Death All Day III - Rebellion, Manchester (31/1/26)

Today saw the third edition of the Death All Day all dayers focusing on underground extreme metal. It is the first to be held in Manchester though as the previous two have been held at Boom in Leeds. Local deathsters Foetal Juice have been on every edition so far and are also playing today as are veteran crust punks Extinction Of Mankind, who I watched a few times in the nineties but haven't seen for over twenty years

Skabs are the first band I manage to catch. They play crust punk with a heavy d-beat/Discharge influence. The vocals are harsh and high pitched which suits the music and suitably conveys their rage. When they play at their very top speed, it gets a bit messy. They are better when they slow it down a fraction as it is much more powerful. They also draw inspiration from Mötörhead as many bands of this style do. They are potent but I wish they were tighter as they would be more impressive. It is still enjoyable though. The guitarist tries to start a pit at one point but it is a feeble attempt to be honest.

Yersin's guitar sound is immense. With just guitar, drums and vocals, it needs to be but they sound colossal despite the minimal set up. The guitar tone is like a combination of HM-2 worship and the sludgy sound achieved by bands such Big Business, and as a result their sound is a mix of death metal and doomy noise. Imagine Entombed jamming with Big Business but whatever it is, it completely works. The guitarist, Robert, is excellent, and I'm amazed at the sound he manages to conjure from his instrument. The drummer, Chris, is the who brings it all together whilst the vocalist Chris Storey is intense with a rough voice which occasionally ventures into death territories. 'The Scythe Is Remorseless' is like Big Business gone crust punk but that filthy guitar tone adds a layer of grime to everything they play. Excellent stuff.

Vaticinal Rites play furious old school death metal with a slight technical edge. The band look like a mix of old school and new school death metal but that isn't really reflected in their sound and I find myself reminded of Massacre. The singer Marcus has a set of lungs on him and is an imposing presence. The band are really tight and this makes their brand of death metal punchy and impactful. They are always heavy with plenty of riffs to headbang to, and there is no let up in their attack. There are touches of new bands like Gatecreeper or Frozen Soul too but like those bands, this is a newer yet faithful take on old school death metal. Songs such as 'Plead For Termination' have plenty of crushing breakdowns. There are many different influences present; a touch of Nile here, a sprinkling of Death there, even a little touch of 'Seasons In The Abyss' era Slayer but it is all incorporated in a way that feels fresh and exciting.

During the line check before their set, Putrid Offal seem like four ordinary old metalheads but when they return for their performance they are transformed. Wearing bloody lab coats and gurning with their tongues stuck out, they play to the crowd like the veterans they are. Gore obsessed with a touch of grind to their sound, they are heavily influenced by pre-'Heartwork' Carcass. The guitarist does his best to get the crowd involved, although it isn't entirely successful. 'Purulent Cold' starts off with a great mid-paced groove which soon gives way to blasting which is powerful as hell. The rampaging 'Boning Hall' is designed to inflict serious damage whilst 'Ribcage Blues' is an ultra short blast of death-grind. The double kick fuelled 'Barber Butcher' absolutely crushes, and 'Necrotic Mutilation' is a lightning fast blur too. 'Sanguis In Oris' is technical and chaotic with a neat danceable beat. 'Meat Stall' is another track that has a strong Carcass influence. The band are very tight and put on a show like true veterans. The intro and mid-section of 'Rotted Flesh' stomps like Godzilla. Way more fun than I expected.

Foetal Juice's gabba techno intro track surprisingly gets the crowd going, which is a great sign. The guitars sound sharp and serrated whilst the bass sounds tar thick. It's a proper in your face sound and it suits their dynamic old school death metal to a tee. Their sound is buoyant, uptempo and, dare I say, accessible. It's been fairly subdued crowd wise so far but these guys help to bring the pits. 'Take Your Face For A Shit' is classic death metal perfectly executed. They are great at marrying well defined riffs with some blindingly fast blasting and face melting intensity. The singer Derek has a good range with some low end growling and a high pitched scream, and he has power in both. 'Two Bongs Don't Make A Right' is as furious as it is short. Foetal Juice seem to get better every time you watch them. A triumph.

The crowd thins out a bit for Extinction Of Mankind which is a shame. It's been a long time since I last saw them but they are largely the same although the personnel has changed a bit from what I can tell. They still play driving metallic crust punk with incisive guitars and a pounding drumbeat. Tortured Demon's Jacob Parkinson joins the band on stage at one point. Ste's vocals are yobbish and delivered with a bug-eyed intensity. Foetal Juice are a hard act to follow and Extinction Of Mankind don't quite manage it. They're a good band but it has been such a great day where good has been the minimum requirement.

Extinction Of Mankind ***

Foetal Juice *****

Putrid Offal ****

Vaticinal Rites ****

Yersin ****

Skabs ***

A.A. Williams & Spotlights - Deaf Institute, Manchester (30/1/26)

The last time A.A. Williams was in the city, she was opening the main stage of Damnation Festival in 2024 before three thousand people. Tonight, she is back to the cosier surroundings of the Deaf Institute.

Spotlights are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their 'Tidals' EP by playing it in full. They are hard to categorise. I'd probably describe them as progressive metal but they have some nice fuzzy basslines and there is a doomy heft to some of the guitar riffs too. The guitar tone often sounds like Torche. It's slow burning but the overall effect is quite hypnotic. The vocals are subtle, subdued even, and these are the least impressive element of their performance but it matters not because the music is so compelling. The drumming is excellent and this is the element which ties it all together and makes it seem so progressive and expansive. 'Hover' has some great melodic guitar playing in the middle section. 'Joseph' is very rhythmic, and the effects laden dual vocals give it a noughties emo edge but when the distortion kicks in it has a heavy post rock feel. The cleaner parts of the closing 'Sunset Burial' are lacklustre prog rock but when the heavy, spacey guitars come in it is much more interesting and those parts remind me of 'Jupiter' era Cave In. The set isn't perfect but I'm sold on the overall effect.

A.A. Williams opens with 'Golden', and the melancholy piano and mournful vocals build to something towering and powerful. This sets the tone for the evening. These songs aren't for those with short attention spans as they are slow burning but they all result in colossal climaxes. Creeping guitar and eerie piano make 'Splinter' extremely ominous. The brooding 'Love And Pain' is reminiscent of PJ Harvey at her starkest and darkest. It evokes the feeling of a cold desert night and the recorded violins add an emotional, doleful quality. It is superb. The sparse opening to 'Glimmer' shows Williams' skill as a singer as she manages to be both fragile and powerful. The vulnerability shown on the Americana tinged 'Dirt' is heartbreaking. I really like the contrasting male vocals on the studio versions of both of those tracks but these skeletal versions are even more emotional. The climax to 'Pristine' is epic and ethereal whilst that dirty doom riff in the middle of 'As The Moon Rests' is glorious. The eastern tinged riff of the magnificent 'For Nothing' has a faint 'Kashmir' feel. The closing two tracks are amazing. The dark magic of 'Melt' is spellbinding and the chorus is absolutely colossal whilst the closing 'Evaporate' is sublime. Mesmerising and emotional.

A.A. Williams ****

Spotlights ****

Dream Wife & Nuha Ruby Ra - YES Pink Room, Manchester (29/1/26)

Tonight sees Dream Wife return to Manchester in a lower key show as part of Independent Venue Week where they have been playing smaller independent venues across the country. Both acts treat the show as an opportunity to roadtest new material so we hear lots of new songs rather than the old favourites. 

The backing track starts to signal the beginning of the evening's support. The sultry vocals come in but no-one is on stage. The door at the back of the stage which leads to the backstage area opens and Nuha Ruby Ra struts on to the stage, mic in hand, and carries on singing. The phrasing is a little unusual and she comes across as a more soulful Björk.  She also similarly embraces leftfield dance vibes. It's very intriguing. Singing through two mics at once is a novelty. I'm not sure if it adds anything soundwise but it looks cool. She explains that she's playing entirely new material tonight and it's only the third time she's played these tracks live. The third track has a deep dubby feel whilst the fourth track has more of a soulful indie feel. The fifth track has some earth levelling bass and is in a H09909 vein. With it being a brand new song, she is reading the lyrics from a notebook but it is powerful nonetheless. One track sees Nuha get more animated and theatrical, with some scary vocal noises and possessed dancing creating voodoo magic. The final track sees more guitars added to the backing track and it gives off Nova Twins vibes. It's eclectic with every song sounding different but it is extremely interesting.

'Hey Heartbreaker' helps to set the tone for Dream Wife's set with its 'hey hey hey' refrain, and it is a fun opener. Their friend Julian is standing in on bass tonight as Bella has just had a baby, and he does an admirable job. New track 'Friends Like You' follows their template of punky indie rock and it has a promising chorus which is only limited by the crowd's lack of familiarity with it. 'I.D.H.T.E.' has a bouncy rhythm, spiky guitars and vocals which switch between coy and gobby. 'Hasta La Vista' is fun. Rakel Mjöll looks cool in her satin blouse and tartan corset, which is very Vivienne Westwood. Alice Go, on the other hand, looks fierce in her BMX protective gear. 'Belong Together' sounds like it could be a future fan favourite, just not yet. 'Nico' is dynamic with a sleazy bassline and femme chorus. Rakel sounds amazing on another new track, 'Neighbourhood'. It is probably the strongest I have heard her voice sound and this carries the driving, punchy chorus. Rakel asks for people to speak to them at the merch table afterwards and tell them which new songs they like and which ones they should put on the new album. She then proceeds to tell a funny story about how a guy in Leeds came to them afterwards and said that the song which goes 'I am not my body, I am somebody was really good and should definitely be on the record, by way of an introduction to fan favourite 'Somebody' (from the first album). The band tell the crowd to make room at the front for all the 'bad bitches' (the collective name for their fans) and they go wild for an incredible 'Somebody', with everyone singing along to the memorable chorus. 'Mermaids' has a decent enough bassline but it seems like it is likely to be a grower. The empowering and angry 'Leech' is another favourite of the 'bad bitches' with its 'have some fucking empathy' refrain, and the chorus gets incredibly heavy at the climax. 'Oh Oh Yeah Yeah' is all buoyant punk energy. The grungy punk of 'F.U.U.' is another crowd favourite, especially the 'I spy with my little eye, bad, bad, bad, bad bitches' part. 'Let's Make Out' is joyous and unhinged and is a great way to close the show. Playing so many new unreleased songs (I counted nine in a fifteen song set) was a risk but they got away with it and the new album could be rather good.

Dream Wife ****

Nuha Ruby Ra ****

Cold World, High Vis, Wit's End & Cannonball - Gorilla, Manchester (23/1/26)

Tonight's show sold out almost instantly, hardly surprising when you consider that one of the bands played a venue double the size only a year ago. This is borne out by the huge queue which greets us when we get to the venue. The doors open later than advertised and the queue is rather slow moving meaning that it's a) already pretty busy by the time we get inside and b) Cannonball are already most of the way through their short set.

We only catch a couple of tracks by Cannonball. They play old school hardcore in the vein of the '98 revival bands, and as such they sound like a mixture of all of the bands on the 'Growing Stronger' comp. From the couple of numbers I catch, it seems like the size of the stage and venue dwarfs them a little and there is less energy than the last time I saw them. 'Sour Grapes' is pretty dynamic though and has a cool mosh part. Probably not their best showing but they're still a great band as demonstrated by their recent album.

Wit's End know the value of a good intro and following in the fine tradition of bands like Floorpunch, Sick Of It All and Cro-Mags, theirs is a doozy. They play a mean take on old school New York style hardcore. They have lots of mid paced breakdowns which are perfect to mosh to whilst the faster parts absolutely rage. The vocals are gruff yet full of authority. The band have that Killing Time style fury nailed down and they have a knack of writing mosh parts just made for two-stepping. Every riff is well defined and is crafted with a love and reverence for the originators of this style (Killing Time, Raw Deal, Sick Of It All etc). Wit's End pack an awful lot into their short time slot.

This is a smaller scale show than High Vis have been used to of late, having shared the stage with Deftones a couple of times in the past year. They open with 'Mob DLA' and Graham seems amped as he keeps shouting 'where the fuck are ya?' until every last inch of space towards the front is filled with bodies. The track is mid paced yet full of fire. 'Walking Wires' ups the energy with everyone singing along to the chorus. The jangly hardcore of 'Talk For Hours' is glorious, and the chorus is genuinely life affirming. The intensity is off the charts for 'Altitude' The chorus poses the question and subsequent answer, 'why go any higher? 'Cause you know it feels good'. Indeed. The crowd participation is insane, with stage divers everywhere. The baggy flavoured 'Guided Tour' is still dripping with attitude. Even straight forward tracks like 'Drop Me Out' are deceptively technical. The guitar playing is excellent and has more flourishes than you'd think. In contrast  to the weather outside, it is very hot and sweaty inside the venue although the massive parka I wearing because of the climate probably doesn't help. Graham genuinely looks like he is going to break down during 'Out Cold'. No-one gives more than him in a live performance. The Oasis style solo in '0151' is sublime and it's little touches like this that make them so unique. The punchy 'Choose To Lose' is insanely good. The dance orientated 'Mind's A  Lie' is a welcome change of pace, and is both bold and provocative. They close with their tour de force, 'Trauma Bonds', which is intense, anthemic, cathartic but ultimately unifying with everyone shedding their demons by screaming their lungs out. Incredible.

It has been eighteen years since Cold World last played Manchester, although they have played Leeds semi-regularly. After a brief hip hop intro, they blast straight into the solid but amped up riffing of 'Refuse To Lose'. 'Low Places' has some hard riffing and the cleaner vocals from the guitarist add a Biohazard influence. 'Boom Bye Bye' even has an early Life Of Agony feel. There are hip hop grooves running throughout their songs but they still have a satisfying crunch to their sound. They have always mixed dudey hardcore with an old school sound but they manage the balance of power, groove and attitude well, avoiding what could be really cheesy in lesser hands. They stop abruptly at one point due to an incident in the crowd. I see a guy being carried out and, having spoken to him afterwards, it seems that he had dislocated his knee. Ouch! Dan Mills is a classic hardcore frontman, moving constantly and commanding the stage with ease. The last few tracks are where it starts to get a bit repetitive but overall, they are much better than I expected them to be. The closing 'Dedicated To Babies Who Came Feet First' packs a punch and has the memorable 'my life, my life, my life' refrain. They get an equal reaction to High Vis from where I am stood, which is no mean feat considering how beloved High Vis are in these parts.

Cold World ***

High Vis *****

Wit's End ****

Cannonball ***