Frontman Burton C. Bell isn’t the best of live singers, and every time I’ve seen FEAR FACTORY over the years, his vocals have been drowned out by the guitars and unmistakable percussion. The melodic ‘Resurrection’ was the best example of Bell’s limitations as he struggled through the clean vocals, missing many a note along the way. Still, Bell is the voice of FEAR FACTORY and it would be wrong to hear anybody else screaming the death metal chimes of ‘Demanufacture’ and ‘Martyr’.

Drummer Gene Hoglan is not nicknamed ‘the atomic clock’ for nothing. His drum work is absolutely awesome, as he seems at ease with the extremely fast and technical drum beats of FEAR FACTORY’s material. Hoglan’s playing creates an explosive intensity, and really comes to the fore on new tracks ‘Powershifter’ and ‘Fear Campaign’. Hoglan is the pulse of the band and is amazing to watch, even if his constant impression of a pneumatic drill finally taxes your ears by the end of the night.

Bands who play at the intense speed of FEAR FACTORY usually play shorter sets than most. However, tonight, the set was a full 90 minutes, and only the most crazy of metalheads could have taken a minute more. Closing number ‘Replica’ rounded off a superb night of metal. FEAR FACTORY are one of the most important metal bands to come out of the 1990′s, and it’s great to see them back on top of their game. Roll on their headline performance at Bloodstock. Prepare to be blown away!

Rating 4.4/5.0

Setlist: Mechanize / Shock / Edgecrusher / Smasher-Devourer / Industrial Discipline / Acres of Skin / Linchpin / Powershifter / Fear Campaign / Martyr / Christploitation / Resurrection / Final Exit / Demanufacture / Self Bias Resistor / Zero Signal / H-K (Hunter Killer) / Replica

Next up were Brazilian three-piece death metal combo KRISIUN. These guys have to be one of the tightest death metal bands out there. Their stripped down, unpretentious death metal is surgical in its precision and devastating in its brutality, the highlight of their set had to be ‘Bloodcraft’ taken from their AssassiNation album, with a blastbeat barrage that sounded like somebody firing an M60 machine gun. Drummer Max Kolesne executed some killer blasts and double bass work and was definitely the standout of the gig. If you want direct, brutal death metal with a decidedly old school flavour then I strongly recommend KRISIUN especially if you have a neighbour you want to piss off.

Next up were Egyptian-themed death metallers from South Carolina (that hotbed of Egyptian culture…) NILE opening with the intro ‘Kafir’. As soon as ‘Sacrifice unto Sebek’ kicked in it was obvious even to the uninitiated that NILE are a very different proposition to KRISIUN. Clearly influenced by the interest in Egyptology of behemoth-like guitarist Karl Sanders, Their music with all its pomp and sometimes slightly disjointed Egyptian themes is the antithesis of KRISIUN. NILE then blasted through ‘Execration Text’, ‘Serpent Headed Mask’, ‘Ithyphallic’ and then the hilariously titled ‘Papyrus… (Containing the Spell to Preserve Its Possessor against Attacks from He who is in the Water)’ executing them with very professionally and convincingly but I felt they lacked the vital ferocity and brutality of the main support band, this is most likely due to the material itself as it is by it nature more complicated and drawn out than KRISIUN.

Karl Sanders did seem to still possess a genuine enthusiasm for the music as was evident in his constant grinning (which got a bit disturbing after a while…), fair play to him though his guitar leads and sweeps underlined the quality of the song writing and subtlety of the arrangements. Unfortunately they did have some bad luck at this point. During the rendition of ‘Dagon’ the PA tripped out and killed the song dead. Credit to the band in that they didn’t throw a fit and continued with ‘Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld’ from the new opus Those Whom the Gods Detest but yet again the PA threw a wobbler – at this point NILE really were limping home, after ‘Sarcophagus and Lashed to the Slave Stick’ the audience had their calls for ‘Cast Down the Heretic’ fulfilled, but again the PA gods did not smile upon them, they managed to squeeze off a killing rendition of ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’ with members of the support acts providing backing vocals.

Overall it was a killing night of quality death metal with KRISIUN standing out the most convincing. NILE frankly got a raw deal with the sound system screw ups but even so I felt that even without the PA dying they would have struggled to top the raw brutality of the Brazilian crew, in my opinon it was a slightly strange pairing. Nevertheless you can’t take it away from Sanders’ merry men; they do produce world class death metal and the night should not have ended in the relative anticlimax that it did.

Rating:

Photography by Alex Shaw(For Photo’s Click Here)

The relentless headbanging at near light speed didn’t let up as they continued with the likes of ‘Severed Reality’, ‘Living In A Whirlwind’ , ‘Jackal’ and ‘Prey For Death’ (all from latest album ‘Waking Into Nightmares’) showing their caliber to write extremely good and fast thrash songs. Lead singer John Kevill delivered a top notch performance and his trademark scream style vocals were in full force tonight, supplemented brilliantly by the dual axe attack of Adam Carroll and John Laux as they performed each riff with sheer perfection. As the set closed with the superb ‘Combat Shock’, WARBRINGER left the crowd definitely wanting more, and will be certain of a welcome return next time they appear on UK shores. Next time these guys are on tour in the UK, be sure to check these guys out. You won’t be disappointed!

With the venue near enough full now, UK thrashers ONSLAUGHT took the stage and delivered a tight and excellent performance from the off which the crowd duly lapped up form start to finish. Opening with the title track of their last studio album ‘Killing Peace’, which went down a storm as everyone went into headbanging mode. Despite only having a 30 minute set, ONSLAUGHT managed to get the majority of their best songs to date in the set.

The likes of earlier material such as ‘Let There Be Death’ and ‘Metal Forces’ went down extremely well with both the older thrash fans, who probably remembered hearing them for the first time back in the 80′s, as well as the younger ones too in the venue tonight. Unfortunately it was all over too soon as they closed with the title track of their first album, the awesome ‘Power From Hell’. All in all, for anyone who had never seen ONSLAUGHT before, this was a great insight into them and their material. Hopefully they will be back soon doing a few headline slots, and I’m sure they will have picked up a few more fans from this tour.

As the lights dimmed and Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT took to the stage, the crowd didn’t need any encouragement during opening track, ‘The Preacher’ to get the pit going, and as they kicked into ‘The New Order’, the atmosphere in the venue just went from strength to strength. ‘Over The Wall’ made an early appearance in the set, but this did not stop anybody from crowd surfing to it.

With some great songs in their back catalogue, there is always a core group of them which will be played in any TESTAMENT set. The usual crowd pleasers like ‘Practice What You Preach’, ‘Burnt Offerings’, ‘Into the Pit’ and ‘Souls of Black’ were all present here. One surprise to the set was the inclusion of the more melodic track ‘The Legacy’, which seemed to break the rhythm of pace slightly, but did not deter the atmosphere at all as the crowd sang along. A surprise omission to tonights set was ‘Alone In The Dark’ seemingly going amiss. Still, when you have a back catalogue like TESTAMENT do, it’s always going to be difficult to satisfy everybody.

The dual guitars of Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, undoubtedly two of the best in the thrash genre, were note perfect tonight as they ripped through a couple of tracks from their latest offering, ‘The Formation of Damnation’, in the crunching form of ‘More Than Meets The Eye’ and ‘The Persecuted Won’t Forget’, as well as set closer and title track, ‘The Formation of Damnation’. Chuck Billy sounded as great as ever as he growled his way through the brutal ‘D.N.R.’ and coupled with the ferocious drumming of Paul Bostaph and bass playing of Greg Christian made tonight a truly superb and rememberable performance that had everyone leaving with a huge grin on their face, as well as a few aches and pains. TESTAMENT showed tonight why they are still considered one of the best thrash acts out there, and as long as they continue write material and perform live, crowds like tonight will still show up and support them 20 plus years on.

TESTAMENT Setlist: The Preacher / The New Order / Over The Wall / Practice What You Preach / More Than Meets The Eye / The Persecuted Won’t Forget / Burnt Offerings / The Legacy / Into The Pit / Souls of Black / Disciples of The Watch / D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate) / 3 Days In Darkness / The Formation of Damnation

Review By Adam Fredericks

This sold out gig – wonderfully supported by the magnificent DORO – is an awesome spectacle and a true definition of metal defined (in a word, SAXON). DORO was the perfect fit in terms of a support act for SAXON. The German blonde bombshell delivered a powerful 45 minute set, packed with classic heavy metal from her days with crout stalwarts WARLOCK (‘Burning The Witches’ and ‘All We Are’), and a few choice numbers from a solo career that has kept her popularity high, especially in her homeland. A re-worked cover of ‘Breaking The Law’ also did wanders to warm up the Wolverhampton faithful.

So on to SAXON, coming on stage with the bombastic ‘Battalions of Steel’ (first track from new album ‘Into The Labrynith’), it sets the scene for a set that no true metal fan should miss. Laden with a whole host of trademark SAXON classics (‘Crusader’, ‘Wheels Of Steel’, ’747 Strangers In the Night’, ‘Strong Arm Of The Law’ etc.). SAXON vary their set every night, and they always ask their fans what they want to hear. Also, SAXON have such an array of heavyweight ‘newer’ material from the last decade or so that you don’t actually miss the odd vintage or two.

In regard to ‘Into The Labryinth’ material live, its a stunning thumbs up. ‘Hellcat’ bristles with angst and metal adolesance, while new single ‘Live To Rock’ follows on from the storming ‘I’ve Got To Rock To Stay Alive’ as another of hard rocks greatest tracks of the last ten years. But that’s not all – ‘Demon Sweeny Todd’ features a face melting riff and trademark Biff ‘screamer’ Byford vocals, while ‘Valley Of The Kings’ features a wonderfully Euro-rock chorus that SAXON pull off magnificiantly, fortunately with 90% less pomposity than a lot of bands who make these kind of tracks their forte. A different one stylistically for SAXON, but a success story nevertheless. The other big highlight of the night was hearing ‘Ride Like The Wind’ – a long lost SAXON gem from the 80′s that the band hasn’t played since the bands late 80′s fall into meer obscurity.

Biff Byford is an absolute powerhouse – as both frontman and vocalist. Outside of his obvious power and range, Biff has an amazingly mellow tone to his voice which, coupled with his heavy metal thunder, really has to be experienced to be believed. Like his band, he doesn’t drop a note. SAXON deserve respect for been such a tight metal outfit, who give their 100% all – if you asked me what band I wanted to see tomorrow – in spite of the fact they aren’t my favourite band – I would still answer SAXON. By all accounts, SAXON deserve to be superstars. But for a few 80′s musical misomeaners, they probably would have been, too…

Ratings:

Review by Andy Law

Photography by Alexander Shaw(click here)

They opened up with ‘Degenerated’ off their self titled latest album. With catchy riffs and some Axl Rose style vocals courtesy of Nicke Borg it set the stage for the rest of their set. After a few stand up sleazy rock songs came the hilariously titled ‘Fuck Off And Die’ (well I thought it was funny). About mid set you do get the feeling your watching a one trick pony and some of the songs lack the depth to keep your attention, but enough of being a sour puss!

Hearing Dregen’s guitar work in ‘Minusu Celcius’ you understand why it was picked for guitar hero III. An awesome song that quickly had everyone singing along. You have to hand it to them for never letting the tempo drop, which in the case of Dregen needing to take his top off during the sweat dripping performance. Rolling out the WILDHEARTS-esque ‘Dysfunctional Professional’ and ‘People Like People Like People Like Us’ to leave the Wulfrun on a high note.

After an exhausting set by the BACKYARD BABIES a longer than normal change over was welcome, but after nearly 30 minutes the crowd was ready for more. With my knowledge of THE RASMUS being even more feeble than my knowledge of the babies I wasn’t holding out much hope for them to top their stellar performance.

Stage left their appeared to be a cluster of Finnish flags, possibly the Finnish appreciation society? The pace at which they were waving Finnish national flags went to new heights as THE RASMUS hit the stage! They opened with the introspective ‘Livin In A World Without You’ off the Black Roses album. Followed by the punchy feel good ‘In My Life’ this was turning out to be totally different from my memories of the unbelievably wet ‘In The Shadows’ being played endlessly on Kerrang.

Next up were some absolute stunners, listening to ‘Falling’ might have to be another of my guilty pleasures, while the macabre lyrics and sound to ‘Immortal’ lent some edge to the performance. Hats off to Lauri Ylönen who barley stands still throughout the entire set, although their were some minor sound problems Lauri kept the audience entertained with some Biff Byford style “do you want a fast song, or a slow song?” banter and to my surprise the answer from the crowd was for a slow song, that would never happen at a SAXON show! Each to their own, even my pet hate for ‘In The Shadows’ is now in doubt having heard it live.

Rating:

BACKYARD BABIES 4.5/5.0
THE RASMUS 4.2/5.0

Review and Photography by Alexander Shaw(Photo Gallery)

The next band up reconfirmed my belief in seeing the support bands. It is tempting to find your favourite watering hole and get pleasantly plastered only to bowl (or roll) into the venue for 21:30 but then you’d have missed out on a quality band such as SERENITY who were next on the bill. The first thing that struck me about the band was lead vocalist Georg Neuhauser’s vocal sound was similar to Klaus Meine of the SCORPIONS although that might have something to do with the fact that I can’t tell the difference between an Austrian and a German accent but I still had to resist the urge to shout ‘Blackout’ or ‘Big City Nights’.

With the urge to make a tit out of myself well under control (sometimes it’s good not to drink), it’s been a while since I’ve been so impressed with a band straight off the bat. They have a distinctly power metal sound with symphonic influences ‘Rust of Coming Ages’ is a perfect example of this symphonic keyboard laden sound, driven by the fast tempo guitar melodies of Thomas Buchberger. Another stand out song was ‘Velatum’ off their latest album Fallen Sanctuary, Neuhauser’s range and power as a vocalist really came through. With such a positive response from the crowd, to the obvious delight of the band, they would have stayed on stage all night if it had been possible.

To my mind SERENITY had raised the bar for the KAMELOT set. After some very loud applause they broke straight into ‘Rule the World’ off their latest album Ghost Opera. A solid song with a dark and more sinister sound than a lot of KAMELOT’s back catalogue. Then back to the unmistakable ‘When the Lights Are Down’ with soaring guitar work of Thomas Youngblood complimenting Roy Khan’s emotive singing. The only thing I can’t seem to get my head around with their sound is the occasional and in my opinion fairly wet vocal appearance’s by female vocalist Anne-Catrin Marzke, too infrequent and so quiet that it seems fairly pointless as it wouldn’t change the song to leave it out completely, especially after having your ear drums blasted out by the power of Khan’s vocal’s. I imagine their is supposed to be some kind of contrast between the two but it ends up being more of a let down. Other than that minor irritation the rest of the set would get the thumbs up from the KAMELOT faithful with old classic’s ‘Karma’ and ‘Forever’ both with superb solos from Youngblood. The set ends with ‘March of Mephisto’ with its epic atmospheric sound bringing the show to a satisfying close.

Rating:

Review and Photography by Alexander Shaw(Photo Gallery)