SOS Festival 2025
SOS Festival 2025 (Saturday)
Whittles, Oldham
05/07/2025
Live review by Oli Gonzalez
It’s well and truly festival season in the UK. Many of our social media timelines will be filled with photos from Download, Slamdunk, Desertfest, and more. While they are filled to the brim with artists that have large multinational followings and the festivals themselves have huge budgets, there’s still smaller independent festivals that give smaller bands an opportunity to ply their trade. SOS Festival is one such festival, an independent family run affair that provides an annual showcase of artists centred around the NWOCR and traditional Heavy Metal styles.
Getting here, Whittle Oldham, was simple given Manchester’s tram network (with the venue itself being a 2 minute walk from the tram stop). It had been over 3 years since I had last been here. It still retained that wonderful independent venue feel, built on a community of music lovers and offering a charm and character difficult to match in venues owned by the larger firms.
The grey clouds gathering looked like they would pose a problem for the artists performing outdoors. A good job there would be two stages – one being indoors!
After some chatter with old friends and a discussion of a certain gig in Birmingham on this day, it was time for the opening act…
This House We Built
Normally bands opening a festival draw the short straw and get the privilege of playing in front of a small subset of the festival attendees. Not today. The indoor stage was suitably packed and not there to just make up the numbers as many were singing along to their tracks. It was becoming clear who had woken up and still needed a coffee or a few beers to liven up. Though their mix of hip shaking grooves and soaring anthems was clearly a welcome injection of energy early on and a respectable opening set.
https://www.facebook.com/thishousewebuilt
Dacara
Now, I’ve written about my admiration for this fast-rising band in recent times. I did have my reservations as to whether the genre crossover would work, and whether what was essentially an older crowd would take to them. The rain could have made things challenging as they opened the Viking main stage, yet there was a healthy quantity of Dacara T-shirts in the crowd assembling ready to brave the elements. The daytime sun meant that the band lost some of their visual impact which makes them so appealing. Yet their energy was undeniable and they sounded as lively and high tempo as ever. There was certainly connection and a response from the crowd in what may have been a challenging gig for them. I still have the chorus to their track ‘Monica’ stuck in my head as I type this, thus summing up the impact they had on me!
https://www.facebook.com/DacaraUK
Reaper
Another band who I had my reservations about due to their Thrash Metal roots and potentially being too heavy for the crowd here. Though the band seemed to adapt and play a set list consisting of their more melodic, slower, and more technical tracks from their back catalogue. Tracks such as ‘Death Games’ and a newer track ‘Jericho’ featured. I personally enjoyed the mix of technicality and their usual high energy set. Frontman Dan Moran spoke of the band’s gratitude for being invited after wanting to play this festival for years. I’m hoping they won over some new fans today.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialReaperUK
At this point, I needed food and a break, so I missed The Heir Apparition unfortunately, and only caught the tail end of Heavy Souls’ set (though I saw them earlier in the year; you should check them out!). Time for my second visit of the day to the Viking main stage.
40,000 Leagues
Another band from Manchester’s stacked underground Metal scene, 40,000 Leagues find themselves in a sweet spot stylistically with a style that’s aggressive enough for heavier shows but retains enough melodic and ‘radio friendly’ elements for them to be suitable for line ups such as this. The set featured some older classics such as ‘Control’, which I enjoyed having a good ol’ sing along to! Though it seemed like others were a little slow to warm to the band. Nathan Crossdale is a superbly talented frontman though and was put to work in winning this crowd over! A cover of ‘Ain’t Nobody’ seemed to be the turning point which finally won those in attendance over, which was more than the band deserved for a wonderfully entertaining set.
https://www.facebook.com/40kLeagues
Diggeth
Festivals are always such a fun place to discover new bands, right? I had that experience with Diggeth today, adding an international flavour to the line up and showing us how things are done in their native Netherlands. Just a power trio, their heavy Stoner-infused Blues Rock sounded full and lacking no depth at all. Nothing slick or fancy for the most part, just good old fashioned meaty riffs played with sharp and gritty tones crafted for maximum impact. They certainly connected with me and the audience on this day, and may well have won many new fans.
https://www.facebook.com/Diggethmusic
Ashen Reach
It had been a while since I had seen the Liverpool act. An act who are seemingly doing no wrong and ascending rapidly with the world of Metal and Hard Rock. I did wonder how the band would sound with no bassist, but this was no problem as they had a backing track in place (though it still seemed odd visually as they were performing as vocalist, drummer and guitarist only). They definitely connected with the crowd as they encouraged headbanging and bouncing up and down like pogo sticks. It worked. Though asking for a moshpit was a step too far and made the band seem like they didn’t really understand their audience. Though there was certainly engagement with some good old fashioned call and response choruses in their tracks. It helps when you have a vocalist as charismatic as Kyle.
https://www.facebook.com/ashenreach
Absolva
It was clear who everybody had come for, as the crowd assembled long before Absolva had played a note (at the expense of Blue Lena who had been playing to a much quieter indoor stage). As the last dregs of sunlight shone upon the Viking stage, Absolva began playing a remarkable set! They made this feel very special with tracks from their upcoming album “Justice” – including ‘Atlas Torn Between The Gods’ – which were exclusive world premieres also! A special guest vocals from David Marcelis (Lord Volture) went down well, as front man Chris Appleton spoke of how much he had helped the band in the early days, in particular with getting contacts and shows in mainland Europe. I’m pretty sure they’ll be heading to more and more shows on the continent in the future, as well as bigger and larger stages in the UK too! Genuinely, it’s hard to believe I had been sleeping on this band and this was my first time seeing them! They have so many things I love going for them. No silly gimmicks, just good old fashioned British Heavy Metal. Solid anthems, blazing lead riffs, and an absolute powerhouse of a vocalist in Chris. A tribute to members of the SOS community who are sadly no longer with us adding a wonderful and classy sentiment to the gig, again making it feel so special. I need to see them again and do a deeper dive into their back catalogue.
https://www.facebook.com/absolva
And that wa it! My first SOS, and it won’t be my last! If it’s like this next year, I’m going again! This just shows you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy some quality bands and to have a wicked time. It ran superbly well and felt brilliantly organised. Some band’s have already been announced for next year and for the price of 30 English pounds for an early bee ticket, it’s outrageous value for money. Get on it folks!
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