VENUE – O2 Academy Liverpool
DATE – 22nd May 2025
Words and Photographs-Graeme Wright
Esoterik
I’d heard this bands EP in 2024 and was pretty impressed, so I was surprised to see that they are a two piece outfit who obviously need to use a backing tape to create their overall sound. This isn’t a detrimental comment in any way and as openers their thirty minute set passes by incredibly quickly. Their songs are uniformly strong, the bass has your heart shaking in your chest cavity at times and both band members are incredibly impressive with singer Allison Eckfeldt bouncing around the stage like a Duracell bunny while guitarist Brady Bledsoe prowls the stage like a tiger. Impressive stuff, and a great start to the proceedings.
Crimson Veil
Crimson Veil were fantastic and they are totally unique. Combining classical music with a bewitching blend of Progressive and Alternative Metal, all wrapped up with a hint of The Wicker Man and Pagan mysticism. Musicianship is of the highest quality from guitar to keyboards, through to harp and violin, with the icing on the cake being stunning vocalist Mishkin Fitzgerald who is both vulnerable and fierce. The songs are both complex and densely layered and it would be fair to say that the whole of this audience was entranced with both the music and the visuals on display in this auditorium tonight. This was a superlative performance and I look forward to seeing a full set from this band in the future. Highly recommended.
Extize
When one guy enters the stage and begins what appears to be a DJ set I fear the worst for Extize, but it becomes clear as the set progresses that this audience knows exactly who this band is and many of them are actually here to see Extize. I know nothing about Cybergoth music, but once front man Rapha Hell hits the stage it all kicks off. Many of the songs heard tonight are based on Horror icons, including Hellraiser, Slasher Movies and Freddy Krueger, and the crowd are completely into it from the offset. People are manically dancing around the arena and Rapha Hell is bouncing around like a hyper version of Matt Lucas if he’d sold his soul to the devil. Great stuff and most importantly this crowd loved them.
Combichrist
It amazes me that Combichrist have been around for over twenty years, and while their “aggro-tech” industrial music isn’t normally my go-to genre, my eyes were well and truly opened tonight. This band are much heavier than their recordings would suggest, and with an impressive back catalogue available to them the only difficulty they will have had tonight would be determining which songs they would actually perform. The venue is now packed, hot and sweaty and muscular front man Andy LaPlegua has the audience eating out of his hand, with people dancing as if controlled by an invisible puppet master. Whether it’s heavy electronic dance music, full on Alternative Metal guitar
work, or a more traditional Industrial sound with faint echoes of Ministry, this crowd clearly loves everything this band can output and with a ninety minute set they are in heaven. From ‘Throat Full Of Glass’, through set highlight ‘Compliance’ which had me banging my head, to set closer ‘Never Surrender’ we are clearly seeing a band who are at the height of their powers. Gothic, heavy, frightening music that this crowd simply adored, you owe it to yourself to see them in this kind of venue where they create a deeply personal connection with their audience and I for one felt privileged to be here. Awesome, awesome stuff and one of the best gigs I’ve attended in the last few years.
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