It’s a lad’s night out to blow off steam as a mob of teen to twenty-something’s gather for a romp-n-stomp night of medieval decadent metal.
The WWF of metal is here to wrestle their axes, de bass us, debauch us and numb our ears. Leading the guttural pack of hell hounds is Skeletonwitch. The stage lit like a red hued Hades as smoke billows and the deep dark and demonic vocals of Derrick Nau commands us to ‘Submit To The Suffering.’ An instant hair raising hook of instrumentals sucks us into ‘Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery.’ Derrick’s caveman ways and primal growls, thrash us about while guitar licks scream. They’re a return to ripping heavy metal journeys with a thrash epic sound. ‘Despoiler of Human Life’ from their October release “Breathing The Fire” hurls the furious mosh pit forward whilst most of us are satisfied with banging our heads and horns. They’ve a sound that’s welcome in a mechanic's garage or a nerd’s headphones with a snap appeal worthy of Black Sabbath’s riff status.
The unforgiving Metalcore band The Black Dahlia Murder bring along their own rabid section of fans whose fast freaking wild mosh pit bears some respect. Their music is marked by intense screeches, breakdowns and speed instrumentals. They also have some of the coolest Tee shirts around. By now nearly half the crowd has bought one and is wearing it.
With lyrics based on lines from Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, Austrian Death Machine doesn’t spend time on beefed up purpose or message. They just want to mosh, have fun and thrash. Tim Lambesis sprays us with milk and throws cookies at the horde. Ahhnold wears a bullet head mask and dishes out ‘It’s Not A Tumor’ as the rambunctious mob roars the line back. Easy to learn lyrics are a plus. During ‘Get The Choppa’ a masked Predator feigns battle with Ahhnold on stage whilst the mosh mocks battle in the crowd. It then becomes a cookie fight of mass proportions when a Big Blue Cookie Monster joins in.
The eye of the metal storm falls on Children Of Bodom as their steel perfect instrumentals nurture Alexi Laiho’s rage during ‘Hate Me.’ Pure metal in power, speed and melodic death they dabble through jaw dropping treats till the thrash of ‘Follow The Reaper’ buries us. The venue has huge fans on the audience but it doesn’t keep them cool, steam rises from the mosh and the smell of raw sweat permeates the air. The local lads are doing exactly what they’ve come for as bodies slam, hair flies and horns hurl skyward. All the while, Alexi the master hell hounds howls ‘In The Shadows’ and shoves glorious guitar licks down our throats. As the WWF of metal draws to a close Gigwise declares it a winning night. Nobody got hurt, everybody had fun and we’ll sleep good tonight. After all we’ve had our milk and cookies!
The show in photos:
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