WRECK THE HALLS OF VALHALLA – THE OLD PINT POT, SALFORD. 21ST DECEMBER 2024.

WRECK THE HALLS OF VALHALLA – THE OLD PINT POT, SALFORD. 21ST DECEMBER 2024.

20th January 2025 0 By Laura Jane

Wreck the halls of Valhalla is a 2 day festival that went ahead on the 20th / 21st December at The Old Pint Pot in Salford, Manchester. You might recognise the mention of the venue from the earlier show of “Yule fest 2 2024” that happened on the 7th / 8th December (You can find the review for Yule Fest 2 >> HERE <<). Wreck the halls of Valhalla is a free gig that supports local and upcoming bands in and around the North West area and I have to say the line up was absolutely sublimed for local talent. Although due to the Christmas period and new year and the fact the last week of Christmas we lose track of ‘what the fuck’ is actually happening, this has been posted out a bit later – so sorry there guys…

The line up for both days were as below:

Friday 20th Line up
– Skrike 
– Phallic Rage
– Ninety Nine Mercies
– Dwingle
– Incarnage
– Crescent Halo
December 21st Line up
– Bronam
– Fate’s Hollow
– Divided By Design
– Bring Guns
– Suicide Samurai
– Silence Reigns
Unfortunately I was only able to attend the Saturday event but I heard that the Friday event was just as good as the Saturday! For the venue I do not mind The Old Pint Pot it has some charismatic charm and an intimate feel which is perfect for grassroot shows, I would be interested to see how a more renown band would fare in this venue – food for thought, maybe? Anyway, I digress… Saturday… yes. I shall attempt to do the same as I did with Yule fest, I’ll include a little review of all of the bands featured. I’ll try to keep things short and sweet and to the point however… often my reviews end up on some AuDHD tangent somewhere along the lines. I’ll try not to veer off, no promises though.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

First band up on the line up and taking to the stage was Bronam. Bronam did absolutely superb and opened the show with immaculate execution. Bringing a progressive rock vibe to the stage with strong vocals and catchy riffs being thrown out it was an overall great experience. I’ve never seen these guys live before but I would love to catch them again in 2025 they have a strong set potential and bring a good energy to the stage with a real feel good vibe to their music.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Following on from Bronam were Fate’s Hollow. Fate’s Hollow have come along way since my first interaction back in November 2023 as part of project discover. With the unique progressive rock style Fate’s Hollow are a band not to be slept on and would highly recommend checking them out.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

I do joke a lot with the guys saying how that they are a Coheed and Cambria tribute band however when I’ve now finally got round to catching the guys at a show I can full heartily say this is not the case, they have their own unique twist on their music. It’s both cinematic and engaging. I really enjoyed their set and can’t wait to see what 2025 brings for the guys.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Next on the line up was Divided By Design. I didn’t really know what to expect when seeing these as they are a three piece instrumental band that I hadn’t heard of before but honestly I was pleasantly surprised with them bringing both technical perfection and unpredictability to their music.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

I say this in a positive way as someone who has never heard them before their music was fully engaged in their set. I would recommend Divided By Design for anyone who is a fan of bands such as Animals as Leaders and TesseracT (minus vocals).

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Due to a switch around of the line up from original the next band up for the evening was Bring Guns. Their set was energetic and the crowd seemed to show positive energy to their performance.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

With the band being a fairly new band there wasn’t much knowledge about them before the show but see a bright future for these guys, having checked their social medias and seen their previous gigs they seem to be pushing hard and we love to see it!

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

The next two bands that are on the line up and inclusive of headliners for Wreck the halls of Valhalla for the evening were Suicide Samurai and Silence Reigns (headlining the evening). The interesting thing about these two bands and something that I’m super stoked for coming in 2025 is that both of these two bands have been successful in gaining a place in Metal 2 the Masses with Suicide Samurai partaking in the North Wales heats (1st March 2025) and Silence Reigns competing in the Manchester heats (12th January), after seeing both bands perform tonight they will be some strong contenders for the Metal 2 the Masses shows. Good luck to both of you guys in your heats if tonight was anything to go off – you’ll absolutely smash Metal 2 the Masses.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Suicide Samurai took to the stage and brought high energy, experimental metal to the crowds. I did like their set as although it wasn’t “extreme heavy” there were so many elements of different genres incorporated into their work which was a great audible experience and a bold direction with the route of their music.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Although I do not think I’ll be able to personally attend the North Wales heat, I wish these guys the best they are taking some tough competition to the heat. I would love to have the opportunity to see these guys again as felt the set was really polished and was enjoyable to
Finalizing the evening and closing the show were Silence Reigns, my first thought when seeing these guys get on stage was that they were clearly a lot younger than most of the other bands that had played tonight but do not let this fool you, I was immensely shocked and still am that these guys are doing what they’re doing for their age. I do not want to age to be a focus of my review for these guys but it is seriously impressive. Musically these guys were showing amazing capability and absolutely dominated the stage, each member bringing energy and charisma to the stage.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

I do want to note one moment in the set where a song was dedicated to a relative who had passed and it was moving to hear the emotion in that dedication when it was performed. You did them proud, so fucking proud. Once again, as above Silence Reigns have been successful in qualifying for Metal 2 the Masses Manchester and it’ll be exciting to check them out again then and see how they do.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

Although as All About The Rock are covering Metal 2 the Masses Manchester I will unfortunately be unable to vote but if your performance was as good as it was tonight, you’d 110% have my vote. Absolutely smashed it out of the park and through the next field possibly hitting the grumpy old farmer sat on a tractor in that field too. Amazing job.

photo courtesy of Laura Jane Photography ©  & Photography for All About The Rock

All in all, Wreck the halls of Valhalla was a smooth and enjoyable evening. There were no issues throughout the evening and the event was very well organised with organisers being on hand to have a chat and answer any questions with a friendly smile throughout. Hopefully, next year this will happen again as honestly – I feel that it was a great turn out, great showcase of talent and a great atmosphere. Yes, that was three greats in a sentence to describe how it went… I’ll take it as a hit for bad writing because guess what.. It was great.
For me personally, this was my final gig of 2024 and I’m super happy it ended on a high note seeing local bands do their stuff in a local venue. I feel once again, it’s a shame (I guess?) that I couldn’t give any bad feedback out for this show either, everyone did amazing – people were friendly, no egos. Just a great laugh. I’m looking forward to 2025 and what it will bring in terms of both seeing bands I’ve seen this year and also seeing new and upcoming talent throughout the UK.
This was my last gig review of 2024!

For more photography from shows visit my INSTAGRAM >> HERE <<

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