Rowan Bruce
After an electric appearance on Clwb Ifor Bach’s main stage at Noizzefest earlier this year as well as a sold out headline show downstairs in 2025, Bristol’s Knives return to the iconic venue opening for one of hardcore punk’s most exciting names. With the announcement of their second album NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN and their new single ‘Vermillion’, Knives have become one of the UK’s most watched post-punk bands.
Knives open up with new single ‘Vermilion’ and ‘PHD’ before flying into half an hour of hits. Frontman Jay Schottlander oozes effortless cool through singles like ‘Doppelganger’ and ‘The Dagger’, delivering over the top screams and swaggering hip-hop inspired bars while rolling cigarettes for after their set. Ending on ‘Eat Thy Neighbour’ and an announcement that they’d be back on the same stage for a headline show in March, the Bristol six-piece are sure to have made plenty of new fans with their hyperactive live set.
Relentlessly touring for over thirty years, Orange County melodic hardcore veterans Ignite are sure to have crossed paths with any self-identifying old-school punk. Although they’ve got plenty of experience, Ignite show few signs of slowing down or changing to cater to the masses in the run up to their seventh studio album Still Wide Awake, coming in January.
Walking on stage to ‘Poverty For All’ and their biggest hit ‘Veteran’, a Tony Hawks Pro Skater-esque sing-along hardcore punk track, Ignite refuse to let the energy dip for a second as they blast through three decades of classics. While newer single ‘Guilty Wounds’ takes more inspiration from vintage thrash than modern hardcore, Ignite still shred through unphased with the same intense energy. Frontman Eli Santana exudes the kind of rockstar energy that’s rare to see these days, with waist length hair and a torn tank top he screams through old-school hits like ‘The Butcher’ and ‘Let It Burn’ with the passion of rock icons like Henry Rollins or Ronnie James Dio. With a shout out to the late Lou Koller of Sick Of It All and a call out aimed at Metallica, Ignite feel like the last true punks of the original California scene.
Returning to the venue after performing as their Black Sabbath worshipping alter egos Bat Sabbath back in July, Toronto hardcore punks Cancer Bats greet yet another sold-out Clwb Ifor Bach crowd. As the jewel in Marshall Records’ crown, the four-piece lead a loud and heavy night of talent in their first international run of shows since the hiatus of drummer Mike Peters (here replaced by Pig Pen drummer Ian Ski Romano).
Entering to ‘Stay Stuck’, frontman Liam Cormier and the gang blaze from song to song without letting the packed crowd catch their breath for a moment through the stomping hardcore riffs. Trying out his Welsh accent which consists of a loud “sappening butt” and shouting out venues in Bridgend and Newport before flying into the ferocious ‘Bricks and Mortar’.
Starting a bouncing mosh pit on the title track of Give Me Dirt that lasts for the rest of the set, Cancer Bats introduce their fill-in drummer Ian before thundering into the stomping single ‘Gatekeeper’. After ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ the quartet are joined by Ontario based vocalist Brooklyn Doran for the songs ‘Long Tooth’ and ‘Hammering On’, bringing a dark new dimension to the band’s sound with Brooklyn acting as a brilliantly deranged counterpart to frontman Cormier.
Closing out on a one-two-punch of tracks that no Cancer Bats show would be complete without, their cover of ‘Sabotage’ by Beastie Boys and their 2009 hit single ‘Hail Destroyer’, the Bats boys complete yet another invasion of Wales, leaving the crowd shellshocked and ecstatic.
