Live Report - Kreator / Carcass / Exodus / Nails – Krushers of the World Tour 2026 – 29th March 2026 - 02 Apollo Manchester, UK

Heading into the city centre for a long evening of metal, the anticipation of a fun evening was marred slightly by not having loved recent albums from two of the bands on show for the evening. Although Kreator’s Krushers of the World had a positive review (courtesy of the returning Mike!) in this parts recently, to me it felt like a band playing it safe, and although Exodus’ Goliath is still lingering on the playlist it is going down even worse so far –weak songs, stock riffs, and slow, sludgy pieces that simply do not work! It will quite possibly end rivalling Megadeth as the disappointment of the year; heavens help whichever of us poor souls that is cursed with writing a review…

After arriving just late enough to catch the last song or two from hardcore aggression machine Nails, fortunately Exodus managed to start the evening off properly, redeeming Goliath at least a little with their stage show. Bursting with intensity and full of energy, Rob Dukes may not be everyone’s favourite vocalist for the band but he’s a fine live frontman and led the band whilst ominously stalking the stage, gesturing for circle pits - which quickly followed! 3111 makes for a solid enough introduction but it was older songs like Bonded by Blood, A Lesson in Violence, The Toxic Waltz, and Strike of the Beast that really got the crowd pumping and the pits flowing.

The only awkward moments were Goliath’s title track which nearly killed the energy, being the one song from the band that lacked any kind of pit action, and Rob’s insistence on call-and-response “eeeoh” crowdwork Freddie Mercury-style, which was just out of place. Still, even more recent tunes like Deathamphetamine and Blacklist were rightfully hailed as bangers by the crowd and must surely be classifiable as classic at this stage of the game? A great introduction to the evening, anyway, and the following Carcass were even better, pounding out their melodic death metal with surgical precision.

Even a hastily replaced drummer didn’t slow them down, Opeth’s Waltteri Väyrynen stepping in with apparently zero rehearsals and doing an excellent job providing the spine to the likes of No Love Lost and Corporal Jigsaw Quandary. As you might expect Heartwork provided the majority of songs here but the band dipped into the back catalogue for Genital Grinder and Exhume to Consume, the latter seeing Bill Steer providing growls alongside Jeff Walker’s iconic snarl. Incarnated Solvent Abuse, Death Certificate, even Generation Hexed from Swansong making a live debut! A more than solid outing for this legendary act, a personal bucket list live show crossed off and the hope of new music awoken afresh (come on lads, it has been a long five years since Torn Arteries!) from a real highlight of the evening.

You have to give it up for Kreator, however, armed with not just an Iron Maiden-esque set of mascots and inflatables for the stage show but even an AI-infused intro video showing violence and revolution through the ages. What followed was an undeniably entertaining call to arms with plenty of thrash aggression courtesy of catchy fare like Enemy of God and People of the Lie. Perhaps my instincts were right – the setlist stuck a little too closely to recent material, with four songs from Krushers of the World. Yet all came over much better live and were buoyed by the likes of Hate Über Alles, Betrayer, Phantom Antichrist, and Hordes of Chaos. And although the true classics were stuck at the end with a closing one-two of Violent Revolution and Pleasure to Kill, Kreator are more than expert enough to carry the crowd along happily with them – a terrific showing and a converter for this wayward revolutionary. A superb topping to an excellent evening!