METZ @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester, 22 November

The last time Toronto trio METZ were in town, they were at the other end of a three-band bill, opening up for Meat Puppets and Mudhoney at Academy 2. Tonight’s hat-trick is no less noisy; recent Wichita signings Cheatahs are on first, with Brightonian upstarts The Wytches delivering a raucous set as main supports.

METZ released their self-titled debut record through Sub Pop last year, and it’s immediately clear what it was about the band that caught the attention of the legendary Seattle label; their sound harks back to the late 80s, early 90s niche carved out by the likes of Nirvana and Mudhoney. This is a startlingly energetic and unforgivably noisy set; tonight, the venue is appropriately named. We wonder if the building is still structurally sound after the 45-minute exercise in sheer punk rock that METZ’s live show represents.

Frontman Alex Edkins quite genuinely plays like a man possessed tonight; it’s an enormously physical performance, with a surely unsafe amount of headbanging. After an opening salvo that kicks off with recent B-side Dirty Shirt and also includes the Bleach-esque Negative Space, he encourages the near-capacity crowd to “make tonight count,” which they duly oblige as a ferocious pit opens up front and centre.

The band are most commonly labelled with the ‘noise rock’ tag, but everything about them – the relentless guitars, the blistering percussion and, most of all, the incendiary energy – reminds us of the genuine punk old guard. Not that there are no nods to anything more contemporary; Headache sounds like a rougher-round-the-edges Japandroids, while set closer Wet Blanket, aired tonight in extended form, has just a hint of psych to it.

METZ are by no means for the faint of heart, or indeed eardrum, but that’s true of any punk band this committed, this honest and this impassioned; their record’s great fun, but the stage is clearly their natural habitat.