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AGGRESSIVE PERFECTOR
Opening a night of Thrash and Hardcore at the Star & Garter was Aggressive Perfector, dressed in leather and black eyeliner. It was great to see a strong crowd right off the bat. This trio featured half the line-up of Black Metal group Wode. However these guys delivered a full on 80s style Thrash onslaught. Vocalist Dan Shaw had an aggressive bark to him, but occasionally screamed for vengeance with some high pitched Rob Halford style screams! Aggressive Perfector brought a raw and Punky half hour set and were a sheer joy throughout, getting everyone banging their heads. Their drummer Mike kept up a consistently fast and furious pace, bashing the shit out of his snare and cymbals in particular. Their humour was on point too, with Dan enticing the crowd with his quip "That last song was about SATAN! This next song is about... SATAN!" The standout tracks for me were "Certain Death", and "Vengeful One", which was the fastest of the lot. Aggressive Perfector have an obvious early Slayer vibe, but they also had a pinch of classic Judas Priest here and there too! 8/10.
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SHEER ATTACK
This 4 piece from Liverpool were a force to be reckoned with. Their sound existed somewhere between the Punky Garage Rock of The Stooges and the Speed Metal of Motorhead. Their enigmatic frontman Russ stole the show, with his strange energy and definitely channelled an Iggy Pop style snarl. He performed all over the stage, and sometimes in the crowd too. "Back of the Barrel" (I don't even know if that was the song name, but I'm going with it anyway) was a pure Punk attack where Russ switched to more of a Hardcore style scream. The riffs came hard and fast, with quite a noisy and dirty tone. The band managed to cover well during a guitar malfunction. Sheer Attack climaxed with an incredible racket suitably titled "No Peace", and you could probably hear it from nearby Piccadilly Station. Sheer Attack certainly lived upto their name and kept up the high energy set by Aggressive Perfector. A highly passionate bunch of lads! 8/10.
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EXXXEKUTIONER
This quartet from the miserable abyss of Salford brought a pinch of Black Metal and Scandinavian ethos to the evening. Though they are still Thrash at the core, they reminded me of Thrash/Black Metal crossover acts from Dissection to Toxic Holocaust. Sunglasses wearing Kung Fury lookalike Cliff delivered an ice cold, reverb drenched rasp that gave the crowd frostbite. Guitarist Mike had some impressive, meaty riffs and drummer Liam added some doses of blasting here and there. The band got a moshpit going through their set which was lovely to see. Exxxekutioner ended their set with a fantastic one two punch covering Celtic Frost's "Into the Crypt of Rays" and "Black Witchery", a nod to the band of the same name. Members of the crowd even jumped on stage to scream along! 8/10.
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NIGHTMARE CITY
Our headliners Nightmare City are a trio from Gothenburg, Sweden, bringing a mixture of d-beat Hardcore and Thrash madness! The band have gone the old school route, releasing tape cassette demos and a vinyl LP. The group have Horror inspired lyrics and song titles, and their band name may even derive from obscure Zombie flick Nightmare City (AKA City of the Walking Dead). Their entire set showed a melodic thrash mastery, with dual attack vocals. "Bloodsucker" was a great standout that had a dirty twanging bass and Punky riffs. By this point of the night my neck was really sore, but the whole crowd kept headbanging and moshing away. Nightmare City finished with their badass anthem "Do You Wanna Die?" 8/10.
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With Manchester's Metal scene being dominated mostly be the slower sounds of Doom and Sludge, it was nice to see a lightning fast Thrash evening for a change. The sound was great, the show went off without a hitch and the packed out, energetic crowd gave the place an amazing atmosphere!
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