Live Review: Onslaught – Tivoli, Buckley
12th November 2026
Support: Seven Circles
Words: Matthew Williams
Photos: Tim Finch
It must easily have been well over 20 years since I attended my last gig at the best venue North Wales has to offer, The Tivoli in Buckley. We were here to see both ends of British metal, one band at the start of their journey and another celebrating forty years of some of their most iconic work.
First up were Liverpool based Seven Circles, the four-piece fronted by singer Dixie Joe Mason. They start with “Dies Illa” as their progressive grooves are splintered with silent moments before the beat kicks back in. With plenty of vocal screams, he introduces the next song as “a new one, but it hasn’t got a title yet” and the steady drums work well with the punchy rhythms.
They have plenty of groove in their sound which made me think of early Coal Chamber, who I once saw on the same stage, and they offer up a decent selection of solos on the next few songs, “Lesser Than” and “Living Death”. The five-string bass adds depth to their overall sound and they switch tempos frequently before ending with a cracking melody during “Steadfast Ground” as Mason flexes his vocal cords with a mighty roar.
Onslaught are one of those bands who, in my opinion, never quite got the recognition they richly deserved. I’ve seen them countless times, most memorably at a room below my best mate’s old pub in Bristol, The Crown Inn, back in 2010, but with Sy Keeler back at the helm, they made a triumphant return last year at Damnation Festival. Celebrating 40 years since the release of “The Force”, this brief UK tour sees them playing songs mainly from that and 1985’s “Power From Hell” with a few other surprises chucked in.
One thing is clear, new guitarist Nik Sampson, has brought a new energy to the band and some of the solos bulging out of the PA are battering the assembled audience. Delving straight into the classic “Power From Hell” Keeler’s vocals sound good as the music speaks for itself. “Thermonuclear Devastation” and “Death Metal” follow and the double bass from James Perry is pummelling the crowd who are predominantly over the age of 50, so no circle pits tonight I’m afraid.
“Here we are at the legendary Tivoli venue in Buckley” announces Keeler ahead of the ridiculously good “Angels of Death” and the rhythms continue with “Steel Meets Steel”. This was their first gig in a few weeks, following their European dates, but they were a pleasure to watch and musically very tight. They took us back to 1986 with “Let There Be Death” as Sy takes a back seat during the solos, but his vocal pitch is bang on, especially as he screeches “Demoniac”.
The next song needed no introduction as it’s a classic of the genre, and I was singing my head off to “Metal Forces” which still sounds as good and fresh now, as it did 40 years ago. One of those songs that has stood the test of time, and it was a pleasure to be here watching them perform it. “We have one more from The Force, and this is a fast one” says the frontman and they rip into the vicious “Fight with the Beast” as the rapid-fire drums and tempo switches combine effortlessly to deliver a high-quality song.
We are then treated to a few songs from 2007’s excellent “Killing Peace” album, as the fists are in the air for “Destroyer of the Worlds”, “Burn” and the formidable title track, “Killing Peace”. These are played at some pace, with the solos delivered in the highest of fashions by Sampson as their trademark brutal heaviness shakes the foundations of the haunted building. They were supposed to end with two more songs, one of which was “Sound of Violence” but it appeared that Keeler thought it was crossed off, so they finished with their version of the classic Motorhead song “Iron Fist” which sounded superb and wrapped up a nostalgic set of stunning British thrash metal anthems.
Photo credits: Tim Finch
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