Conjurer at Manchester Academy, May 10, 2025 – Gig Review

On a summer’s afternoon, I made the trip over the A55 from North Wales to Manchester to catch Conjurer live. They were opening for Make Them Suffer, but Conjurer was my purpose for that evening. They started off with a slow, doomy intro that set a dark and heavy mood before launching into a full-blown assault of blast beats and crushing riffs. The bassist, windmilling almost non-stop, added to the chaos. Hope his neck doesn’t hurt in the morning!

The stage setup was a bit unusual, as both guitarists were positioned on either side of the bassist, who doesn’t do vocals, while the others shared screaming duties. It worked well, giving the vocals a call-and-response feel which added more to their crushing sound.

Soundwise, Conjurer is hard to put into one single category. They blend various metal subgenres together, such as sludge, doom, and death metal, constantly shifting between slow, crushing breakdowns and furious, high-speed sections. The transitions were clean yet hard-hitting, which kept things unpredictable and heavy throughout.

One slight downside was the green lighting during parts of the set. It looked cool for the atmosphere, but it made it pretty hard to see what was going on onstage. Not a big deal, but I think they could add to their stage show by matching the energy of the tracks with varied stage lighting.

At the end of the day, Conjurer absolutely smashed it. Heavy, tight, and totally enticing. They proved exactly why they’re getting so much attention in the UK metal scene right now. Their fanbase seems to be growing and following them on their journey.