Entering the venue, I was surprised to see a near enough sold out crowd already in for legendary death metallers CANNIBAL CORPSE. It’s good to see them getting some fan support back after remembering the last time I saw them on UK soil, the then Bradford Rios was hardly a quarter full. You could tell from the start that CANNIBAL CORPSE were enjoying this gig, and by the end of their set the entire crowd were screaming their name. This tour with CHILDREN OF BODOM will have done nothing but wonders for them in getting them new fans and finally receiving the recognition they got back in the early days.

Their set had the obligatory couple of new tracks from new album ‘Evisceration Plague’ (Review) in the form of the title track and ‘Priests of Sodom’, of which the title track was definately the highlight, along with classics such as ‘I Cum Blood’, ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ along with the ever present ‘Fucked With A Knife’ as always introduced by Corpsegrinder in the form of ‘Heres one for all the ladies’. The closing track, ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled’ brought a close to an absolutely brillaint set from CANNIBAL CORPSE who were on top form and delivered a brutal and intense performance.

Onto tonight’s headliners. CHILDREN OF BODOM have steadily increased their fanbase over the past 12 years since ‘Something Wild’ was released, and after seeing the crowd they attracted at Download Festival last year, the turnout tonight was no surprise considering their recent surge in popularity. And its about time too! COB have made album after album of absolute brilliance, and each one made an appearance in the set tonight.

Opening up with the opening track from latest album ‘Blooddrunk’, ‘Hellhounds On My Trail’, the pit needed no encouragement as it went wild and seemed intent on destroying anything in it’s path. The other new tracks on display tonight were the slower but still kick ass ‘Banned From Heaven’ and the title track, ‘Blooddrunk’, both of which like set opener sounded awesome live. Another set highlight was the two medlies that were played entwining ‘Children of Decadence’ and ‘Bodom After Midnight’ in one, and ‘Lake Bodom’ and ‘Bodom Beach Terror’ in the other, of which both medlies were superb and the way the band went from one into the other with which seemed like no effort at all showed how tight and how good COB are as musicians and as a band.

Surprisingly, and to be honest, a nice surprise was that ‘Downfall’ wasn’t the last track for a change, however surprise omissions from the set were ‘Everytime I Die’ (but I guess when you’ve got ‘Banned From Heaven’ and ‘Angels Don’t Kill’, that’s enough slow stuff for a COB gig!), ‘Deadnight Warrior’ and ‘Needled 24/7′. But hey, you can’t keep everyone happy and the set that they performed tonight more than made up for it with the rare outings of ‘Lake Bodom’ and ‘Bed of Razors’ in the encore. Bringing a close to to the gig was what the Nottingham Hate Crew had been waiting for, ‘Hate Crew Deathroll’ which topped off an awesome performance from the Finnish metallers, with no one going home disappointed in the slightest!

CHILDREN OF BODOM Setlist: Hellhounds On My Trail / Living Dead Beat / Sixpounder / Silent Night, Bodom Night / Banned From Heaven / Hate Me! / Children of Decadence / Bodom After Midnight (Medley with previous track) / Follow The Reaper / Blooddrunk / In Your Face / Angels Don’t Kill / Lake Bodom / Bodom Beach Terror (Medley with previous track) / Downfall / Bed of Razors / Hate Crew Deathroll

CANNIBAL CORPSE Setlist: The Time To Kill Is Now / Death Walking Terror / Disfigured / Evisceration Plague / I Cum Blood / Fucked With A Knife / The Wretched Spawn / I Will Kill You / Priests of Sodom / A Skull Full of Maggots / Hammer Smashed Face / Stripped, Raped and Strangled

Ratings:

Photography By Alexander Shaw

16/02/2009 – Academy 1, Manchester Photos

17/02/2009 – Rock City, Nottingham Photos