live Review : Monster Magnet + Margarita Witch Cult @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on September 22nd 2024

If Kyuss are Stoner Rock's Beatles (universally revered, rather pretentious, and no longer with us) then that makes Monster Magnet its Stones. There was always something a bit more organic, primal and downright sexy about Dave Wyndorff's crew that made them stand out from the other purveyors of mind-expanding space rock. Tonight is the start of a jaunt to celebrate 35 years of psychedelic riffs and cosmic baselines.

Live Review : The Dead Daisies + The Treatment + The Bites @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on September 17th 2024

After eight years of Rockflesh.com contravening grammatical structures, it is only inevitable that there will be repetition and repeat offenders. Whilst there is a myriad of acts that this here website has covered twice or thrice, there is only a handful of musical vendors that we have caught up with in numerous locations and on numerous occasions. A particular frequent flyer is those ubiquitous test-tube breed hard rockers, The Dead Daisies. There was a point before the pandemic when they seemed to be everywhere and had taken up squatters' rights in this country.

Live Review : Nile + Hideous Divinity + Intrepid + Pestifer @ Rebellion, Manchester on September 10th 2024

Death metal was envisaged as a repugnant knee-jerk reaction to the excess and blatant commerciality of eighties hair metal. It was meant to burn bright and leave a grizzled corpse. However, something caught and nearly 40 years later Death Metal is in rude health. Tonight is an interesting and potent mix of obnoxious upstarts, cult heroes and venerated legends of the genre. Rebellion is heaving and the generational mix is both fascinating and varied.

Live Review : Satan + Reaper @ The Bread Shed, Manchester on September 4th 2024

Rather than a case of "Wish you were here!", this evening is brought to you by "Why the hell weren't you here?”. You see Satan are simply astounding and it is an absolute travesty that not more of Manchester's metal fraternity are gathered in the cavernous confines of The Bread Shed to witness it. They manage to be astounding not in a rose-tinted spectacles nostalgia way, where you forgive the ravages of time in the light of being able to see living legends in the flesh.

Live Review : The Acacia Strain + Fuming Mouth + Judiciary @ Academy 3, Manchester on July 3rd 2024

It would have been eminently straightforward to stick identikit deathcore acts bands on this bill and placate the two-stepping masses. However, taking the easy route through life has never been how The Acacia Strain have rolled. As Vincent Burnett, there are lusciously charismatic frontman, intones during their set, this is all about being surrounded by your friends and Judiciary and Fuming Mouth are very much part of their posse, even if they do play significantly different variants of extreme metal. In fact, tonight is a masterclass in how diverse American extreme metal has become and anybody who dares to proclaim that it all sounds the same is simply not listening hard enough.

Live Review : Mr. Bungle + Spotlights @ O2 Ritz, Manchester on June 13th 2024

For anybody who grew up in metal in the late 80s/early 90s, Mr. Bungle were a disruptive enigma. They were spoken about with reverential hush tones as being a fiercely non-commercial bloodletting exercise so that Mike Patton could express his disdain at the unfeasible success story of his main band Faith No More. The bigger his day job became, the more he retreated into the anarchistic unpredictability of Mr. Bungle. For those of us being seduced by metals more avant-garde fringes, Mr. Bungle was an overtly enticing forbidden fruit.

Live Review : Jane's Addiction + Humanist @ O2 Apollo, Manchester on June 2nd 2024

Whilst they may well be considered a "name" act, the influence and the impact of Jane's Addiction is incredibly underrated. We tend to look at grunge and bands such asSoundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and the erstwhile Nirvana as being the architects of alt-metal and our genre’s early '90s U turn away from sword, sorcery, highlighted perms and blatant sexism. However, Jane's Addiction’s astonishing opening salvo of “Nothing’s Shocking” and “Ritual de lo Habitual” were released before either “Nevermind” or “10” had even been recorded and provided the foundations for the seismic and still resonating changes in metal’s DNA. You then add in the fact the first Lollapalooza package (the blueprint for the modern alternative music festival) was created in 1991 purely as a vehicle for Jane's Addiction's farewell tour, and you have a band that has single-handedly and with very little recognition shaped the current world we live in.

Live Review : Tool + Night Verses @ AO Arena, Manchester on June 1st 2024

How the hell has a band as complex and as unconformist as Tool become a mainstream affair? Usually, when an act reaches a point where it is selling out arenas and headlining festivals, it has had to forego a chunk of its authenticity and individuality to do so. This is not the case with Tool. There has been no candlestein deals with the devil using the currency of souls. This evening in Manchester they exhibit the same level of authenticity that they had when they formed 34 years ago. They have not changed or budged in their eccentric uniqueness, yet fame, fortune and adulation have sought them out without them having to move an inch.

Live Review : Bruce Dickinson + Black Smoke Trigger @ Academy, Manchester on May 19th 2024

These days Bruce Dickinson is irrevocably tied to Iron Maiden. His air-raid siren shrills and cries of "Scream for me (enter name of town)” are as synonymous to the band as is their gargantuan mascot Eddie. However, for the vast majority of the 90’s he was AWOL, jumping ship in 1993 citing a combination of burnout, musical differences, and inter-band tensions. As the ubiquitous hyperactive kid at the back of the class who always has 16 different projects on the go, Bruce was never one to let the grass grow under his feet. During his six-year sabbatical from, arguably, heavy metal's biggest band he managed to produce four rather spiffing solo efforts (his debut effort, Tattooed Millionaire had appeared pre-split in 1990 and very likely hastened his exit.

Live Review : Sirenia + Temperance + Symphonity @ Club Academy, Manchester on May 11th 2024

Symphonic metal is a rather incestuous affair. Nightwish’s Floor Jansen and Epica’s Mark Jansen both come from the ranks of genre pioneers After Forever. Delain Svengali Martijin Westerholt formed that band after he left Within Temptation and Beast in Black came into being when Anton Kabanen was ousted from Battle Beast. Sirenia, the headliner of tonight’s symphonic metal nights package tour came into being when Morten Veland walked away from the similarly musically orientated Tristania. Basically it's like a game of musical chairs, but with more swirling keyboard flourishes.

Live Review : Tenacious D @ AO Arena, Manchester on May 8th 2024

For the genre with a reputation for being poe-faced and humourless, there is an awful lot of comedy metal about. Steel Panther cater for those who still find tits and blatant sexism funny. Evil Scarecrow have made a career of combining metal with Mighty Boosh level surrealism and Raised by Owls manage to be simultaneously hilarious and impenetrable to anybody who doesn't know their Benediction from their Bolthrower. But like a gargantuan skyscraper looming over the whole scene is the behemoth that is Tenacious D.

Live Review : Ingested + Fallujah + Mélancolia @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 20th 2024

The Mondays at the G-Mex, Oasis at Maine Road, Morrissey (before he became a racist twit) at the MEN and The Roses at Heaton Park. To the lexicon of great Mancunian homecomings we can now add Ingested at Rebellion. Despite the ludicrously early start time the place is heaving from the get-go. There is a fevered atmosphere that consists of a potent mixture of expectation and civic pride. Every conversation seems to major on our own individual roles in Ingested’s majestic ascension to the death metal top table.

Live Review : Midnight + Cyclone + High Command @ Rebellion, Manchester on April 16th 2024

Some shows loom large in the memory for many moons to come. Midnight’s inaugural visit to this fair city back in June ‘22 is one such instant. Tales of masked men hanging from support beams and unheard-of reserves of ravaged energy have been passed around the metal fraternity ever since. It has achieved such a legendary status (of course we were there, our review can be found here) that their return to Manchester less than two years later has become something of an event. Rebellion is impressively packed out for a Tuesday, with an audience made up of those who were lucky enough to be in the Academy 3 24 months ago and their mates who have been dragged along to enjoy the spectacle.

Live Review : Blind Guardian + The Night Eternal @ Academy, Manchester on April 13th 2024

The signs of a good time had by all is when the echoes reverberate long into the night. For an hour after Blind Guardian exit the stage, the refrain “Valhalla, Deliverance, Why've you ever forgotten me” can be heard being sung by the dispersing masses as they meander away from the Academy down the Oxford Road corridor. It may not have made much sense to the glammed-up masses heading off to identikit soulless nightclubs, but it was an indication that Mancunia had a rare and thoroughly wondrous visitation from the Teutonic gods of power metal.