[LIVE REVIEW] KREATOR, EXODUS, CARCASS & NAILS - O2 Apollo, Manchester - 25/03/2026.

First up is the notoriously groovy grind band NAILS, taking a massive trek from Oxnard,California. Kicking off their set in the only way NAILS know how, they came out to ‘’Speedfreak’’by Motorhead. Making it clear they were here to 'fuck shit up', frontman and guitarist Todd Jones(ex-guitarist for one of the worlds biggest hardcore bands Terror) got up front and screamed‘’WE’RE FUCKING NAILS’’ before swiftly kicking into their first track, ‘’Suffering Soul’’ which immediately opened the pit and before long there are copious amounts of crowd surfers flying over the barrier. Nails played a number of songs off each of their four records, including ‘’WideOpen Wound’’, “Lacking the Ability to Process Empathy’’ and ‘’Endless Resistance’,’ just to name a few. Just before playing their last song ‘’Unsilent Death’’ Todd gave a talk as to how they were told they can’t talk about or encourage stage dives, crowd surfing, moshing and other‘’thrashing activities’’, which was clearly his way of talking about it without actually talking about it. The crowd definitely got the message he was sending and oh boy did they deliver, it was absolute carnage.

To put it shortly, NAILS are an absolutely incredible band and I highly recommend catching them if they come through your town.

Second on the lineup is Bay-Area Thrash Legends Exodus who came on stage playing their opening track ’3111’’ from their newest album “Goliath”, which was released just a week before the show. It was honestly really strange to see Exodus so low down on a bill considering they’re one of the biggest thrash bands ever. People online made it clear that they felt that way,expressing that Carcass should have swapped with Exodus, which was met with a lot of disagreement from the Carcass fans. In my opinion Carcass without a doubt deserved that second to last slot on the tour, inventing grindcore is not a light feat. This in no way dissing Exodus though, their performance was incredible and had some of the most memorable moments of the night, after the opener they crashed into the title track off of their first album‘’Bonded By Blood’’ which got such a crazy pop from the crowd, there were too many crowdsurfers to count and the pit was so huge it looked like a massive ant colony. Honestly Exodus played everything I wanted them to play, including ‘’Blacklist’’, “Death Amphetamine" and “A Lesson in Violence”. During the beginning of “Toxic Waltz”, guitarist Gary Holt of course had to remind us that he's also in Slayer so they started the track with the opening riffs of Slayers “Reign in Blood”, almost immediately met with a ‘’SIKE’’ from front man Rob Dukes, before going straight into the iconic riff that the crowd went rabid for. Exodus finished off their set with‘’Strike Of The Beast’’ and guitarist Lee Altus brought up a kid from the audience to finish off the song with them, a really cute moment in an otherwise heavy as fuck night.

Exodus put on an awesome show playing both old and new music, showing Bay area Thrash isn't going anywhere.

Despite barely muttering one or two sentences for the entire set, Carcass clearly looked happy to be playing a show so close to home. Frontman and bass player Jeff Walker frequently walked around the pyro setup to get to the very front of the stage to the delight of the crowd.Playing non-stop and including tracks from all their albums, they really covered all the bases. Starting the set with “Unfit for Human Consumption” from their 2013 “Surgical Steel”, they covered old classics such as “Incarnated Solvent Abuse”, “No LoveLost”, “Heartwork” andinstant classic “Dance of Ixtab” from their newest album, 2021s “Torn Arteries”, The crowd response was nothing short of crazy to watch in all honesty, the pit didn't stop for their entire set. Carcass themselves were a bit more subdued than Exodus but still provided a master class in grindcore, even if their 45 minute set seemed criminally short for a band with such an iconic back catalogue. Carcass’ lineage is something special because not only did Carcass create grindcore, but their founding guitarist Bill Steer-who was on absolute top form tonight-is also a founding member of Napalm Death, being central to their seminal album “Scum”.

Carcass’influence on the metal scene is undeniable-they have nothing to prove, yet continue to set new standards in music to this day, truly one of the best bands ever created.

The headline band of the night, Kreator, the most popular band out of the “German Thrash Big four”, put on one of the best and biggest stage shows I've seen in all of metal, very reminiscent of Amon Amarth's over the top stage setups. They had multiple massive inflatables-two of them were massive demons at either side of the stage, another was a massive demon above drummer taken from their “Coma of Souls” album art and had smoke billowing out of it, as well as goblin minions who came out for “Hate Uber Alles” to light two stakes on fire and stand menacingly for the entire song. Kreator also had an incredible amount of pyro, so much so that the photographers instead of photographing the first 3 songs they had to wait until almost halfway into a 1 hour and 30 minute long set because of the ridiculous amount of fire and smoke throughout the set. I've seen Kreator four times now and the effort they've put into this tour is unlike any other, granted they've always had heads on spikes and other over the top stage props when they're playing, but this tour brought it to another level they hadn’t been to yet, truly a step up from their usual shows. Considering it was an hour and a half long set they played an insane 16 songs with very few breaks, and they managed to cram songs in from 11 of their 16 studio albums, including fan favourites such as “Hail to the Hordes”, Enemy of God”, “Satan is Real” and “Violent Revolution”. They played four songs throughout the night from their newest album, 2026’s “Krushers of the World” which fit in perfectly alongside their older, more established, tracks just perfectly. The audience is going absolutely insane by the end of the show, the venue's “no crowdsurfing” rule just completely smashed, the floor of the venue one huge seething pit.. The entire band were incredible in their own right, but vocalist and guitarist Mille Petroza was a particular highlight, vocals on point and a huge stage presence,commanding his Horde with ease the entire set their last song of the night, ‘’Pleasure To Kill’’had no encore before it, but had a first for me-a simultaneous wall of death and confetti canon. For a band who have been doing this for so long, it's incredible they can still consistently pull outthe riffs, the stage show and the surprises.

Four iconic bands, Four insane sets - this really was a night of metal for Manchester to remember.

For anyone who is interesting in finding out more of any of the bands featured on tonights line up you can visit their social media below: 

NAILS

EXODUS

CARCASS

KREATOR

Photography by DONNA CRADDOCK (@clickclickbanguk) on behalf of Get Heavy UK. Images are not to be redistributed, reproduced, or used elsewhere without prior permission.