Avatar‘s In The Airwaves tour with Witch Club Satan and Alien Weaponry is one of the best and most entertaining heavy metal tours to come through the UK in a while. Both support acts are exciting and unusual additions to the lineup, and Avatar always put on a great show, so the Manchester crowd is buzzing, not to mention covered in Avatar-inspired facepaint. With almost two hours of Avatar to come, we are in for an excellent night of heavy metal.
One of the best and most interesting acts I’ve seen in a long time, we open the show with Norwegian black metal badasses Witch Club Satan, who have been causing a stir online with their intense and uniquely feminine-rage-filled black metal show for a while now. Watching the crowd as this band came out chanting, wearing cult-like crocheted horned hats, bare breasts and bearing incense, it’s clear half of them have no idea what’s going on, and the other half are enjoying every minute.
Bringing screaming, bloody, writhing, naked atmosphere to the stage, Witch Club Satan do an incredible job of putting their own arty twist on the classic black metal sound of bands like Immortal and Darkthrone. Demanding the crowd “scream like we are giving birth together,” they really own the stage for the short time they are on it, even if the usual blokey shouts of “tits!” mars the moment a little. Not that the band care. They put their all into their performance and show us exactly why the metal world is excited about them. A great start to the evening.
Coming from the other side of the world from Waipu, New Zealand, are Māori groove metal legends Alien Weaponry. The crowd is hyped, and they put on an incredible show from the start, performing a powerful and awesome haka that gives the crowd goosebumps. Kicking straight into ‘Kai Tangata’, the crowd is jumping and going crazy immediately.
They have such an incredible and unique sound, mixing in old school Sepultura elements with a lot of Gojira influence, coupled with the Māori culture, language and harmonies that make Alien Weaponry so unique. Their vocalist/guitarist and bass player are two of the most impressive personalities you’ll see on a stage; we didn’t see either of them stand still the entire set, jumping, headbanging and moshing the entire time. I look forward to seeing them doing their own headline tour in the hopefully not too distant future. If Alien Weaponry come to a city near you, GO SEE THEM.
And finally, the headliner of the night, Swedish “metal circus” kings Avatar! Avatar are an absolutely fantastic live act. Opening their set with ‘Dance Devil Dance’, the title track off their 2023 album of the same name, they followed it up with ‘Let It Burn’ and ‘House Of Eternal Hunt’. Avatar played arguably all of their best songs in their expansive, almost two-hour set, covering everything from their newest album Don’t Go In The Forest all the way back to their 2012 album Black Waltz.
Vocalist Johannes Eckerström has such a unique stage presence and is an incredibly talented frontman. Full of charisma, lots of camp humour and a vocal range you don’t come across very often, I don’t think he missed a note all night. Johannes is genuinely one of the best performers in modern heavy metal and, as good as he is, he still doesn’t outshine the other band members.
Avatar‘s lead guitarist Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby, for example, who the band dedicated an entire concept album to with Avatar Country, put on an incredible show of guitar prowess. Whilst playing their neoclassical-inspired song ‘Legend Of The King’, he sat on a throne with a crown on and shredded his way through it, showing exactly why he’s held in such high regard.
Towards the end of the set, they brought out a piano (and a special piano-playing jacket!) for Johannes to start off their song ‘Tower’, which was hilarious because instead of playing the piano, Johannes just talked for ten minutes, reminiscing about their first ever show in Manchester at the iconic Satan’s Hollow and how kind Manchester has always been to them. This, mixed with his deadpan, mildly pervy stage persona, makes for an entertaining interlude. Johannes just seems to get it. His clown-like movements mixed with his pantomime approach with the audience creates a memorable and fun experience that anyone would enjoy.
By the time the encore happens, the facepaint has worn off both Johannes and the crowd, and a single red balloon floats eerily across the stage. Powering into ‘Smells Like A Freakshow’ and final song ‘Hail The Apocalypse’, there are crowd surfers galore and it feels like the entire crowd is headbanging. This tour is really something special, full of brilliantly weird bands that made a dull Sunday evening in Manchester into something really memorable.
