Outbreak Fest Manchester 2026 – The Review: Saturday

The second day of Outbreak brought surprises, chaos and a few injuries along the way. Nothing short of what this festival has become to be known for. Words by Chris Earl & Pete Wall.

It isn’t an easy task to open up the Saturday of Outbreak, but as past years have shown, UK hardcore is the best choice. Ikhras showed that last year and this time around, London’s own Turn Of Phrase is up. They have the third stage packed out at least fifteen minutes early, and they justify the crowd. A blend of Have Heart and Title Fight, it’s anthemic and heartfelt, and they do the UK proud. There may not have been too much in the way of homegrown hardcore on the lineup this year, but the ones who were there showed why things have rarely been stronger right now. CE.

Opening the main stage is a tough spot for a young band, despite the huge opportunity that it represents. Liverpool’s East Exchange takes to the stage with the front enclosure pretty sparsely populated. It’s 1pm, it’s very hot, and between those that have chosen to arrive later and those that carried what remained of their limbs home at 4am from last night’s late-night Knocked Loose set, there’s mitigation for the meagre turnout. Frontman Sonny K delivers his vocals in a drawl that has the same American affect as Gavin Rossdale, and there’s a stadium rock feel to the songs that is slightly out of place. Calls for movement fall largely on deaf ears, and it’s hard to know what kind of movement could be expected given the alt-rock tepidness of the songs. That being said, ‘Lily’ sounds properly big, and East Exchange will no doubt go on to find a wider audience, but today just isn’t the day. PW.

A wide-eyed, intimidating addition to the Outbreak lineup, Truck Violence are the sonic equivalent of Chat Pile, Show Me The Body and IDLES fighting with rusty needles in a back alley on a rainy night. Chaotic, confrontational music; there are a few narrowed eyes as things kick off, but they’re soon bright and addicted to what they witness. A microphone sadly doesn’t survive the set, but that’s par for the course for Truck Violence, who will have surely won some new fans…or at least intrigued people enough to check them out further. CW.

Anyone who has caught Blanket live will know that the Lancashire post-rock/shoegaze band are a force to be reckoned with, creating a wall of sound that is both invigorating and transportative. Booking them for today’s early set in the cavernous room that houses the third stage at Outbreak, which typically plays host to hardcore and hardcore-adjacent bands, turns out to be a misstep. From the outset, the mix is all over the place with tonnes of snare and cymbal drowning out everything else. When corrections are made and the guitars reemerge, the vocals are barely audible. For their part, the band put in a valiant effort, darting across the stage and locking in when needed. The material battling for aural balance and clarity is unquestionably excellent, and closers ‘When the Light Takes Us’ and ‘True Blue’ encapsulate how much the band have grown on and between records, but this only serves to underline the fact that Blanket deserve a lot better. The diversification of the Outbreak lineup has its obvious merits, but it also has its victims. PW.

A metalcore supergroup of sorts, featuring ex-members of bands like Dead Swans and a little-known act called Bring Me The Horizon, Still In Love are a band beholden to their influences of ’00s metalcore. That isn’t a bad thing by any means, as they’ve got the chops to make sure that their brand of revivalcore is good enough to hang with anyone. Appropriately, their logo on the screen is on fire, which is a great metaphor for the entire weekend. Blasting through tracks from their small but stellar catalogue, with a bunch coming from their debut album Recovery Language. CE.

Before Los Angeles post-hardcore standouts Touché Amoré take the stage for a full playthrough of their heartrending fourth album, Stage Four, the tightly packed main stage crowd is fully dialled in for a speech by a representative of a cancer charity who reminds everyone that one in two of us will be affected by cancer. The sense of unity and solidarity that greets Jeremy Bolm as he bounds out onto the stage to join the rest of the band a few moments later is palpable. Ten years on, Stage Four’s songs have an indelible immediacy, and by the time we’re a handful of tracks in, the weight of a track like ‘Displacement’ is almost unbearable; many tears are shed behind hundreds of pairs of sunglasses in an experience that is uniquely powerful and goosebump-inducing. Within all of the difficult emotions and unifying grief, the clouds get a huge cheer when they conspire to obscure the sun for a period of much-needed relief, and a breeze sweeps through the crowd like a renewal. Touché Amoré close out the set with a selection of songs from across their storied career before Bolm is swallowed by a sea of arms and smiles at the front. This was something very, very special indeed. PW.

Touché Amoré’s recent touring mates Greet Death got a huge shoutout from Jeremy Bolm on the main stage, and the second stage room is satisfyingly full in advance of the Michigan shoegaze/slowcore band emerging from the shadows. Guitarist and co-vocalist Logan Gaval is typically sardonic throughout a breathtakingly tight set, taking time between tracks to compel the audience to go and watch another band and encouraging a more sound-appropriate slow walk across the front stage in a setting that’s oh so familiar with stage dives and flailing limbs. At one point he describes Greet Death as a “sit-on-the-stage-look-at-your-phone type of band”. But beneath the self-effacing exterior, this is a band and a performance that gets right under your skin and into your marrow. For a band called Greet Death, who specialise in an ever-evolving form of jet-black humour and existential reckoning, and in light of de facto band leader Harper Boyhtari’s recent transition, they seem to be in a good place individually and collectively. That sense only makes a short but deeply moving set even more special. PW.

A wonderful blend of Misery Signals and the good parts of late ’00s and early ’10s metalcore, I Promised The World made their UK debut and proceeded to make a hell of a good first impression. High-pitched cleans, soaring melodies, razor-sharp growls and addictive synths all blend together for a throwback sound that makes the uncs nostalgic and the young feral. With more than a few hefty mosh parts thrown into the mix, they rattle through their debut EP, and it flies by in almost no time at all. Thankfully, they promise the Outbreak world they’ll be back later this year. CE.

Last year, Loathe was the secret set, and it felt long overdue for the Scousers to take to the Outbreak main stage. This year, they had prime position on the Saturday, and with their new album finally on the horizon, it felt like a big moment. Sadly, the day was overshadowed by a 15-20 minute set stoppage for a crowd injury, and this derailed their momentum a little bit. Tracks like ‘Dance On My Skin’ and ‘Screaming’ get massive receptions; their newer stuff is not as fully engrained into people’s minds yet, and when they go hard, it sounds absolutely massive. Not the triumphant return they hoped for, but good enough that you wouldn’t rule them out of headlining one day. CE.

In heavy music there exist a small number of bands who truly march to the beat of their own drum and are beholden to nobody. The Armed are one of those. A cacophony of influences from minds that seem to be on the same path of madness, their set is met with rapturous fervour from those who know and adoring confusion from those who don’t. Battering through a career-spanning set, including their song from the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, ‘Night City Aliens’, and even throwing a cover of Converge’s ‘Homewrecker’ into the mix (with Jacob Bannon himself joining in), it’s an experience that needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed and produces one of the best times of the entire weekend. CE.

In a frankly dazzling piece of programming on the second stage, Saturday night unfolds with a set from post-hardcore trailblazers Quicksand preceding a stage-closing set from metalcore legends Converge; this is the stuff dreams are made of. Legendary frontman Walter Schreifels looks somehow more thrilled than everyone else in the room from minute one. During a career-spanning set that foregrounds excellent material from the upcoming album ‘Bring on the Psychics’, his positivity knows no bounds, even stretching to the most gracious of responses to a stage invader who seems desperate to make the show about herself. Classics like ‘Head to Wall’ and ‘Thorn in My Side’ go down like fine wine, and the band even pull off a cover of The Smiths without sounding hacky. With the clock ticking and the remaining set time dwindling, it becomes clear that Quicksand are going to get cut off in their prime, but with full buy-in from the crowd and a 40-year scene veteran of a vocalist on cloud nine, this simply does not pass. Walter announces that he’s happy to play on and apologise later. Who would do that to Converge? Walter Schreifels would, and no one will have a bad word to say about it. PW.

Closing the main stage Saturday was Alexisonfire, performing the classic Crisis in full. This set was stunning from front to back. The band themselves are on top form, sounding as good as they ever have, and the willing crowd lapped up every second. From the opening chords of ‘Drunks, Lovers, Sinners and Saints’ and its back and forth to the anthemic, soaring choruses of ‘Mailbox Arson’, arms are aloft, voices are raised and there are even a few tears in the eyes of those watching. The sombre ‘You Burn First’ is dedicated to the late Planes Mistaken For Stars frontman Gared O’Donnell, which only makes the song hit even harder than it already does. Sadly, there’s a bit of a worrying crowd stoppage right at the end of the set that puts a damp note on things (but all ended well); however, it doesn’t take anything away from a frankly beautiful set of music. CE.
Converge are not a band that require or reach for any fanfare when they walk onstage. They know. We know. When the giant screen starts to flash with the titles of not one but two stunning albums released this year alone and they launch into the swaggering, start-stop opening of the ferocious ‘Love Is Not Enough’, the place detonates. This is a set with almost no fat on the bones, but instead it’s a full frontal assault of fifteen tracks spanning almost thirty years, including 1998’s ‘Conduit’ from When Forever Comes Crashing to cuts from both of this year’s releases. When a newly hirsute Jacob Bannon does interact with the crowd, it’s efficient and rousing stuff that only adds fuel to an inferno in the pit. Any run of Converge live tracks stacks up against most bands, but ending the night with a four-track run of ‘The Broken Vow’, ‘We Were Never the Same’, ‘I Can Tell You About Pain’, and ‘Concubine’ is absurdly potent, and the band wrings every last drop of intensity and sweat out of themselves and a crowd that rushes the stage multiple times, never quite knowing if it will be the last chance to unleash. As if to further hammer home their reputation as one of the hardest-working bands in heavy music, Converge have already signed on the line for a return to the UK and Europe later this year, and for every soul in the room, that tour can’t come soon enough. PW.
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