Opening up tonight were Nottingham based metallers ILLUMINATUS and unfortunately for them, they were playing to what was a virtually empty room. Only a handful of people had showed up early enough for their set, which was a damn shame as they produced a good performance with a crisp tight sound. Their music is melodic yet heavy and atmospheric, with some fantastic riffing. Highlights of their short but enjoyable set were ‘Wait’, ‘The Wrath of The Lambs’ and set closer ‘The Rising Tide’.

Up next were SANCTORUM, one of the best and upcoming metal bands in the UK. The crowd had grown slightly larger for their set, and there would have been even more people in if it wasn’t for the venue’s stupid rule for gigs where under 18’s are allowed. This rule is where only non alcoholic drinks allowed in the gig room, with alcoholic drinks only available in the venue’s other bars. They obviously haven’t quite mastered the wristband system in Sheffield yet. Thankfully, there was someone in the venue with a brain and the was scrapped after SANCTORUM’s set, but those who were in the other room would have missed what was an absolutely brilliant performance from them.

The entire SANCTORUM set was made up of tracks from latest album ‘Ashes of Redemption’ with the intense and ferocious ‘Call To Arms’ kicking things off. Other standouts of the set included ‘Against Us All’, ‘Hope of Salvation’ and set closer ‘Take It All’. It would have been great to hear a couple of tracks from their debut album ‘The Heavens Shall Burn’, but you can only do so much with a 30 minute set. If you ever get the chance to see these guys, do it! You won’t be disappointed as they play well live, and certainly have some high quality material on their two albums. I, for one, will be wanting to see them live again in the future.

SPEEDTHEORY do exactly what they say on the tin. You can’t help but be in awe of how fast they play and how they keep it from sounding like a mish mash of all sorts. Their songs are very good, and through the PA tonight it sounded very clean and crisp. Dominating what space was available on the stage, these guys put on a great performance with killer performances of ‘Blood Money’ and the extremely impressive ‘Vengeance Will Be Mine’. The crowd lapped up every last moment of the set and on the basis of this showing, SPEEDTHEORY will surely have picked up no shortage of fans along the duration of this tour so far.

On to tonights headliners, and touring the UK for the second time this year, MY RUIN were back at The Corporation again and with the venue around half full, I was slightly disappointed at the turnout for one of the best underground metal bands around at the moment. Still this did not detract from what was a superb performance as they gave it their all and dominated the stage. Front woman Tairrie B (or Miss B), took plenty of opportunities to interact with fans at the front of the stage by getting them to sing lines when the microphone was passed over to them. Not only did they know all the words, they came back as raw and with as much passion as they were being delivered by Miss B herself with ‘Not This Time’ and ‘Religiosity’ getting the treatment.

Unfortunately, the curse of Sheffield, as the band called it ensued again, and they had technical difficulties which resulted in the crew trying desperately to fix the problem. During this time, Miss B interacted with the crowd to pass the time by this delay by thanking everyone for coming out and seeing them and appreciating their fans too, followed by her interviewing the crowd too where it was revealed one member of the audience was seeing them for the 50th time that night – talk about a stalker! Just as the band were about to take a Q&A session from the crowd, the problem was fixed and the band finished their set without any other hitches and only cutting one song, which wasn’t too bad considering the length of the delay. Highlights of the set included ‘Metamorphosis’, ‘Through The Wound’, ‘Nothing Is Sacred’ and ‘Made To Measure’.

This was a superb night for some of the metal underground’s finest bands, not to say some of the best British has to offer and all are worthy of being checked if they come to your neighbourhood. All of the bands on show tonight impressed and for the opening two, it’s a shame there weren’t more people in at that time to see what the future of metal is like in this country. If you were one of those who did miss it, then let me tell you what it was like…awesome!!!

Ratings:

Review By Adam Fredericks