Manchester Club Academy was the setting for a night of crushing riffs, suffocating atmosphere and some seriously intense performances, as British heavyweights Conjurer opened proceedings before Portuguese Black Metal outfit Gaerea closed the night with a suitably bleak and devastating headline set. It was a bill that brought together two bands operating in very different corners of the modern extreme-metal spectrum. Conjurer have built a reputation around their ability to combine Sludge, Hardcore, Doom and Extreme Metal into something that is as emotionally powerful as it is physically punishing, while Gaerea take the aggression and hostility of Black Metal and wrap it in an atmosphere that is darker, more theatrical and almost ritualistic. Put the two together in the relatively intimate surroundings of Manchester Club Academy and the result was an evening that felt considerably heavier than the room itself might suggest.

Conjurer had the unenviable task of opening the night, but there was never any sense that they were simply there to warm up the crowd. From the moment they appeared on stage, they attacked their set with an intensity that demanded attention. Their sound has always been difficult to categorise neatly, and that became particularly apparent in a live environment, with crushing, low-end-heavy riffs colliding with frantic passages of Hardcore aggression, while slower and more oppressive sections gave the music room to breathe before the band unleashed another barrage of noise.

There is something particularly effective about Conjurer’s ability to make heaviness feel physical. The guitars don’t simply sound loud; they seem to occupy the entire room, with every riff feeling dense and weighty while the drums provide an almost relentless forward momentum. Even when the music slows down, there is a sense that something enormous is about to break loose. The band also demonstrated a strong understanding of dynamics, allowing different sections of the set to build naturally rather than relying on constant maximum volume and aggression. Quieter or more restrained moments created tension, making the inevitable return to full-force heaviness hit even harder.

That approach worked extremely well in the Club Academy, where the relatively compact venue meant there was little distance between the band and the audience and Conjurer could make full use of that closeness. The room quickly developed the kind of energy you want from an extreme-metal show, with the crowd responding enthusiastically to every particularly vicious riff and breakdown. There was also an impressive sense of confidence about the performance, with Conjurer sounding like a band completely comfortable with what they do without needing to overcomplicate the presentation. The music was allowed to do the majority of the talking, and when the riffs landed, they landed hard.

As the set progressed, it became increasingly clear that Gaerea would have to follow a very strong opening performance. Conjurer had effectively set the benchmark for the evening, delivering a set that was aggressive, dynamic and powerful enough to have worked perfectly well as a headline performance in its own right, but their role tonight was to prepare the room for what was still to come. They left the stage having given the crowd plenty to get excited about, but the atmosphere was about to change considerably.

After the ferocity of Conjurer, the arrival of Gaerea brought a noticeable shift in mood. The Portuguese Black Metal band didn’t simply walk onto the stage and continue the evening where Conjurer had left off; instead, they seemed to change the entire character of the room. The lights and shadows, combined with the band’s distinctive presentation, created an immediate sense of tension, and there was something almost ceremonial about the way Gaerea occupied the stage. Where Conjurer’s performance felt physical and confrontational, Gaerea’s felt more immersive, as though the audience was being invited into a world that existed entirely on the band’s terms.

Gaerea’s sound is built around many of the familiar elements of modern Black Metal — furious drumming, tremolo-picked guitars, harsh and tortured vocals and an overwhelming sense of darkness — yet live, those elements combined into something considerably more powerful than the individual parts. The guitars constantly shifted between furious walls of sound and passages that felt almost hypnotic, while the drums were relentless, driving the music forward with an almost frantic intensity and the vocals adding another layer of anguish and desperation. The result was genuinely overwhelming at times, particularly in a venue where the audience was close enough to the stage to feel the full force of the performance.

What makes Gaerea particularly effective live is their ability to create atmosphere without sacrificing the sheer violence of the music. There are plenty of bands capable of playing extremely fast or extremely loudly, but Gaerea understand that extreme metal becomes much more effective when there is a sense of anticipation and tension behind it. Their performance felt carefully constructed around that idea, with the music rising and falling to create moments where the audience could almost catch its breath before being dragged back into another furious passage. The contrast made the heavier moments feel even more devastating.

There was also a real sense of theatricality to the performance without it ever feeling excessive. Gaerea’s presentation is dark and mysterious, but the focus remained firmly on the music, with the lack of conventional showmanship only adding to the atmosphere. It felt less like watching a band simply perform songs and more like witnessing a carefully constructed piece of extreme theatre. The Club Academy was particularly well suited to this approach because, in a huge arena, some of that intimacy and claustrophobia could easily be lost, whereas here the crowd was close enough to the stage to feel completely immersed in the performance.

As the set progressed, the distinction between performer and audience seemed to become less important, with the room united by the sheer volume and intensity coming from the stage. Heads moved, bodies pushed forward and the crowd responded to every particularly savage musical turn, while moments when the sound became almost oppressive only reinforced the appeal. Gaerea aren’t a band you go to see for a light-hearted evening; their music is designed to create discomfort, tension and emotional intensity, and live they managed to translate that exceptionally well.

The vocals in particular added an impressive human element to the performance. Against the huge instrumental backdrop, the anguished delivery gave the songs a feeling of genuine desperation, preventing the set from becoming simply an exercise in technical extremity. One of the strongest aspects of the evening was the contrast between the two bands. Conjurer’s heaviness is visceral and physical, with riffs that hit with the force of a sledgehammer and draw from Hardcore, Sludge and Doom as much as traditional extreme metal. There is a sense of confrontation to their live show, with the audience almost becoming another instrument in the performance. Gaerea approach heaviness differently, with music that is just as punishing but wrapped in atmosphere, where the darkness is just as important as the volume. The tension between melody and dissonance, beauty and ugliness, restraint and outright violence gives their performance a very different character.

Rather than competing with one another, the two approaches complemented each other surprisingly well. Conjurer gave the crowd the physical assault first, while Gaerea followed by adding another layer of psychological intensity. By the time the headline set reached its later stages, the audience had already been thoroughly warmed up, but Gaerea managed to take the atmosphere somewhere considerably darker, making for a particularly effective double bill.

The venue’s relatively small capacity gave both bands an immediacy that wouldn’t necessarily be possible in a much larger space. For Conjurer, it meant the weight of their riffs could be felt almost instantly, while for Gaerea it enhanced the claustrophobic atmosphere that is such an important part of their performance. There was something fitting about seeing music this extreme in a room where the audience was packed relatively close to the stage, with no comfortable distance from the noise. When the guitars kicked in and the drums accelerated, the sound seemed to surround the entire room.

That intimacy also allowed the crowd’s reaction to become an important part of the evening. There was a genuine sense of enthusiasm throughout the night, and it was clear that both bands had brought together an audience willing to embrace the more extreme side of metal. By the time Gaerea reached the final stages of their headline performance, the room felt suitably exhausted, but in the best possible way.

With Conjurer delivering a ferocious opening set and Gaerea following with an immersive and relentlessly dark headline performance, this was a seriously impressive night of extreme metal in Manchester. Conjurer proved once again why they have become one of the UK’s most exciting heavy bands, with their ability to move between crushing heaviness, Hardcore aggression and slower, more oppressive passages making them an incredibly effective live act. They sounded every bit as powerful in the Club Academy as you’d hope, and their performance ensured that the evening began at full intensity rather than gradually building towards it.

Gaerea, meanwhile, demonstrated why their reputation continues to grow. Their performance wasn’t simply about playing fast and loud, although they certainly did plenty of both; it was about creating an atmosphere and dragging the audience into it. The combination of darkness, intensity, theatrical presentation and genuinely powerful musicianship made their headline set feel like an experience rather than simply another gig.

Most importantly, the two bands offered contrasting interpretations of what extreme metal can be. Conjurer were physical, chaotic and crushing, while Gaerea were atmospheric, unsettling and hypnotic. Both were capable of immense heaviness, but they arrived at that destination by very different routes, and that contrast gave the evening a sense of variety without either band feeling out of place.

For anyone in the Club Academy that night, the end result was the same: ringing ears, tired bodies and the feeling that they’d just witnessed something considerably more intense than your average night out. A brutal, atmospheric and thoroughly memorable night in Manchester, with Conjurer setting the room alight and Gaerea bringing the evening to a suitably dark and devastating conclusion.

Long after the final notes disappeared and the lights came back on, the atmosphere of the night seemed to linger. There was something about the combination of Conjurer’s sheer physical force and Gaerea’s oppressive, hypnotic darkness that made this feel like more than simply another stop on two bands’ touring schedules. It was the kind of show that leaves its mark, whether through the bruising weight of the riffs, the roar of the crowd or the images and sounds that stay with you on the journey home. For a night built around extreme music, Manchester was given exactly what it deserved: two outstanding bands, an intensely receptive crowd and a headline performance from Gaerea that brought the evening to a suitably unforgettable close

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