Live Review: King 810 - Rebellion, Manchester
16th September 2025
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
Once hugely controversial Flint, MA, band, King 810 return to Manchester for the latest show on their ongoing Welcome to the Rustbelt tour, which finds creative forces David Gunn and Eugine Gill having produced another EP/ mini album as the ideas formulating throughout the lockdown period still percolate away. The full-album muse might not have come to rest on King 810 quite yet, but with the quality of product over the past few years: Follow the Tears, Under the Black Rainbow and this years’ Rustbelt Numetal, showing the many and varied creativity of the band, it is surely only a matter of time.
It's clear that Manchester loves King 810 as there is always a large and rambunctious gathering whenever the band come to town. A blustery Tuesday in September is not going to put off the faithful, who are, to a person, ready to go from the outset.
Support comes in the form of New Zealand trio, Banks Arcade who are probably the most appropriate fit to warm up the crown for King. Theirs is a spicey blend of electronics, urban beats and abrasive guitars, all underpinned by ferocious drums. The crowd show their collective voices early, welcoming these Kiwis on their debut UK tour.
Last years’ Death2 record gets plenty of attention with the discordant industrial riffs of Worship the Internet, a grinding guitar on Killing Games, in stark contrast to the emotionally charged Change. The album, Future Lovers is represented by the haunting slow drawl of Freaks, the harsh urban noise of Don’t Start, and the almost emo-pop of Be Someone.
Both Drown and the as-yet unreleased Move share a certain sound with Deftones, and the simultaneously dangerous and vulnerable Vipers take us back to party like it’s 1999 all-over again. Leaving Roulette to close out the show with a wall of death and the hope that the band won’t be strangers to these shores.
There was a time when King 810 would play gigs behind Police tape and with ‘armed’ security on the stage with them. The was in the days of Memoirs of a Murderer, and such theatrics had largely disappeared by the time of the majestic Le Petit Mort, or a Conversation with God. Now, King 810 is a band bound only by the imaginations of the creatives at its helm.
More of a performance than a concert, a King show plugs you directly into the rage that drives David Gunn; opening with Rustbelt Numetal, the band waste no time in giving a voice to the abandoned industrial desert that is America’s forgotten heartlands, and the inevitability of exploitation, addition and condemnation. Early tune, Midwest Monster feels raw and haunting, while Killem All takes us into the situation where urbanisation leads to gangs leads to killing.
Unknown and masked drummer and guitarist remain at the back of the stage as David and Eugine prowl the front, recreating the lyrics in graphic detail. Brains on the Asphalt is Killem All’s natural successor, Vendettas is the band’s call-to-arms and raison d'être, and finds David on his knees, offering prayers to a cruciform Eugine.
Fat Around the Heart has lost none of its menace and sees the first crowd surfer making their way over the heads of the front; Noonday Demon fits into the set like it’s been there from the beginning, as does the even-newer Blood, Rum & Rhythm, which is one of tracks recently premiered on the band’s YouTube channel.
The eighties industrial vibes of Suicide Machines and the defiant Hellhounds lead into a stomping rendition of Treading and Trodden, before Rustbelt Numetal’s last tune of the evening, Blue Collar Noose blends clean vocals with grunts.
Heavy Lies the Crown would be unthinkable without being followed by King 810’s signature song, Alpha & Omega, with its overt Christian imagery and dire warning of revenge for wrongs committed. Which brings tonight’s show to an end in a typically belligerent manner.
They are a band I have reviewed many times and who I would rank as one of my personal favourites, a band who I feel never produce anything short of remarkable records and engrossing live performances. And tonight was no exception to that.
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
