Yours, With Malice: Youth Code Tighten the Grip in Manchester
After a huge 2025, Youth Code are wasting no time making their presence felt in 2026. The Los Angeles EBM duo — Sara Taylor and Ryan George — have kicked off the year with a full UK and EU tour that feels less like a victory lap and more like a warning shot. This is a band that thrives on confrontation, catharsis and physical impact, and this run of shows makes it clear they’re here to push things harder, louder and further.
That momentum has been steadily building since the release of ‘Yours, With Malice’ last May. The EP is short but sharp — pounding beats, razor-edged synths and Taylor’s unmistakable vocal delivery cutting straight through the noise. It’s introspective without losing its aggression, and modern without sanding down the band’s raw edges. Youth Code don’t mellow out; they tighten the grip.
We caught the band in Manchester on the 20th of January at Gorilla, a venue that feels tailor-made for Youth Code’s suffocating intensity. With its low ceiling, tightly packed crowd and brutally loud sound system, Gorilla turned the night into a physical experience rather than a passive watch. From the moment Youth Code hit the stage, there was no space to breathe — just a relentless build of pressure that never let up.
That tension was already running high thanks to a strong pair of support acts. Street Sects opened the night by dragging the room straight into the red, their abrasive, emotionally heavy sound creating an immediate sense of unease. King Yosef followed with a confrontational blend of industrial metal infused with hip-hop and hardcore punk, pushing that tension outward and turning it into something volatile and physical. By the time Youth Code appeared, the crowd was fully primed — restless, sweating and ready to explode.
Once underway, the set hit hard and stayed there. Fan favourites like ‘For I Am Cursed’ and ‘Consuming Guilt’ landed with familiar force, but it was the newer material that really thrived in the chaos. ‘No Consequence’, ‘Wishing Well’ and ‘I’m Sorry’ fed directly off the crowd’s closeness and volatility, their themes of anger, control and survival amplified by the room’s claustrophobic energy. Band and audience felt locked together, each pushing the other further.
With the UK dates wrapping up, Youth Code now take this intensity across mainland Europe. The tour rolls through Trix in Antwerp (23/01), Point Ephémère in Paris (24/01), Gebäude 9 in Cologne (26/01), and MS Stubnitz in Hamburg (27/01), before hitting Berghain as part of Berlin’s CTM Festival (29/01). From there, it continues through Leipzig, Brno, Vienna, Munich, Switzerland and beyond, closing at Grauzone Festival in The Hague on 08/02. European audiences should expect something raw and relentless.
