Having seen Irish High Speed Thrashers GAMA BOMB a few times over the past year or so, I can definitely say that these guys always impress live and are one of the most technically gifted up and coming thrash bands around, even when they are a member short as was the case tonight with the absence of bassist Joe McGuigan. Still you would have struggled not to enjoy their set, and judging by the crowd reaction, anyone who had never seen these guys before was a fan after their set!

The bass guitar was hardly missed except in a couple of songs where it was apparent that it was lacking, with the most obvious being in ‘Hammer Slammer’, which still sounded awesome nevertheless. The shredding pair of Domo Dixon and Luke Graham was as ever on top form and songs like ‘Zombie Blood Nightmare’ and ‘Last Ninjas Unite’ were lapped up by the crowd. GAMA BOMB have a good array of material for their relatively short career so far, and tracks like ‘Evil Voices’ and ‘Bullet Belt’ showcased this. ‘Zombi Brew’ closed their short but sweet set and served as the perfect warm up act to some thrash legends, something they can hopefully aspire too as well one day.

Thrash titans SEPULTURA are celebrating 25 years with this tour, and even with only one original member left in the band, that didn’t stop fans both old and new packing the venue tonight for what was one of the best atmospheres I have been witness to this year. If you thought GAMA BOMB were outstanding tonight, then SEPULTURA took it to a whole new level, as they crushed, blasted and destroyed their way through a superb 90 minute set that ranged their history.

Opening with an instrumental from the latest album ‘A-Lex’, things kicked off with the extremely heavy ‘Moloko Mesto’, which definitely sounds better live than on record as it really does deliver an urge to pump your fist, headbang or mosh in the live arena. This was the first of what was a handful of new material on show tonight, and those that impressed included ‘Filthy Rot’, ‘What I Do!’ and ‘Conform’.

SEPULTURA stayed true to their roots and played a host of classics that included the ever present and irrefutable brilliance of ‘Refuse/Resist’ and ‘Troops of Doom’, whilst ‘Arise’ and ‘Dead Embryonic Cells’ also kept the crowd going as the mosh pit never seemed to relent or rest at all! It was about half way through the set before giant vocalist Derrick Green started to interact with the crowd, but nobody seemed to care as long as the material kept on flowing.

Andreas Kisser delivered an awe inspiring performance tonight as he shredded his way through the likes of ‘Spit’, ‘Sepulnation’ and ‘Attitude’, whilst the relative new boy, Jean Dolabella (given the unenviable task of replacing Igor), made mincemeat of the classics as he pulled them off with apparent ease, while Paolo Jr looked to be loving every minute of it, as he has done since the start, and when they played a bit of a medley of intro’s by local band DEF LEPPARD, you knew everyone was having a good time.

A trio of songs from the fantastic ‘Chaos A.D.’ album followed one another in the form of ‘Territory’, ‘Slave New World’ and ‘Biotech is Godzilla’, before an excellent rendition of ‘Inner Self’ closed the main set. As the chants grew louder, SEPULTURA came back to finish what they had started and kicked off the encore with the groovy ‘Ratamahatta’, before closing finally with an unsurprising choice. ‘Roots Bloody Roots’ sent the crowd into a frenzy and closed what was literally a killer performance. SEPULTURA showed they are still going strong and why they are one of the most influential bands still around today. Here’s to another 25 years of thrash!

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Review By Adam Fredericks