By Josh Bicknell
New Century Hall began the night at a slow simmer with only a handful of early arrivals drifting towards the barrier as Crown Magnetar kicked things off. The room sat at around ten per cent capacity when they opened, but the band wasted no time delivering a tight, punishing performance.
Their sound sits firmly within a familiar bracket of modern deathcore, and while they prefer to stick to that particular formula, they do it with conviction. Their vocalist tore through each track with impressive control, and despite the sparse crowd, a couple of overly enthusiastic hardcore dancers made the most of the empty floor. By the end of their set the room had only climbed to maybe 15 per cent capacity, but Crown Magnetar left a strong first impression and set the tone for the evening.
Mugshot followed and immediately shifted the energy. A brief technical hiccup during their opening track did nothing to slow them, and they quickly dialled in, pulling the scattered crowd closer to the stage. Early on in their set, during ‘Afore a Waking Nightmare,’ Michael Demko showcased the full potential of his Talon Electric noise pedal, looping waves of feedback that bled seamlessly into his backing vocals and giving the track a jagged, unhinged feel.
His Speed jersey and frantic stage presence paired perfectly with a vocalist who sprinted back and forth, working the room harder than any other band on the undercard. The crowd was still only around 30 per cent full by the end of their set, but Mugshot made clever use of the space, stretching their energy across the room and pulling people into the action. Six crowdsurfers isn’t groundbreaking, but for a Wednesday night deathcore show in a half-empty room it was a win. Mugshot were awesome, tight, chaotic, and far more engaging than the attendance suggested.
Signs Of The Swarm emerged next, and although they deserved a fuller room, they still hit with a level of brutality that shook the floors. The venue was barely a third full when they began, and it became clear that the show had been booked into a space a little too large for its turnout. Manchester crowds often arrive late, but the numbers never rose past the halfway mark even for the headliner.
Still, Signs of the Swarm delivered exactly what fans came for: disgustingly heavy deathcore, spine-rattling snare bombs, and grooves thick enough to drag the room into motion. Tracks like ‘Natural Selection’ had the vocalist calling for the toughest person in the room, and the pits responded accordingly. Their frontman looked genuinely happy on stage, grinning between gutturals, and their chunky, chug-driven writing translated beautifully through the venue’s clean mix. It may not have been the wildest crowd they have seen, but it was by far the largest pit movement of the night so far, with roughly ten crowdsurfers and a consistently churning floor.
A noticeable shift came as Chelsea Grin approached. Chants of the band’s name echoed through New Century Hall before they had even stepped on stage, and when the lights finally dropped, the room had crept to around half capacity, not packed, but ready. They opened with ‘Recreant,’ and from the very first scream the mix hit like a freight train. The echo-drenched vocal effects sounded enormous, with Tom Barber’s techniques easily holding their own against heavyweights like Whitechapel and Lorna Shore.
By the second song the crowd was already circling, and by the fourth a wall of death had split the room in two. Their technical skill was clear in every moment, with the five-string bass rumbling beneath razor-edged guitar work with a level of precision that only comes from years of playing at the peak of their genre. Barber embraced the energy with a playful demeanour, taking jabs at people staring at their phones, cracking jokes between breakdowns, and even plugging his ARC Raiders username with “no seriously, add me, I’m friendly I promise”.
Around the middle of the set the band called for movement: “you guys gonna do any crowdsurfing or what?” The response was steady rather than wild, a line of surfers making their way forward without ever tipping into chaos. Still, every snare hit thumped with sickening power, every scream rang out clean and punishing, and the band looked comfortable and confident in front of a crowd that was clearly smaller than hoped. Their last Manchester appearance was at Rebellion, and New Century Hall was a step up; the crowd size may not have matched the ambition, but the performance itself made the venue upgrade feel justified.
They finished with a final onslaught of riffs and roars that shook the floor. Undersold or not, Chelsea Grin played with a precision and ferocity that proved why they continue to be one of the most consistent heavyweights in the genre.
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