Live Review: Reading Rising 2025 (Saturday)!

This year Reading Rising is a full blown weekender of an Alternative Music Festival, offering Pop Punk, Hard Rock, Alternative and Metal bands of all shapes and sizes with the tagline 22 Bands. 2 Rooms. 2 Days. 0 Clashes emblazoned upon their posters. As a paying punter you get 5 minutes between sets to walk from the Down For Life Music stage to the Siren Craft Brew stage so there is minimal waiting around for the next band and as you’re passing the bar that serves both stages on the way, you may as well get a drink in the process. It would be rude not to. Aside from the expanded format this year they also have an international touring band in American Metalcore heroes Still Remains as their Saturday night headliner which is a first, so without any further much ado about nothing, here’s what actually happened…

This year at the smaller Down For Life Music sponsored stage Villumier [7/10] start the day with an infectious blend of Alternative Metal with clean sung main vocals, twin vocal harmonies and crunchy guitars. New single “Surreal” and “Andromeda” are mid set highlights as the quartet burn with tales of toxic relationships, the odd unclean backing vocal burst giving some of the tracks a little more oomph. Synths on a backing track chemically enhance a couple of heavier moments as the band push into Progressive Metalcore territory before falling back. Variety is the spice of life and on this evidence the four piece have a long career ahead of them. Reading Beatdown Deathcore crew Kulan Gath [8/10] are a ferocious animal caged by the larger Siren Craft Brew stage who bring out the two steppers early and in force as they blitz through a set designed to decimate the weak and thin the herd. It’s mosh or perish as there are at least two members of the band who look like they could be a practicing serial killer, their pulverizing rhythms creating a vortex of a circle pit with tracks like “Empty Words” causing the ground to shake beneath our feet. As if that wasn’t enough, they have a pair of covers in their set in “Shocker” by German Metallic Hardcore stalwarts Nasty being followed by the breakdown by “Dividian” by Machine Head that ensures everyone is left in a sweaty mess.

Brighton Alternative Metal act Syphia [7/10] aren’t afraid to mix it up with soaring choruses and the occasional brutal scream over wave after wave of groove laden bass. Their vocalist Alicia Pilling cuts a sultry figure front and center giving the band real stage presence, very much reminiscent of Skye Sweetnam from Canadian’s Sumo Cyco in style. This band are a different kind of animal however, heavier and with a greater, more dense rhythmic assault but the result is the same as they soon get the crowd bouncing or clapping along. “Worlds End”, “Limbo” and “Here We Go Again” are all impressive so we expect much more from them in 2026. The high energy chaos of Reading Melodic Hardcore quintet Compounds [9/10] with their thought provoking lyrics and blend of heavy and melodic riffs makes them a band to grab the imagination and on this evidence they’ve got enough fire power to put a hole in your chest. Spine juddering tracks like “Warm Without The Wind” and “Survive or Die” create motion in the ocean of the Siren Craft Brew stage and it has to be said that live they’re seriously infectious. Where they get their energy from we’ll never know but they’re certainly fired up and during the final track their bassist and drummer switch roles so the band can join the fans in the pit for a brief mosh.

Powerful, expansive and captivating, Alternative Rock quartet InAir [8/10] have us swaying like marionettes with songs like “Talk To You“, “Regress” and “Pieces“, their introspective lyrical narratives both heartfelt and soul stirring. The band all form part of the Reading Rising crew so switching from one game to another and back is something they have nailed with years of practice at this point. Much to our surprise they even have a new song in their set tonight in the horror themed “It Follows“, their first since 2023, which bodes well for their future. Bolstering their sound with synths on a backing track for their heaviest song “Chemicals” which is of course a wonderfully nostalgic throwback to the second wave of Metalcore means there set is very well received and so next year could be another big one for them. It feels fitting that the final show in the long career of This Dying Hour [9/10] would be at an event like Reading Rising, the quartet ensuring that they sign off in style. Having Asleep At The Helm bassist Nat Douglas in their ranks, the band have some funky low end groove, not to mention a supremely talented vocalist. Leo Mesada switches between soaring clean passages and harsh unclean passages brilliantly during punchy, aggressive Metalcore outbursts and somehow the four piece manage to keep their emotions in check for a triumphant final performance.

Pop Punks Royals [7/10] begin their set with “Killer” to get the crowd warmed up with a catchy chorus and as they have an album on the way, they treat us to a couple of new songs. They have more to them than meets the eye with the Siamese like R ‘n B with crunchy guitars of “Fever” which also has a saxophone solo and feels like step beyond what they’ve done before while “Sirens” is very much in the vein of bands you’d expect to see playing on the Vans Warped Tour. They do have a heavier break in one of their songs which finds their vocalist and bassist switch roles for a moment of madness so as they put it – if you’re into songs that feel like summer and heartbreak at the same time, you’re in the right place. South Wales Metalcore merchants Continents [8/10] are a band we’ve been waiting a long time to witness and they do not disappoint despite a more than a few technical issues, having a fill in drummer, no backing track or bass. Instead of giving up and going home they clench their firsts and play without the chemical enhancements so there are no samples between the tracks to fill the space. What we get is raw energy as they hammer out the likes of “Pegasus Pegasus” and “Hurricane” like it’s just another day on their World tour and the strangest thing is that they don’t even realize how great they sound.

Manchester natives Crushed By Waves [8/10] return to Reading Rising for a second time, truly humbled to be invited back, their music a cathartic blend of melodic verses, powerful breakdowns and anthemic choruses with “Nothing Left” and “Won’t Get Out Alive” set highlights. Gritty, emotively driven songs are their specialty and they have no problem whipping up a storm in the pit, the Northern banter between songs from vocalist Arran Prime part of the joy of their performance. Due to technical issues Devil Sold His Soul [8/10] have their set split in two and overlap with Two Year Break on the second stage. We get two songs in the first section in “As the Storm Unfolds” and “Burdened” during which the microphones are intermittent followed by a further five some forty minutes later. As someone big and important once said, s*** happens and it’s how you deal with it that matters, so when they pick up again with “Clouds“, instead of feeling tentative and seeing if they can push the equipment it’s actually like the shackles are off and by the time a rousing rendition of “Like It’s Your Last” is performed it feels like harmony has been restored. Two Year Break [7/10] have inflatable dice for the crowd to throw around during their set of Pop Punk infused Alternative sounds and give a live debut to new single “Crash Bandicoot“. They’ve got synths on a backing track and a bass heavy sound with both guitarists providing vocal harmonies to bolster their sound and the treason committing “#bitbright” is a moment of infectious madness.

A tour celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the seminal “Of Love And Lunacy” album from Grand Rapids Michigan Metalcore act Still Remains [10/10] has brought them to Reading Rising as tonight’s headliners. As you might expect every song is a sing-a-long anthem from “To Live and Die by Fire” to “Blossom, the Witch” with the glorious lead guitars of Gothenburg scene inspired Melodic Death Metal and the breakdowns of the 2003 American Metalcore scene it inspired forever entwined. Keyboardist Zach Roth is even wearing an In Flames shirt, so literally wearing one of the bands influences on his sleeves. As they’re playing the album in full on this tour, that means that almost inevitably there is one song that the band have only played in the UK because it is as never part of the set during their those original tours back in the day. That song is “Stare and Wonder” and tonight’s rendition is utterly sublime with vocalist TJ Miller in and out of the pit throughout the show, as he puts it, “to shake your hands and encourage you to shake your asses” as we get “Silly with Stilly“. His ridiculous energy along with that of the band who are headbanging continuously is insane, especially during some of brilliantly mesmerizing soloing. After the album we get a two song encore of “Stay Captive” and new song “The Wound and the Weapon” from forthcoming EP “Spirit Breaker” all of which confirms their future is going to be just as bright as their past.