You might have heard of The Black Veil Brides and be wondering what all the fuss is about. To an older generation who have already experienced first hand rock acts like Kiss, Aerosmith and Alice Cooper that inspired this up and coming rock band, The Black Veil Brides may seem like nothing new, but to a younger generation it all seems rather novel and exciting.

By combining the darkness of Marilyn Manson with the exuberance of Kiss and Alice Cooper the Black Veil Brides currently fill a gap in the rock market.

They seem to divide opinion amongst their audiences: at last year's Donington Rock Festival the band's performance was greeted by bottle throwing whilst their die hard fans seemed to love every minute of their set.

The Sheffield gig got off to a shaky start with lead singer Andy Biersack slipping on stage and spraining his ankle after the first song. An impromptu drum solo kept the fans entertained. Guitarist Jeremy Ferguson joined in saying that "the band are excited about playing in the city that brought the world Def Leppard" as he played the guitar riff to the Def Leppard hit, 'Photograph'.

Although the reference may have been be lost on some of the younger members of the crowd it didn't seem to matter, for them the Black Veil Brides are the new rock messiahs just as Def Leppard were to a generation before.

A cover of the old Billy Idol track 'Rebel Yell' was inspired - Biersack's vocals do sound remarkably like the Generation X front man, even on the Black Veil Brides' own tracks. Their new album 'Wretched and Divine' is a concept album but thankfully it is not typical of the genre as it contains some superb melodic rock tracks like 'In The End' and 'Resurrect the Sun' which the band played tonight; even the milkman could whistle these songs.

In five years' time they will probably be playing bigger venues such as Sheffield Arena or the soon-to-be-opened Leeds Arena and many would like to claim that they were here tonight when the band played a more intimate venue.

This was a rock gig with showmanship, energy, attitude, entertainment and songs that could become rock anthems, given time. On a cold snowy winter's night in Sheffield it seemed just the tonic to lift any rock fan's spirit and reaffirms that rock still has a future with bands like the Black Veil Brides on the scene.

Black Veil Brides appeared at Sheffield O2 Academy on Wednesday 13th February 2013.