On Hollow Ground were our first act of the night, and what way to kick things off it was, with them trekking the way over from Leeds, they made sure to bring with them, their hard-hitting, intense signature sound, blending brilliantly together a mixture of heavy and clean tones throughout. It was an incredibly engaging set, full of high amounts of energy and a great crowd reaction, this is all been fully backed up by a fantastic overall performance, is definitely not see and hear how much effort has gone into making their live shows what they are, right down from their backing tracks to their individual sounds.
Up next on the bill was Lotus Eater, once again bringing gloom and their unique style of nasty and aggressive metalcore to Manchester, and as usual, they do not fail to send the entire crowd into complete and utter chaos, everybody there knows what type of energy they bring to the table and they were able to give it back in tons.
I feel like this performance of theirs was easily part of the strongest sounding shows they’ve done to date, sounding heavier and tighter than ever before.
It was a set full of angry and feral sounding vocal work, disgustingly hard riffs and an amazing stage presence. And even amongst all the chaos they were creating, they stayed cool headed, and played a practical perfect set.
Make Them Suffer were our final act of the night, and after the stacked day of having the pleasure of seeing one fantastic band after another, (with some very well-deserved mentions going out to Malign, Mortal Shift and Starve To Survive) I feel Make Them Suffer’s performance on Monday night just made for one of the highest notes you could ever end a show on, I myself have been wanting to see them for years, and this show was everything I could have hoped it would be.
From the moment the band walked on stage they had me awe, grabbing all of my attention, just carrying over all the remaining energy in the room and ramping things up to eleven, with an onstage presence and audience reaction to match.
And as for their overall sound their set, it just made for a great addition to the whole experience, almost every aspect of their performance was just tight as hell; intricate and interesting guitar work, impactful vocals, both from Booka and Sean and some fantastic live synth work which laid out a great foundation to link everything together.
Photographer: Alex Dixon
Words: Alex Dixon