Tonight promised to be of the best gigs of the year. There is something special about seeing thrash and death metal bands in such intimate venues. Probably because you can get really close to the band and experience the full force of your head being blown apart by their artful craft known as metal!

Arriving at venue, we were just in time to catch the last couple of songs by KEEP OF KALESSIN, whose black metal with thrash tinged style seemed to be going down a treat with the crowd. From what I heard of the likes of ‘Ascendant’ and ‘Kolossus’, both of which come from latest album ‘Kolossus’, they definitely warrant further listening, and probably seeing again sometime as this brief viewing was enough to wet my appetite for more.

After being impressed by their technicality and caliber of their material at last years Bloodstock Open Air, I couldn’t wait to see Canadian Death Metallers KATAKLYSM again. From the off, you could tell the band were loving this intimate atmosphere, as well as the crowd as the pit got going for the first of many tonight. Ripping through a brutal 40 minute set, the sound was crisp and clear and a pummeling performance by Max Duhamel on drums was awe inspiring as he produced numerous trademarked blast beats and together with the rest of the band were intent on total annihilation of the venue.

Given the back catalogue of KATAKLYSM, they tried to give each album a run out, with their set being full of their best work to date. Highlights included the impressive ‘Crippled & Broken’, ‘Let Them Burn’ and ‘As I Slither’, as well as the awesome ‘Taking The World By Storm’ from latest album ‘Prevail’. As the set closed with ‘Like Angels Weeping (The Dark)’, the crowd were chanting for more, which shows you the positive reaction they left on the crowd. KATAKLYSM also announced they would be returning to the UK early next year for a headline tour. If you love death metal, get your ass to one of their shows, you won’t regret it. I, for one will definately be there!

The last time Bay Area Thrashers DEATH ANGEL played Nottingham, their set didn’t last that long as they ran into technical difficulties. Thank god that was not the case tonight as they delivered a truly superb 75 minute set full of thrash classics both new and old. Mark Osegueda was in fine form as were the dual guitar attack of Ted Aguilar and Rob Cavestany as they blistered through tracks like ‘Voracious Souls’ and ‘Buried Alive’.

The new guys to the band, Sammy Diosdado on bass, and Will Carroll on drums have fitted in very nicely to the band and were extremely tight with the rest of the other members tonight. Also, a bit of a jam session being performed in the encore between songs highlighted this as they produced some quality entertainment. Pits were a plenty tonight, and it was great to see both the band and the crowd having an absolute storm as Osegueda on more than one occasion handed the microphone to the crowd to sing along with him, and plenty of banter was passed between both crowd and the band which made for an even better evening.

One of the highlights of the set was probably one of the songs they haven’t played since before the band first split, ‘Road Mutants’ and it was nice to here even if a couple of set pleasers had been sacrificed to make way for some of the older stuff they haven’t played for ages, which was perfectly fine with me. Other highlights obviously included ‘Thrown To The Wolves’, ‘Seemingly Endless Time’, ‘Stop’, and ‘Carnival Justice’ along with encore duo of ‘Lord of Hate’ and ‘Kill As One’. This capped off a wonderful night of metal, where both the bands and the crowd had an awesome time and one that won’t be forgotten for a while.

Ratings:

Review By Adam Fredericks