Live Review: Kataklysm - Academy 2, Manchester
22nd February 2026
Support: Vader, Blood Red Throne
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
It’s a Death Metal extravaganza in Manchester tonight with Norway’s Blood Red Throne locking horns with Polish veterans and genre royalty, Vader, and Canadian technical crew, Kataklysm. Combined, there’s thirty-eight studio albums and more than a century of experience on show at the Academy this evening, with the chances of any quarter being asked or given being small to non-existent.
The relative pups of the evening, Blood Red Throne contribute a trifling twenty-eight-years and a dozen albums to that total but hit the stage with the youthful exuberance of a band with a fraction of those numbers. Yet BRT are no upstarts and from the outset the floor of the Academy rumbles from the rhythm section as it drives through opener, Unleashing Hell, from the 2003 sophomore album, Affiliated with the Suffering. The band show they are not trying to reinvent the Death Metal wheel and are, instead, content to rage and blast with some old school filthy DM. Vocalist, Sindre, introduces Beneath the Means as “some new shit”, being the first of two songs in the set from last year’s Slitskin record, which adds a little groove to the sound.
Not as recent, but still a comparative new one, Every Silent Plea blends whiplashing guitars with a slow and steady breakdown; Imperial Congregation’s Itika comes with bile-spitting vocals under blood red lights and other Slitskin tune, Vermicular Heritage is a mid-paced stomper with more than a hint of thrash about it. Closing the set with the Altered Genesis’ fury of Smite and a call to form a pit brings the opening salvo of this death metal showcase to a fitting end.
Doing much of the heavy lifting in terms of years, Poland’s Vader can lay claim to forty-three years of blistering brutality, dating back to before many of tonight’s attendees were born. Not me, I’m an old git. And one that appreciated the wall-to-wall NWoBHM classics played over the PA as the crew set for Vader: Priest, Maiden, Saxon and the ‘head never fail to hit the spot.
Following Vader’s bombastic intro of InVaders, is nothing but a baker’s dozen of the rawest, most powerful and uncompromising music the genre has to offer. Main man, Piotr Wiwczarek has been raging into the storm since 1983, setting out the blueprint for his fellow countrymen in Decapitated, Behemoth and beyond to follow.
It’s a tried and tested formula and begins with the classics Sothis and Fractal Light; icy blue light greets the Litany duo of Wings and The One Made of Dreams, followed by the title track of the Reign Forever World; we’re five songs in and have barely made it passed the Millennium.
It’s announced that for Impressions in Blood’s twentieth anniversary this year the band would be adding deep cut The Book to the show, complete with orchestral opening and pulverising drums. Cold Demons is almost feral at times; Triumph of Death is another blitzkrieg of a tune that masks a grooving element and fails to conceal a distinctly punk root. Dark Age blasts, Carnal shakes the foundations and closer, Halleluyah!!! (God is Dead) is slow and stomping with some progressive elements. It’s old school and called Classic for a reason.
The last time I saw Kataklysm in Manchester was back in February 2010 at the town’s now defunct MoHo Live venue, supporting Decapitated. That was the Canadian’s first visit to this part of the world, though two shows in 2014 and 2016 at Sound Control – also, no longer there – are the only other times the band have plied their trade here.
It’s an omission front man Maurizio Iacono acknowledges in his introduction to the early airing of the 2023 album, Goliath’s title track. Before that it had been an opening combo from Of Ghosts and Gods, Soul Destroyer and Thy Serpent’s Tongue.
For Kataklysm death metal is really only a route into exploring all areas of extremity. They incorporate groove with their blunt force trauma, killing with a kindness, but still killing. Technical and even progressive at times, Die as a King, Prevail and At the Edge of the World finds ever-present guitarist, Jean-François Dagenais extracting tortured screams from his instrument.
What appears to be a new tune, The Rabbit Hole, stomps and bounces as it takes aim at the state of the world. I can live without the drum solo, if truth be told, but it’s always great to hear a band looking across the whole of their back catalogue when choosing a setlist. The old material on offer tonight is In Shadows & Dust’s title track from 2002, bookended by The Resurrected and As I Slither plucked from Serenity In Fire from a couple of years later.
The show is barrelling along to its all-too-soon conclusion, with newbie Bringer of Vengeance rubbing shoulders with In the Arms of Devastation’s Crippled & Broken and Waiting for the End to Come’s Elevate. While the venue is not at full capacity there are certainly enough folk here to want Kataklysm not to leave it so long before making their return.
I’ve mentioned a few times the preponderance of multi-band tours over the past few years and, though not a new thing, it seems to be becoming a far more common occurrence. Personally, I’m totally fine with these packages as the bands manage to reduce the astronomical costs of touring and the ticket-buyer gets a great evening’s entertainment.
Tonight goes to show there’s no substitute for experience and all three acts brought their A-game to a Sunday February night in Manchester. Oh, and it rained, but that’s hardly news, is it?
Photo Credits: Tim Finch Photography
