The show opened with a montage of You Tube video tributes uploaded by numerous fans displayed on the giant white curtain that covered the front of the stage. As Gillespie-Sells ripped down the curtain the band burst into ‘Thought It Was Over’, their first single release from the second album released early this year and their loyal audience sprang to life to join in with every second of the 105 minute show. The style of their stage presence differs quite significantly from the soft rock/pop studio recordings that are so widely given national radio air play, since it has a much edgier rock feel whilst still retaining the catchy melodies and harmonies. Gillespie-Sells soon has his fans eating out of his hands as they play along with him in ‘Fill My Little World’ and singing the counter-melody at the end of ‘Never Be Lonely’. In fact his stage presence has very much the feel of Freddie Mercury or Phil Lynott in the way in which he engages the crowd throughout the gig. ‘Without You’ follows the sing-a-long, a moving number documenting their reaction to the Virginia Tech massacre, the band were touring stateside at that time.

The middle segment with ‘Kettles On’ and ‘Helicopter’ demonstrate both the melodious structure of the bands song writing, their love of an edgey rock crescendo and their tight live performance based on Kevin Jeremiah’s guitar breaks to Richard Jones’ bass through to the excellent Paul Stewart on drums. Ciaran Jeremiah adds plenty of glitz and sparkle with his keyboard playing, whilst relishing his moment on lead vocal in the ‘Fight for Your Right’ encore.

Dan Gillespie-Sells exuberance and interaction with his audience escalated during the high octane end to ‘Helicopter’, he dived and crowd-surfed his way to the back of the hall reappearing on the balcony to wow amongst the masses with his solo acoustic version of ‘Strange’. The use of ‘Miss You’ and ‘Strange’ further demonstrated the QUEEN influences mimicking the way in which the ballads can be used to break up a long set and showcase raw talent. Although I did find the use of ‘Popcorn’ a little odd, but the crowd seemed to lap it up along with everything else that was served up.

‘Turn it Up’ gets the set back in the rocking groove, ‘Sewn’ affords Dan yet another opportunity to engage the audience in another sing-along and ‘Love It When You Call’ brought the show to a natural high energy conclusion. The audience were treated to one final piece of THE FEELING showmanship when the band appeared drum-playing through the auditorium for their first encore of ‘We Can Dance’ dressed in full Sergeant Pepper style regalia.

All in all an extremely enjoyable, entertaining night. Okay there are plenty in the mainstream music press that want to slate THE FEELING as being bland pop with their songs containing little new material just merely mimicking the late 70s/early 80s of ELO, QUEEN, SUPERTRAMP, 10CC and PINK FLOYD. However, I would counter that this is a proper rock band that write their own music, are accomplished musicians that give a very high quality live performance.

Set List
Thought It Was Over / Fill My Little World / Never Be Lonely / Without You / Don’t Make Me Sad / Rose / When The Truth Comes Out / Take On Me / Kettle On / Miss You / Helicopter / Strange / Popcorn / Turn It Up / Sewn / Join With Us / Love It When You Call / We Can Dance (Greatest Show on Earth) / Fight For Your Right.

Rating: 4.8/5.0
Tim Statham

Next up were MASTODON, a band whose techincal, progressive, yet heavy-as-fuck metal, isn’t exactly the easiest to get in to. Live, their musicianship is spot on, but with so much going on in their music, the live sound has to be perfect to do it justice, and tonight, it wasn’t. This resulted in the band sounding like a mish-mash of riffs and intellible vocals, with only the odd melody standing out amongst the racket. The fact that the band had zero interaction with the crowd also didn’t help matters and other than those who were into MASTODON before tonight, I can’t imagine anyone being impressed by this sadly forgettable set.

The sound may have been bad for MASTODON, but the sound for TRIVIUM could only be described as truly awful. It was far too loud, with the loss of all clarity, making it almost painful to watch the show. TRIVIUM’s new album ‘Shogun’ is a little better than the bland ‘Crusade’ record, but still doesn’t come close to matching the excellent ‘Ascendancy’ record that broke the band into the big time. 18 months ago, TRIVIUM were headlining this venue on their own, and sold it out. Tonight, there seemed like a distinct lack of TRIVIUM fans about, thus proving that their dip in song quality has resulted in a corresponding dip in popularity.

Frontman Matt Heafy did at least have a go at interacting with the crowd, but his over-used line of ‘move your bodies you pussys’ (or very similar variants) got a bit tiresome when it was said during every song. After withstanding the dreadful sound for as many songs as I could handle, it was time to seek sanctuary at the bar. If TRIVIUM are to get back to their best, they need to get a new live sound engineer, and they need to write some better songs. Anyone who thought TRIVIUM could give SLAYER a run for their money was sadly mistaken.

Just before SLAYER took to the stage, I noticed the sound engineer had changed, and fortunately this guy knew exactly what he was doing. It’s hard to understand how SLAYER could sound so good when the previous bands sounded so bad. After all, it’s the same venue, same mixing desk and same PA! SLAYER were on outstanding form tonight and within seconds of the opening blast of ‘Flesh Storm’, the Civic Hall stalls turned into a brutal mosh pit, and one that didn’t subside until the very last note of encore closer ‘Angel of Death’.

It was great to see SLAYER back in a slightly smaller venue. For me, they just don’t have the same intensity in the large arenas and on festival stages. Tonight it was in-your-face and the intensity of the music was as fierce as it gets. The combined sound of the ferocious drums of Dave Lombardo, the irate vocals of Tom Araya, and the dual lead guitar wizardry of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King is unmistakably SLAYER - and as a live unit, very few metal bands come close to matching the sheer ferocity of this band.

Although AMON AMARTH were enjoyable, ultimately SLAYER’s terrific performance had saved the ‘Unholy Alliance’ from being a disappointment. It would be great to see SLAYER do their own tour playing some of the larger club venues and universities – it is in these more intimate venues that the band are undoubtedly at their best, and hopefully tonight’s show will go a long way to helping them realise that surely that’s what most of their fans would rather see.

SLAYER Setlist: Flesh Storm / War Ensemble / Chemical Warfare / Ghosts of War / Jihad / Cult / Disciple / Seasons in the Abyss / Dittohead / Live Undead / Dead Skin Mask / Raining Blood / South of Heaven / Angel of Death

Ratings:

AMON AMARTH Photos

Vocally, ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN singer Mark Boals teams up superbly well with female vocalist Liz Vandall, with the two complementing each other with beautiful synchronicity. To make absolutely sure the crowd was won over, the set was rounded off by two 70′s SCORPIONS classics ‘We’ll Burn The Sky’ and ‘Pictured Life’. Although not everyone will be rushing off to check out the ULI JON ROTH back catalogue, there was more than a polite applause for a set that had kept the SCORPIONS well entertained as they waited for their heroes arrival.

For those people reading this who associate SCORPIONS with their 90′s mega-hit ‘Wind of Change’ - you have seriously got the wrong impression of this band. SCORPIONS are a heavy metal band, and they are heavier and louder than ever when they play live – this really is where SCORPIONS come into their own. The crunching riff of new album opener ‘Hour 1′ launched things into action, before fierce renditions of ‘Coming Home’ and headbanger ‘Bad Boys Running Wild’ showed immediately that SCORPIONS have lost none of their awesome live power. As he always has done, the now 60 year old Rudolph Schenker ruled the stage like a crazed mad man, throwing all kinds of shapes as he crashed through riff after riff. Matthias Jabs was also in sparkling form as he took centre stage during ‘The Zoo’ with his usual talk-box antics. Rudolph’s younger brother, legendary ex-UFO axe man Michael Schenker was also in town tonight, and it was pleasing to see him back on form as he joined another of his formed band’s for ‘Coast to Coast’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Lovedrive’ and ‘Another Piece of Meat’. For SCORPIONS fans, this was like a wet dream.

The SCORPIONS love to have plenty of fun on stage, and this was personified when the whole band got up to join powerhouse drummer James Kottak, with his ‘Kottak Attack’ drum solo. Nobody does rock humour like the Germans. As ‘Big City Nights’ concluded the main set, the huge video screens at the back of the stage urged the crowd to ‘SCREAM!’ to get the band back out for an encore and, of course, the Wolverhampton faithful duly obliged… and boy were they rewarded! First Ulrich Roth returned for ‘He’s a Woman, She’s a Man’ - before the Schenker brothers teamed up again, this time performing the UFO classic ‘Doctor, Doctor’ - truly a special moment. With no ‘Wind of Change’ in sight, ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’ finished off what was an absolutely tremendous show. One thing is for sure, tonight was ultimate proof that there’s plenty of venom left in the sting of the SCORPIONS.

SCORPIONS Setlist: Hour 1 / Coming Home / Bad Boys Running Wild / The Zoo / No Pain No Game / Coast to Coast / Holiday / Lovedrive / Another Piece of Meat / Loving You Sunday Morning / 321 / Dynamite / Blackout / Big City Nights / Still Loving You / No One Like You / He’s A Woman, She’s A Man / Doctor, Doctor / Rock You Like a Hurricane