Radar Festival, Manchester 2025 (Day 1): The Review

Opening day at RADAR 2025 was a wild rollercoaster ride through metalcore grit and synthwave chaos. From raw screams to dreamy alt-rock, both stages delivered nonstop surprises. One moment you’re moshing, the next you’re lost in a synth haze. Predictable? Not a chance.

Mother Vulture

Mother Vulture opened up RADAR 2025 with a sharp dose of controlled chaos, mixing pedal-to-the-metal energy with a level of musicianship that made everyone in the room stop and appreciate just how good they were. Georgi Ivanov’s fry screams could peel paint off the walls and definitely wouldn’t be out of place on a far bigger stage. Tight riffs, groovy breakdowns, and just enough madness to keep it interesting. It was like watching a crash course on adrenaline, but louder and sweatier.

Floya

Floya brought enough warmth and light to the Kerrang! stage to make you forget you were in a concrete warehouse in the middle of Manchester. Their alt-rock meets synth-laced sound hit that perfect emotional sweet spot, especially during ‘The Hymn’, which landed like an instant classic, swelling with feeling and flawless delivery. The surprise guest appearance from Jack Bennett (Lonely The Brave) was an added cherry on top, and these guys really brought big heart, big hooks, and seriously polished execution.

Lake Malice

Lake Malice hit the main stage like a glitch in The Matrix; sharp, unpredictable, and impossible to ignore. Their digital-metalcore fusion, boosted by their recent addition of silver-clad dancers, made for a spectacle cheered by moshers and bystanders alike. Tracks like ‘Creepers’ and ‘Bloodbath’ whipped the crowd into a frenzy, with limbs flying and surprisingly graceful chaos unfolding in the pit. Bombastic, bonkers, and bursting with confidence, these guys are levelling up with every show.

Photo Credit:
LJR Photography

As Everything Unfolds

Picture this: a band that makes you want to both hug it out and throw a fist in the air. That was As Everything Unfolds on the Kerrang! stage. Charlie Rolfe’s vocals flip-flopped between a fragile whisper and a guttural scream so smoothly it felt like mood swings set to a killer soundtrack. ‘Flip Side’ was the standout, part sing along, part emotional knockout. As Everything Unfolds didn’t just play their way through their catalogue; they delivered tidal wave after tidal wave of great music.

Zeal & Ardor

Zeal & Ardor’s set was less of a concert, more of an hour-long séance summoning every shade of human emotion from the depths. Imagine blues, black metal, and gospel crashing together in a perfect storm; raw, spiritual, and somehow cinematic. Manuel Gagneux commanded the stage like a preacher with a dark sense of humour, flipping between snarls and soulful croons that could chill or ignite a crowd in the same breath. Tracks like ‘Run’ and ‘Death to the Holy’ twisted and turned, folding aggression into sharp, heart-wrenching melodies. The band’s intensity was both hypnotic and unsettling, forcing you to lean in while bracing for the next curveball. You left feeling like you’d glimpsed something ancient and wild, a ritual caught on tape and set loose in a warehouse full of sweaty metalheads. Pure chaos, pure art.

Photo Credit:
Naomi Paulmin

Carpenter Brut

Carpenter Brut turned the main stage of RADAR into a neon-lit nightmare where ‘80s synth wave met a full-on action movie soundtrack. The masked maestro unleashed a true audiovisual assault, blending throbbing synths, pounding beats, and lighting chaos into a relentless party. Their tracks really got the crowd moving like they were trapped in a retro-futuristic chase scene, lights flashing like a disco in overdrive. Imagine if the Stranger Things soundtrack got buzzed on espresso and decided to throw a rave. Between bursts of manic energy and moments of eerie calm, Carpenter Brut proved why he’s a titan of synth metal; one part nostalgia, two parts pure unfiltered madness. By the end, the sweaty crowd was buzzing, wondering if they’d just survived a sonic explosion or a night in the Upside Down.

RADAR’s opening day was a glorious mess of genres colliding, with synths, screams, and surprise bangers at every turn. From the pure unhinged energy of Mother Vulture, to the neon-drenched chaos of Carpenter Brut, Friday proved loud and clear that predictability is dead, and RADAR is here to throw the rulebook out the window.

Photo Credit:
Claire Alaxandra

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