Municipal Waste @ Manchester Moho Review

Okay, first off let me apologise for the delay in uploading this review! Now to start off the night was the stoner/hardcore band Anguish from Leeds. Their combination of hardcore and stoner influences delivered an appealing set to start off the night, sadly with only a short set it was difficult to fully become immersed in their live performance (6). Next up was Forsaken, another hardcore based band. Delivering hooking riffs and appealing vocals Forsaken served to get the crowd anticipated for the bands to follow yet similarly to Anguish, a short set left me not fully hooked to their set(6). Following Forsaken next up was Iron Witch. Screaming influence of sludge/blues/punk Iron Witch started with a bang! Riffs were incredibly sludgy, crying influence to notable bands such as Eyehategod, Iron Witch hooked the audience with many a heads headbanging and monstrous pits, each member contributed greatly to their sound leaving many in the audience, including me, hooked for more. Iron With could of easily have headlined this gig. (8)

However it was time for Municipal Waste. From the offset off the instrumental ’Waste in Space’ then tearing into ‘Mind Eraser’ Municipal Waste tore up Moho. Every single song was greeted with cheers from the audience and huge pits and headbanging to follow from start to finish. Considering that the setlist consisted of 20 tracks, this is an impressive achievement. In terms of the setlist Municipal Waste blasted through their back catalogue playing fan favourites such as ‘Born To Party’, ‘Terror Shark’, ‘Beer Pressure’, ‘Wolves of Chernobyl’ to new tunes from their latest album such as ‘You’re cut off’, ‘Repossession’ and ‘The Fatal Feast’. The band themselves played to perfection, with special note to Tony Foresta’s vocals and onstage presence, from start to finish he kept the audience in the palm of his hand, ensuring their set was just madness. Municipal Waste are defined as “party thrash metal” and monday’s performance clearly showed how they have earned that tagline, start to finish just thrashing party mayhem! (9)