Metal To The Masses is back for its second heat at Manchester's rebellion.

⭐⭐⭐⭐(4/5)

Rebellion Manchester opened its doors once again for heat 2 of this years metal to the masses. Competing for a spot in the next round are Lokustgrind, Big Cat Chic, Artkiller and Percyvile. Kicking off the night was Lokustgrind, a 4 piece industrial hardcore punk band from Liverpool, UK.

Lokustgrind delivered a high energy and memorable performance from start to finish, a memorable moment to point out which made the band stand out against the other bands is that during their 4th song of the night “Our Secret” there was a staged fight on stage between the band mates Oscar and Mack, the band also demonstrated effective crowd control, successfully hyping up the crowd and maintaining moshpits throughout the set.

They have a unique sound, the effective use of keyboard and synth adds a distinct layer to their music which the crowd loved, with their energy never dipping throughout the set this created a highly powerful performance from them.

Next to hit the stage was Big Cat Chic, a 5 piece Punk, Alt / Psychedelic Rock band from Manchester, UK.

Fronted by Eliza Waite their vocals were effortlessly captivating from the first note of the song. Their vocals were often haunting adding to the bands already unique sound that everyone can groove and move to, from the get go the band showed amazing energy and passion, all working in unison to uphold their unique sound, the band having good crowd interaction led to mosh pits throughout and even a wall of death, which in turn the crowd thoroughly enjoyed. You can hear the passion and soul in every song, from the diverse lyrics and beautiful melody.

As a whole, they show a great range of musical skill within the band, from the instruments, to the vocals which work together very smoothly while still holding a powerful and distinctive sound that is Big cat chic, delivering a thoroughly engaging set from start to finish.

Up next was Artkiller, a 3 piece Thrash/Death Metal band from Leeds.

From the moment they hit the stage they instantly jumped in into brutal gutturals and harsh beats which the crowd instantly reacted to with headbanging and moshing, the band then stepped it up a notch with the brutal beat of the drums they encouraged the crowd to pit, throughout the set the band worked extremely well in unison from the harsh vocals, the epic riffs of the guitars and the blasting of the drum beats, they showed great crowd control and interaction making sure the crowd was vibing with the music throughout their music.

After hearing this band's powerful and darkly captivating music, I look forward to seeing where they go in future and hope to catch them live again.

And to finish off the night we had Percyvile, a 2 piece Emo/Rock Opera band from Manchester, UK.

From the get go this band had great harmony when singing duets together there vocals really complimented each other and was really melodic in contrast to the more powerful vocals from vocalist Sion, throughout the set they interacted with the crowd and kept them entertained from start to finish. They managed to keep the entertainment high by using pop culture references, one of my personal favorites came from them using a line from Harry Potter ‘did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire’ which they had cleverly changed it to ‘did you put your band into Metal To The Masses’ this got laughs from the audience showing that they can play great music, but also have a fantastic sense of humour. They also referenced Rick and Morty,s ‘ show me what you got …. I like what you got’ to get the crowd to do a wall of death which resonated well with the crowd.

I thoroughly enjoyed this band and hope to catch them live again in the future.