Eivør, Ásgeir & Elinborg - New Century Hall, Manchester (21/9/25)

I didn't realise that was a third act playing tonight so it is something of a surprise when I enter the hall and find Elinborg on stage. She is similar in style to Eivør but is more focused on the poppier elements of her sound. The first track I catch is ambient pop meets trance and when she opens up vocally it sounds really powerful. The second track is less rousing, being electronic pop with a slight OMD feel. The following track has a slight industrial edge and is much more atmospheric. The more atmospheric songs are definitely more successful, and thankfully this seems to make up the majority of her setlist. Elinborg has a lovely voice with a good range and a nice expressive quality. The final track 'Blóð' is the best song in her short set. It is quiet in the verse with a brooding, atmospheric Twin Peaks quality which leads to a louder, heavier, stomping chorus.

Ásgeir plays mature European pop which has the feel of the more sophisticated Eurovision acts such as Gjon's Tears or Duncan Laurence. It's beautifully layered with electronic beats, vocal effects and neat synthesised guitar lines, and it is captivating. 'Dreaming' has more of a gospel soul influence but is just as compelling. He takes up the guitar for the new, unreleased track 'Julia' which is more in Jeff Buckley territory and is utterly magical. His voice has plenty of character. He also has a great range, and his upper register is really quite beautiful. One vocoder heavy track comes across as beautiful robotic soul. Ásgeir adds electronic elements and stuttering beats sparingly but when he does they add different textures and the effect is stunning.

Eivør opens her set with 'Jorðatrá', a poppier take on the norse folk that Heilung specialise in. The electronic beats are propulsive and give it a fair bit of power. A bodhrán drum is brought out for the ethereal pop of 'Salt' which has a heavy Kate Bush influence. 'Gullspunnin' is dreamy and mesmeric, like much of what she plays. 'Í Tokuni' adds distorted guitars and creepy troll vocals to the mix and veers much closer to folk metal. It has a grandiose mystical power. The trio of tracks she performs from 'The Last Kingdom' soundtrack showcases the epic, cinematic nature of her music. 'Let It Come' is yet more Kate Bush style avant pop and it is magnificent. Eivør's voice positively soars during 'Boxes' and the high pitched spikes add a distinct individual character. 'So Close To Being Free' is moody trip hop and the thunderous climax is excellent. The sparse and glacial 'Us And Them' sees Ásgeir join her onstage for a spellbinding duet. 'Enn' is probably the closest she gets to the norse folk of Heilung or Kalandra. Elinborg joins onstage for a highly dramatic 'Upp Úr Øskuni'. The set gets heavier towards the end with the last few tracks being much more metalcentric. The strange stringed instrument (possibly a talharpa) they use during the hypnotic regular set closer 'Trøllabundin' creates an ominous growl. The encore 'Falling Free' is an emotional way to close the set, with its Kate Bush style ethereal balladry. Captivating.

Eivør ****

Ásgeir *****

Elinborg ****

Portal, Impetuous Ritual & Abduction - Rebellion, Manchester (18/9/25)

A sizeable, slow moving queue outside the venue means that I enter midway through Abduction's first song. Their brand of black metal sounds rather muddy and murky. I'd like more definition in the sound so I can hear the individual parts more clearly but it is still powerful and kinda suits their nightmarish vision. The cleanly sung opening to 'Razors Of Occam' provides a rich atmosphere and the contrast between that and the blasting is stark and impactful. Similar to the other bands playing tonight, Abduction create a maelstrom of noise live, and this is in contrast to the more refined and progressive nature of the studio recordings. A pounding, frantic and urgent '...Vomiting At Baalbek' closes their brief set.

The loincloth wearing, blood covered, metal spike adorned Aussies, Impetuous Ritual, play a feral, raw form of blackened death that is fucking ferocious. It's lightning fast yet complex and the vocals are savage. It sounds huge too, causing the aural equivalent of blunt force trauma. It's vicious, relentless, exhausting and pretty breathtaking. Just when you think that they can't get any faster, they put their foot on the pedal and become an intense blur. They also manage to conjure moments of skin crawling horror akin to tonight's headliners but overall, this is fast, raw and primal. An absolute revelation.

Portal's brand of abyssal death metal is nowhere near as immediate. The guitars come screaming from the void, frantically scrambling to avoid being sucked into a black hole but it oddly doesn't draw me in as it should for the first couple of numbers and I feel strangely disconnected from it. 'Glumurphonel' is more powerful but I still feel like an outsider who hasn't been allowed access to their universe. I feel like I am watching this chaos passively from a distance and whilst I can appreciate their craft, I haven't been fully sucked in. I can't put my finger on what is missing but something is. It's probably sacrilege to most here who are losing their minds, especially so when you consider how rarely they play on these shores, but I decide leave midway through the set as I'm not sure that anything is going to change.

Portal ***

Impetuous Ritual *****

Abduction ****

Torche & Helms Alee - Club Academy, Manchester (14/9/25)

Tonight was originally booked for the 1300 capacity New Century Hall across town but was switched to the much smaller Club Academy a couple of months ago, and the word on the street is that it hasn't sold well at all. It looks pitifully empty just after the doors open and isn't that much busier as Helms Alee take to the stage.

Helms Alee open with some maudlin Americana guitar chords before the rhythm section join in and absolutely hammer their instruments. There is an indie rock sensibility to them and the overall effect is like PJ Harvey jamming with Kylesa. It is thunderously heavy and very rhythmic with the sonic assault coming in waves. The bass tone and rhythms also bring tonight's headliners to mind. All three members add something different vocally. The guitarist Ben Verellen's vocals have a coarse, raw edge reminiscent of High On Fire's Matt Pike. The bassist Dana's voice has a Sinead O'Connor edge and the track where she takes lead is much more atmospheric and, dare I say, beautiful, like rays of sunshine breaking through a thunderstorm. There's the odd awkward moment, such as the drummer dropping her sticks and a clumsy transition from a quiet part to a heavy part, but it doesn't damage the impact in the slightest. The penultimate track sees the drummer Hozoji and Ben harmonise to excellent effect, giving the impression of a doom Fleetwood Mac. The crowd keep heckling 'very good' but it is hard to disagree.

It's filled up somewhat and is about half full when Torche start their set. As a lot of bands are doing these days following Ozzy's passing, they open with a Sabbath cover. To be fair, their cover of 'Breakout' is probably more focused than the original. Their own material sounds as good as ever too. Their patented 'thunder pop' is heavy enough to get heads banging but has a good dash of melody and accessible vocals as demonstrated by the bouncy yet hefty 'Grenades' is hefty. 'Pirana' has a powerful, steamrollering rhythm. The uptempo biker punk of 'Speed Of The Nail' is great. The summery stoner rock of 'Across The Shields' has a fantastic groove perfect for driving round town in a sporty convertible on a hot Summer's day. The dynamic 'Kicking' is the perfect blend of the heavy and the melodic whilst the waves of noise which propel 'Minions' steadily forwards are pretty hypnotic. The devastatingly heavy bass tone of 'Warship' is crushing whilst 'In Return' is an absolute barrage. They seem to be getting heavier and heavier as the the set progresses. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about Torche but tonight is a welcome return. I just wish more people were here to see it.

Torche ****

Helms Alee ****

Cave In & Toru - Club Academy, Manchester (12/9/25)

Cave In are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their seminal 'Jupiter' album by playing the album in full. That LP really blew my mind when I first heard it 25 years ago. I was very much a hardcore kid at the time but I had a particularly soft spot for discordant metallic hardcore such as Converge, Coalesce, Harvest, Starkweather and Dillinger Escape Plan. I knew of Cave In but hadn't actually heard the first two albums. I still knew that they were in the same vein as those bands from the fanzines I read. When 'Jupiter' was released, I bought it straight away from a distro at a show and they were no longer anything like those bands. It was such an about turn which could have been disappointing but it wasn't. it was brilliant. It showed that hardcore could venture into new territories and still challenge you. It was essentially prog rock mixed with emo with a hefty bottom end and it gained them a whole new legion of fans.

The opening act is France's Toru who play heavy prog with multiple twists and turns. The drummer is wonderfully animated and his drumming has a jazz sensibility which gives the music space to breathe. I'm reminded of an instrumental Opeth in some places. They can be quite experimental too: at one point the drummer hits his cymbals with another cymbal which is a new one on me, and at another point the band uses various odd woodwind instruments and whistles. One funky track has latin/samba style drumming and is great. There is a Cave In feel to much of what they do but equally there is an anarchic Melvins/Oxbow noise rock element too. It's probably too out there for some but I found it really interesting.

Cave In open with a chugging rock guitar before the other instruments gradually join in. It's more like the opening to a Bruce Springsteen concert with the E Street Band jamming along. From this, they launch into the supreme prog rock of 'Jupiter'. It isn't exactly seamless but it hardly matters because it sounds fucking magnificent. The stuttering bass, spacey guitars and Stephen Brodsky's high pitched falsetto vocals on 'In The Stream Of Commerce' are amazing. 'Big Riff' always disappointed me a little because although it has a weighty bottom end and a heavy riff, I always expected more from the title. It sounds pretty monstrous tonight though. 'Brain Candle' is straightforward alt rock which still has enough weird guitar lines to make it challenging and progressive. It is much more driving and powerful live, like everything seems to be tonight. In fact, this is proving to be everything I wanted tonight to be and more. The astral prog of 'Requiem' is amazing and those guitars sound otherworldly, evoking Event Horizon style cosmic horror in the mid-section before the anthemic climax. The spacey instrumental 'Decay Of The Delay' is absolutely crushing. Both Brodsky and fellow guitarist Adam McGrath absolutely rip it up during a white hot cover of Led Zeppelin's version of 'Dazed And Confused'. Nate Newton and John-Robert Connors are a rock solid rhythm section and they provide the base for the guitarists to create their magic. 'Jupiter's final track 'New Moon' is much more sparse before it bursts into life for the climax. Encore 'Blinded By A Blaze' is painted in much darker hues, with doomy undercurrents of Alice In Chains. I met a number of people that I knew from the hardcore scene back in the day, who all still hold Cave In, and this album in particular, dear to their hearts, and what we got tonight was a flawless performance of a beloved record.

Cave In *****

Toru ****

Manchester Psych Fest - Various Venues, Manchester (30/8/25)

I love Psych Fest. It's one of my favourite days of the year. A whole day travelling to various venues on or around Manchester's Oxford Road watching as many bands as you can. It's incredible value for money, especially if you buy an early bird ticket. It's also an amazing way of discovering a number of great obscure bands who otherwise wouldn't appear on my radar, and this year is no exception. It will be hard pressed to top last years Psych Fest though which is probably the best festival I've ever been to as every band was excellent, including my live set of the year (Slift, which was also my album of the year too).

Fuzz Lightyear are the first band I catch at the Deaf Institute, and it is a really healthy turnout for a fairly unknown band, They open with a rock solid groove topped with shouty vocals. It reminds me of Italia 90's form of post-punk and is a great way to start the set. The second track is built upon a driving beat and is a bit more intense. The third track is Gurriers style post-punk with some inventive guitar work. 'My Body' is thrilling, with an infectious chorus and some exhilarating guitar playing although guitarist/vocalist Ben Parry gets a bit carried away and briefly sabotages his pedals. The equally memorable 'Visual Effect' is amazing too. 'The sludgy, industrial throb of 'Berlin, 1885' is excellent. All the band are great but the bassist Varun truly looks like he doesn't give a fuck and at the end he lobs his bass into the crowd. It's a really good showing. Psych Fest is a great place to see bands on their way up (Fat Dog, Gurriers, Lambrini Girls and Royel Otis all played last year) and it wouldn't surprise me if Fuzz Lightyear were much more popular this time next year.

It's a quick trip across the road to The Bread Shed next for the husband and wife drone duo, Skloss. They open with a guitar riff which sounds a bit like Status Quo's 'Pictures Of Matchstick Men' but it is twisted and distorted into something heavy and hypnotic. Earth (both early period and the later material) are a pretty obvious influence. The effects laden vocals really draw you into their universe. If anything, their songs aren't long enough, stopping abruptly when I'd happily have them continue for another five minutes. It's heavy, mesmeric and is the kind of music where you close your eyes and see where your mind takes you. The monstrously heavy groove they create often reminds me of Kyuss' spacier moments too. Skloss are definitely right up my street.

Next it's over to YES for LA's Cryogeyser. They play shoegazey alt rock which has hints of Belly about it. It's pretty decent but is nothing I haven't heard before. The singer Shawn sings mainly on one level. She sounds much better when she opens up and it is much more affecting. It's mildly hypnotic and mildly affecting but they never seem to fully get there and that isn't enough I'm afraid.

I take the long walk to Projekts Skatepark, right under the Mancunian Way, to watch The Moonlandingz. Frontman Lias Saoudi enters on to the stage bare chested and wearing a bright yellow mac. He also has a large photo of Corrie's Bev and Jim McDonald clingflimed to him which is both hilarious and guaranteed to endear him to a Manc audience. They open with the mightily funky 'The Insects Have Been Shat On' and both Lias and his co-vocalist are going for it straight away. 'Black Hanz' is dance heavy party music. They have a chaotic rave era Happy Mondays feel about them. '...I.D.S' is joyous indie rave which inhabits the same space as Fat Dog but, to be fair, every song is a goddamn party. Other genre splicing bands such as 'Screamadelica' era Primal Scream are also brought to mind. Lias gets down onto the barrier for a euphoric 'The Sign Of A Man'. There's an anarchic punk quality to The Moonlandingz even though the music is eminently danceable.

The logistics of an event like Psych Fest with multiple bands playing one after another means that after one band finishes, the next band sets up, and soundchecks and line checks often happen while the crowd are waiting for them to play. Kit Sebastian overrun with their soundcheck and they don't seem entirely happy when they start their set. They open with the '60s style funky psych pop of 'Faust'. It has a French feel (think Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg) whilst the addition of the eastern style guitar make it an exotic mix. 'Bul Bul Bul' features twinkling keys and sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a cool club scene in movies like 'Blow Up' or 'Get Carter'. The middle eastern psych pop of 'Metropolis' is great whilst the tropical middle section takes us to the beaches of Brazil. Their cover of Turkish diva Sezen Aksu's 'Şinanay' is dripping with attitude and the singer Merve sounds great on it. 'Göç/Me' has a deliciously sleazy, funky groove and features some terrific guitar work. Kit Martin's guitar playing is very distinctive and gives them a pretty unique style. Merve's vocals always provide a contrast, providing a Franco flavour when the instrumentation has a heavier middle eastern feel and bringing the Turkish vocal style when the music is more western psych pop, but it's a lovely, well balanced mix.

The key to a good Psych Fest for myself is research and judgement. In the the months leading up to Psych Fest. I listen to every single band to discover the gems I might not have heard of and to work out who I want to see the most. Once I've done that and the clashfinder has come out then it's a matter of judgement. How can I best see the bands I want to see the most? Some venues are tiny and you often have to gauge how popular a band might be and for the smaller venues, it's usually a good idea to get to there ten to fifteen minutes before the set time. It's for this reason that I leave Kit Sebastian early so I can get to my most anticipated set, Mojo & The Kitchen Brothers in the YES basement.

Mojo & The Kitchen Brothers open with a jammed intro to 'Titan Arum' which sounds like a proggier take on Sabbath's 'War Pigs'. The track itself is gentle prog which builds until it transforms into something extremely heavy. From here they go straight into the blazing space rock of '...Trail Of The Space Sasquatch' It's incendiary, it's intense and the crowd love it. 'Mr. Goblin Found The Electric Sugar' has a motorik groove which is punctuated by moments of sheer heaviness. It's fucking ridiculous but it is incredible too. Both vocalists are good, particularly the drummer who does the higher pitched parts. I can't believe how much heavier they are than the records. Fucking superb. Unfortunately, I forgo the opportunity to buy some merch so that I can run over to The Bread Shed to catch C.O.F.F.I.N. When I get there, it is nowhere near as busy as I thought it would be so maybe I could have bought a Mojo t-shirt after all.

It's a high octane start for C.O.F.F.I.N. (that's Children Of Finland Fighting In Norway) with the Hellacopters style balls out rock of 'Cut You Off'. I'm immediately taken with the bassist who gets massive props for his Rest In Power Riley Gale shirt. The second track 'Lover's Leash' is even faster, with the steamrolling rock and roll bringing Zeke to mind. The drummer is playing so hard he knocks his cymbal clean off it's stand. He carries on playing which is impressive enough, doubly so when he has to sing lead vocals too. 'Cum In The Street', like most of the tracks, is turbo powered, punk fuelled rock 'n' roll built on rock solid riffs and topped with a rough yet catchy chorus. Everything is dynamic and filled with hot, sweaty energy which is all you need from rock really. The UFO flavoured 'Give Me A Bite' is incendiary. Being Australian, there is a punked up AC/DC feel to them so it is no surprise when they rip out a red hot cover of 'Riff Raff'. 'Beasts', which is described as their song for dancing, is slow and dirty blues which climaxes in a turbo charged thrashabout. 'Fast Love' is fantastic, with it's yobbish chorus. The singer gives an impassioned speech about genocide before launching into a killer 'White Dog'. The closing 'Through The Sewer' is a high energy blast. Awesome.

I intended to stay out longer and watch Formal Sppeedwear and then later on Adult DVD and Silverwingkiller but my phone is on the verge of dying and seeing the queue outside the Deaf Institute when Formal Sppeedwear should be playing solidifies my decision to call it a night.

Another fantastic Psych Fest. It's still cracking value for money. Was it better than last year? Probably not, but it wasn't far behind.

C.O.F.F.I.N. *****

Mojo & The Kitchen Brothers *****

Kit Sebastian ****

The Moonlandingz ****

Cryogeyser ***

Skloss ****

Fuzz Lightyear ****