Infected Rain, Butcher Babies and Black Spikes – Club Academy, Manchester – 27th March 2026
This tour was the perfect antidote to a grey, miserable evening in Manchester and as soon as the doors opened, the black clad punters made their way down the stairs to the basement venue giving a decent size crowd for openers Black Spikes.
BLACK SPIKES
The Lithuanian band have been making serious waves in the metal underground recently, culminating in their signing with Napalm Records, and I was really looking forward to my first live encounter with them. Their set was as much about the performance as it was the music, with dancers taking a key role in the show, but vocalist Agnieška Vrubliauskienė was the focal point of everything, one minute unleashing guttural roars and the next delicate, almost vulnerable vocals as she orchestrated the show from the centre of the stage.
The music crossed several genre boundaries with crushing riffs and battering rhythms sitting alongside darker, more atmospheric, even progressive, passages and electronic sections making this hard to define but a good example of ‘modern metal’. This was sinister and captivating at the same time and the band are definitely on the ‘one to watch’ list!
BUTCHER BABIES
After a short turnaround, Los Angeles’ Butcher Babies took to the stage pushing the energy level to a new high. Vocalist Heidi Shepherd ran, headbanged and jumped her way around the small stage as the band delivered an lively set blending hard rock, metalcore and groove metal. Heidi made her way to the barrier for ‘Monsters Ball’ holding the microphone into the front rows encouraging the crowd to keep moving.
A lively It’s Killin’ Time, Baby! flew by before unreleased track Black Dove was aired keeping the crowd moving to its heavy grooves. Heidi made her way into the crowd with a circle pit around her during Spittin’ Teeth which led into and emotional and emotive Last December before the set was brought to a close with a rowdy Magnolia Blvd. This had been a magnificent set covering all corners of the Butcher Babies repertoire and left most of the crowd wanting more. Let’s hope for a full headline tour before too long.
INFECTED RAIN
It then fell to Moldova’s Infected Rain to close this co-headliner bill. Screens were added to the already cramped stage with video clips and effects adding to the atmosphere for the show. Unsurprisingly, a good chunk of the set was drawn from the latest album Time, but we were also treated to three new tracks including recently released single ‘Stranger’, which was followed by The Realm Of Chaos complete with Heidi from Butcher Babies joining the band on guest vocals.
Lena was a bundle of perpetual motion, running around the stage and headbanging enthusiastically throughout, causing a striking blur of orange hair to take up most of the front of the stage, and engaging with the crowd who lapped it all up, singing along enthusiastically. The set passed quickly and all too soon things were coming to a close with Judgemental Trap, bringing a stellar evening to a close. Let’s hope all three bands return before too long.
All photography by Andy Pountney (Event Photography Awards Winner 2024 and 2025). You can check out more of his work on shot_in_the_dark_photography2 on Instagram.
Infected Rain: Website
Butcher Babies: Website
Black Spikes: Bandcamp