The Happy Soul were aptly named, as they exuded a chilled-out happiness on stage at Club Academy in Manchester. With a psychedelic backdrop of them looking happy and smiley to add emphasis to their live feel. Not much movement on the cramped stage and not much banter they very much let their music do the talking, they seemed too busy smiling to be honest.
Heading up to Club Academy, for the first time in a number of years and I had forgotten how cramped the stage was. The seating around the venue though is a welcome change from most of the other academy venues, it is the most intimate of them, although down in the bowels of the building the phone signal was non-existent.
I think it’s fair to say that there is nothing unexciting about the prospect of seeing Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust perform under the roof of a sweaty club on a Friday night. Through their consistently solid releases and even better live reputation, these highly regarded acts in equal parts reignited interest in the possibilities of what modern thrash metal could truly offer. With Municipal Waste’s image and sound playing heavily into nostalgia for 80’s crossover acts such as D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies, Ryan Waste and the boys reminded us, for better or for worse, just how blistering the genre could be during an era where metalcore dominated the loud rock mainstream when they dropped The Art of Partying back in 2007. Continue reading