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!

Ratings:

Review By Adam Fredericks

If you weren’t there to see the headliners tonight, then it must have definitely been for the truly awesome DYING FETUS. The three piece act may not move about on stage a lot, but they delivered an absolutely brilliant live performance tonight as their brutal yet technical death metal was note perfect and the combined dual vocal attack of guitarist John Gallagher and bassist Sean Beasley worked beautifully.

With a new album out, it was great to hear some of the material off it in the form of ‘Your Treachery Will Die With You’ and ‘Shepherd’s Commandment’, both of which were well appreciated by the crowd, who needed no persuasion to pretty much mosh and headbang all the way through their set. Other set highlights included ‘Grotesque Impalement’, ‘Intentional Manslaughter’ and ‘One Shot, One Kill’.

‘Pissing In The Mainstream’ got a great reception, and as the set closed with ‘Praise The Lord (Opium of The Masses)’, the crowd showed them the appreciation they deserved for what was a brutal and intense display of death metal at it’s finest. There is probably only one death metal band that could follow such a performance like that and make the night even better. And fortunately for us, they were next.

CANNIBAL CORPSE, the godfathers of the genre, returned to the UK for the second time this year in their normal headline slot following a main support act for CHILDREN OF BODOM way back in February, where on that night there were plenty of CANNIBAL fans present. And that was no different tonight, as a packed venue waited patiently for them to grace the stage and for the butchery of the venue to commence.

Opening with the title track of their latest album, ‘Evisceration Plague’, shortly followed by ‘The Time To Kill Is Now’, this was going to be a night to remember as CANNIBAL pulled out some classics and usual set inclusions with the likes of ‘I Cum Blood’, ‘Fucked With A Knife’ and ‘Sentenced To Burn’ whilst the newer material like ‘Priests of Sodom’ and ‘Evidence In The Furnace’ were also well received, as the mosh pit never seemed to relent apart from the break between songs.

Corpsegrinder has such a presence on stage that makes him a great frontman and the sheer velocity at which he can whirlwind his hair is impressive to say the least. Put some rotors on him and I bet he could fly! It was also great to hear some really old school material in the form of ‘Vomit the Soul’ and eventual main set closer ‘A Skull Full of Maggots’, before the closing duo in the encore of the legendary ‘Hammer Smashed Face’ and ‘Stripped, Raped And Strangled’ brought things to a close.

As the crowd dispersed and everyone left happy, there was time to reflect on what was a night of top class death metal. CANNIBAL CORPSE and DYING FETUS showed why they are regarded so highly as they both delivered an awesome, brutal and intense set. Roll on August next year, when the mighty CORPSE returns to the UK for BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR 2010.

Ratings:

Review By Adam Fredericks

Ronan burst onto stage to ‘Tomorrow Never Comes’ and sets a frantic pace which a small minority of the crowd with enough space to dance tried to match. The whole set seemed to feed off itself and by mid set the first beat of ‘Chrome’ it couldn’t really get any better.

If the tempo was slowed by ‘Great Divide’ then it hit the proverbial brick wall that is ‘Illusion’ with its slow beat and syth-piano accompaniment, Ronan’s voice takes on a completely different aspect, such a contrast to the rest of the set, live this song hypnotises the audience.

In between songs Ronan kept up the witty banter with the crowd, every now and then burst into Darah o’Briain style gags, the finest when he stop the set and with the help of the rest of the band managed to create a Christmas tree out of the drum kit using glow sticks thrown from the crowd!

The set closed with the powerful beat driven ‘Nemesis’, but with more than a few crowd pleasers still to be played, after some thunderous applause, VNV NATION were back on stage, and off again and back on with three separate encores! Not that anyone seemed to mind the chance to make as much noise as possible in between.

As the set was coming to an end ‘Joy’ got everyone dancing one last time. Then when it seemed the set was never going to end, with a little irony for good measure ‘Perpetual’ brought the night to a close.

Rating:

Review and Photography and Alexander Shaw

(VNV Nation photos)

On tonight’s showing, MUTANT are definitely one to look out for as their no nonsense classic thrash style tinged with modern influences got the crowd going from the off. Frontman Tom Luchtenstein had no problem interacting with the crowd as he never took himself too seriously and made the crowd laugh a few times with his witty remarks. Opening up with ‘Scrap Brain Zone’, the set flew by, with highlights being all of the tracks from the current EP ‘Laserdrome’ (these being the EP title itself, along with the set opener, ‘The Rauncher’, and the mouthful that is, but awesome ‘Turbo Hyper Ultra Mega Power’), along with set closer ‘Psycho Surgery’. These guys know how to thrash and I hope it isn’t too long before I get to see them again.

Filling in for last minute pullouts WARPATH, were death metallers TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED who let’s face it, didn’t get the reception they deserved despite an excellent performance. It was obvious that a thrash band like MUTANT would have served as a better support act. Still TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED soldiered on and for the few fans in tonight, they served up a good 30 minute set of death metal with some of their new tracks giving an outing from new album ‘The Great Depression’, of which stoodout were ‘The Scouting Impurity’, title track ‘The Great Depression’ and ‘Warbound’.

As the smaller room of The Corporation gradually filled to about two thirds full, a decent crowd had turned up to see one of the most promising young bands the UK has to offer. EVILE took to the stage and from the opening riffs off ‘We Who Are About To Die’ the place went into headbanging frenzy, with a mosh pit forming in front of the stage to the bands appreciation. Tonight’s gig was what a Thrash metal gig should be all about. No nonsense all out assault and in your face! And seeing bands in more smaller, intimate venues like this one makes it one hell of an experience.

You could tell EVILE were loving every moment of tonight’s show, and were even shocked to see as many people as there were in the venue, but that just goes to show you how good they are and how they have established a good fan base already. The first new track of two to be played tonight was called ‘Demolition’ from their upcoming untitled second album being released later this year. ‘Demolition’ sounded good but for me, wasn’t as good as anything from their debut album. The other new track to be played (as yet untitled, but given the name of ‘Chingina’ by the crowd tonight when the band asked for suggestions) was a lot better. It was more aggressive and in your face, and suited the live environment better than the former on offer.

EVILE delivered a blistering performance which destroyed the venue in an all out attack that would of made any thrash band proud, and as the set closed with ‘Enter The Grave’ and encore track ‘Schizophrenia’, no one would have gone home disappointed, maybe a bit bruised and a sore neck the day after, from the ferociousness of the mosh pit and intensity of the headbanging, but hell was it worth it! EVILE showed why they are one of the best young bands around in the UK at the moment, and things only seem to be going from strength to strength for them. Bow down to the Thrashers!

EVILE Setlist: We Who Are About To Die / Armoured Assault / Killer From The Deep / Man Against Machine / Demolition / Thrasher / First Blood / Bathe In Blood / Chingina / Enter The Grave / Schizophrenia

Review By Adam Fredericks

They describe their style as a mix between the melodic death metal that Gothenburg is famed for, hardcore, and the visual kei movement (from Japan). Well, what I heard tonight had hardly any of the latter two components (well apart from their emo image) and was more melodic death metal if anything. Average at that and if they think they are the next big thing to come out of Gothenburg, they have got along way to go to prove that.

Thank god DEATHSTARS more than made up for it as they delivered a superb performance. Opening up with the title track from their latest opus, ‘Night Electric Night’, Industrial metallers DEATHSTARS came onto roars of cheer from the just under half full venue. That didn’t deterioate the atmosphere one bit though. DEATHSTARS lapped up every single moment of this gig and frontman Whiplasher Bernadotte interacted with crowd at every given occasion whether it be teaching the crowd so called ‘biology’ or just banter, which led for a very entertaining evening. The set consisted around their three album back catalogue with the majority coming from their breakthrough album ‘Termination Bliss’ and latest opus ‘Night Electric Night’. ‘Synthetic Generation’ got a look in in the form of ‘Semi-Automatic’ and ‘New Dead Nation’ which were both well received by the crowd tonight, as well as encore track and set closer ‘The Revolution Exodus’.

The new tracks went down an absolute storm with the crowd and they sounded superb live, of which stood out were the fantastic marching style of the title track, the groovy yet fist pumping ‘The Fuel Ignites’ as well as the we definately need cheerleaders or The Satanic Sluts for this one ‘Mark of The Gun’ (If you have no idea what I’m going on about here, just listen to the song and everything will become clear!).

Other set highlights included the ferocious nature of ‘Blitzkrieg’, the more slow tempo melodic style of ‘Trinity Fields’ and of course the ever awesome ‘Cyanide’. As the last notes of ‘The Revolution Exodus’ were played and the crowd emptied from the venue, there was time to reflect on what was a truly enjoyable night out with the one and only DEATHSTARS. The only way is up for this band surely.

DEATHSTARS Setlist: Night Electric Night / Motherzone / Semi-Automatic / Mark of The Gun / Tongues / The Last Ammunition / The Fuel Ignites / New Dead Nation / Trinity Fields / Chertograd / Blitzkrieg / Blood Staines Blondes / Cyanide / Death Dies Hard / The Revolution Exodus

Review By Adam Fredericks

Other highlights of their set included ‘Anti Hero’, ‘To The Fallen Hero’ (as ever dedicated to Dimebag Darrell) and set closer ‘The End of The World’. This rounded off a wonderful performance from GOD FORBID, and an aching neck from some severe headbanging! Anyone going to Download Festival this year, and hasn’t seen GOD FORBID before definately needs to check them out.

Onto the headliners tonight and latino metal act ILL NIÑO took to the stage a few minutes late with what appeared to be technical difficulties with one of the guitars. Unfortunately this led to them cutting one song from their set, but despite this they delivered an excellent live performance. I’ve never been a massive fan of these, but in the live arena it sounded awesome. The mix of the slower latino style mixed with the heaviness worked extremely well and this was shown in the form of ‘God Save Us’.

Their set covered their four album back catalogue opening with the impressive ‘Finger Painting’ folowing closely into the aforementioned ‘God Save Us’. ‘This Is War’ set off a mini mosh pit considering the size of the crowd, but was still good to see the crowd appreciating the bands performance. Other set highlights included ‘My Resurrection’, ‘I Am Loco’ and ‘How Can I Live’ which gave you chance to have a bit of a sway. Set closer ‘When It Cuts’ brought an end to the nights precedings and looking back, it was a thoroughly enjoyable night all around. It’s just a shame there were not more people there to show their support.

ILL NIÑO Setlist: Finger Painting / God Save Us / This Is War / Lifeless…Life / My Resurrection / If You Still Hate Me / I Am Loco / Compulsion of Virus And Fever / Corazon of Mine / Te Amo…I Hate You / How Can I Live / The Alibi of Tyrants / Liar / When It Cuts