Live Review: Miss May I / Crystal Lake - Club Academy, Manchester
20th March 2026
Support: Great American Ghost, Diesect
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
Another Friday night and another gig at one of the four rooms that make up Manchester’s Academy venue. If this continues for much longer I’ll be able to derive tenant’s rights from the University, though they might start charging me rent.
Tonight’s entertainment comes in the familiar format of a four-band bill, and sees old stagers, Miss May I and Crystal Lake locking horns with a couple of young upstarts. The venue isn’t as busy as it could be, which is a shame because the effort put in by all four acts tonight really did warrant a bigger audience.
Out of Brisbane, Australia come Diesect who borrow Great American Ghost drummer, Seb, to cover for sickness that has lain-low their own percussionist, Nick. You wouldn’t know this as the band’s short set is an unrelenting barrage of punchy, mid-paced, slamming metalcore, built around dirty riffs and huge beatdowns. It’s raw, visceral and primal in its attack, sometimes sounding industrial, at other times maybe even a little melodic maybe. Yet the intense vibration of the music through the very foundations of the build can not only be heard but felt too. New tune, Four Walls, has been out since January and carries on in the direction of full-length, Hide from the Light. Mercilessly intense, Diesect were a shock, but a very welcome one.
The only time I’ve seen Crystal Lake before was on the 2019 Impericon Never Say Die show in this very room, and also on the bill that November night was New Hampshire quartet Great American Ghost who have come along tonight too. They are, however, very much not here to make up the numbers, with Seb returning to more familiar surroundings, and frontman, Ethan, sparking like he could go off at any moment. Taking the raw aggression of Diesect and adding melody, nuance and darkness, GAG show that they are rabid road dogs, who know how to deliver.
Focusing largely on last year’s Tragedy of the Commons, only Hymn of Decay’s atmospherics and Catadeath - which is dedicated to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince… Andrew, that is, and all those who are alleged to have associated themselves with a convicted wrong ‘un – comes with sharp, snappy vocals and a hint of groove. Kerosene is introduced as being Biblical, Echoes of War is more pertinent than ever now, and set closer, Forsaken finds Ethan off the stage and mixing it up in the pit with the other revellers. It’s an abrasive, bruising and confrontational set that bridges the gap between the previous rawness and the technicalities to come.
Those technicalities come in the form of Tokyo terrors, Crystal Lake, who returned this year after an eight-year absence with the stonking new album, The Weight of Sound. That album, and this tour, is the first-time new vocalist, John Robert Centorrino, gets to show off his chops. Ever-present guitarist Yudai Miyamoto is still the firm hand on the band’s tiller, navigating them through personnel changes over the years.
New tunes, Neversleep, Blüdgod and Everblack open the show with an unbridled chaos and a sheer brutality that is supplemented by flavours of the band’s home country. Blended into the mix you can pick out subtle but apparent musical references to Japan. Hail to the Fire and Lost Forever book end Six Feet Under’s clinical attack; “Are we in a library?” asks John, going into Lost Forever’s unmistakeable J-Pop riff-meets-musical ferocity, which attracts crowd-surfers aplenty. Open Water never settles on any given style, content instead to wear many aspects; new tune, Watch Me Burn comes with melody and skipping drums, Apollo makes everyone jump and the set closes with The Weight of Sound itself, which is likely to become Crystal Lake’s signature tune going forward.
Ohio survivors, Miss May I are fast approaching their twentieth anniversary and arrive tonight as closing this co-headline event. Their more melodic take on metalcore feels like jolt after the musical devastation we’ve heard so far tonight. Harkening back to a more-old school take on the genre, with the combination of growls from Levi Benton, clean vocals courtesy of the relatively new guitarist/ vocalist, Elisha Mullins, feels a little too polished after the slams and aggression.
The band feel confident to take a trip through their discography, with early tunes, A Dance with Aera Cura, Architect and Forgive and Forget lifted from the Apologies Are for the Weak debut, and Monument’s Masses of a Dying Breed and Relentless Chaos, pay homage to the band’s formative years. Most recent album, Curse of Existence is represented by Into Oblivion, but it’s the inclusion of a couple of new tunes, Pray for Silence and Die on the Vine that will be getting the fan salivating at the prospect of a new album landing soon.
Miss May I’s fanbase were out in force tonight and, while I preferred the musical chaos of the opening three acts, the majority has spoken and put me in the minority. But, that’s opinion for you
Photo Credits: Rich Price Photography
