Concerts I've seen

Little Brother Eli played what I guess would be called blues. In the Blues Brothers sense rather than the Stevie Ray Vaughn sense. They were competent enough and the singer has a decent enough voice, but ultimately it's just not my thing and their set left me cold. Which couldn't be said for Black State Highway. I've seen them several times now, and they've always showed potential. Tonight, the launch night for their debut album, was when that potential was realised. This was by far the best I've seen them and it bodes well for their future. Particular highlights were "Conclusion" and "Sacrifice".

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Goat Leaf kicked off the first day of Bloodstock proper with a solid set of fuzzed up stoner rock, which was pretty decent. On the Sophie stage, Gurt should have delivered much of the same, but although the music was there, the vocals were almost black metal style shrieks over the top, which was just a bit odd and for me detracted from the experience. I'd seen Bloodstock Dawn a couple of times before and while they were OK, I'm not really sure they deserved bumping up to the main stage having played on the Sophie stage last time around. The music was good enough. I guess I'd describe it as technical thrash. But the growled vocals would have been much better if they'd just been ratcheted down a notch to something closer to more traditional thrash.

The oddly named Convincing Clearity were winners of the Norwegian M2TM competition and it's hard to believe that a country with such a strong metal heritage couldn't have done better than this. It was just generic modern metal with shouty vocals and little to make them stand out from the crowd. Although they're not really my thing, Cambion had impressed when I last saw them. Here, though, the weaknesses showed through. The music was tight and technical, but it was let down by the vocals, both in the clean and harsh parts, neither of which were really good enough. I hadn't enjoyed Entombed much on either of the previous occasions that I'd seen them. Since then the band had gone through an acrimonious split and both halves initially tried to keep the name. One half eventually settled on the Entombed AD name and that's the half that was playing here. To be fair, I think they genuinely were better than before, but still not really my thing. Uninspiring death metal but a least the vocals were largely intelligible.

The last time Primordial had tried to play Bloodstock, it had all gone disastrously wrong with Alan losing his voice part way through the second song and being unable to continue. Fortunately, there were no such problems this time. The band play celtic influenced black metal, but with clearer vocals than is the norm for the genre and it works very well. In some ways, they remind me of the new wave of atmospheric folk black metal bands, although they predate those bands by several years. Either way, it was a good performance and I'll gladly go out of my way to see them again should they be playing in or around London. Brutai turned out to be as badly misnamed as Shreddertron who played a few years back in that they're not particularly brutal. They play modern metal with a mix of clean and harsh vocals. The latter were OK, but the clean vocals were actually very good, and I enjoyed their set.

On the Jägermeister stage, Cadence Noir described themselves as "neuvo acoustic goth". To me, I'd say they played folk blues with occasional Quo like boogie elements. And with a healthy dose of Walkyier era Skyclad throw in for good measure. Whatever the genre, I enjoyed them. As I did Flotsam And Jetsam on the main stage. They're a band that I'd been vaguely aware of and of course I knew that Jason Newsted was their bass player before he joined Metallica, but I was unfamiliar with their material. As expected, they played traditional '80s thrash, but with unexpectedly good vocals. The guitar solos merit particular note, too.

Oakhaart were a disappointment. The music was melodic and the guitar harmonies were very much to my liking, but it was all ruined by the shouty vocals. Winterfylleth had garnered a lot of positive press a few years back and then had delivered an absolutely dreadful performance when they played at Bloodstock in 2010. They're delivered a somewhat better performance on their return in 2012 and this was another step up in quality. They were no doubt helped by a torrential downpour as they played their set, which ensured an absolutely rammed tent. But the performance itself was better, much more melodic than before and with Borknagar/Fyrdsman like tendencies at times. Hatebreed can be summarised as having a frontman shouting "woargh, fuck". Repeat ad nauseum.

Aceldama were a band I'd been wanting to see for a while. I'd been aware of them for a few years, but events had conspired against me and I hadn't managed to see any of their live shows. I'm a fan of female fronted metal, and Aceldama fit into that mould, at the Triaxis-like trad metal end of that spectrum, rather than the operatic symphonic end. Leanna has a good voice, but my only complaint would be that maybe the songs were a bit average and the songwriting could perhaps do with some work. The set ended on a high with a cover of The Pointer Sisters' "I'm so excited" and one of their own, "Metal and beer".

Dimmu Borgir got off to a terrible start, with technical problems meaning that their set started very late. Apparently that was due to a sound engineer messing things up, a sound engineer that they'd brought with them to the festival. Oops. When they did get going, the mix was poor and the set had to be cut short to fit into the time constraints. The problems continued with Shagrath introducing a song: "This is progenies of the great, great apocalypse". Long pause. "Or maybe not" as the backing intro failed to play. Despite the problems, they still put on a strong performance, with my highlights being "Gateways" and "Puritania".

The last time I'd seen Skyclad had been at the first ever Bloodstock in 2001, which had also been Martin Walkyier's final show with the band. I knew nothing about their output with his replacement, Kevin Ridley. Here they were cursed with a muddy sound which didn't help, but I think they'd have been uninspiring even without that. Down turned out to be better than when I'd seen them at Download. The heavy southern metal was OK, and Phil's gruff vocals were a noticeable improvement, but they're still very much lacking in songs. That just left Rotting Christ to round out the evening. Again they could have had a better mix, but they put on a strong performance and were a fine way to end the first day of Bloodstock 2014.

Balls Deep hadn't impressed at last year's Bloodstock, and this year was much the same. There were perhaps a couple of songs that were slightly better than last time, but mostly it was just unpleasant shouting over uninspired music. Gehtika hadn't impressed last year either (and what's with the repeats of the weaker bands from previous years?) so I decided not to interrupt my chatting with friends that I mostly hadn't seen since last year in order to catch them. The same applied to Incinery, so Monument were the next band I saw. Although they're based in London, I knew little about them and had managed to miss seeing them before now. They played melodic traditional metal with proper high pitched '80s metal vocals. The band were tight, the songs were good and the cover of Deep Purple's "Black night" worked well. I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future. Jaldaboath were either going to be brilliant or weak, and sadly they turned out to be the latter. Their brand of Monty Python-esque metal doesn't really work live and the semi spoken/chanted vocals came across as being a bit too close to rap for my tastes.

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Disappointing. I had a ticket and was looking forward to seeing Seven Kingdom's first UK show. But I had to make a last minute trip to Berlin so I ended up having to miss this one.

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I knew nothing of Idlehour beforehand. They turned out to be female fronted alternative band. Some decent songs, and she has a decent voice, all of which made for an enjoyable performance, albeit one that didn't particularly stand out. I'd been meaning to see Grace Solero for some time, largely on the recommendation of a friend with similar musical tastes to mine, but each time I'd planned to, something had come up, so after about 4 or 5 attemps, this was the first one I'd actually made it to. In some ways, similar to Idlehour, but leaning more towards rock than the opening act. They songs still had a slight alternative edge to them rather than being straight up rock songs.

Die So Fluid were a band I'd sort of been aware of for a while, without really knowing any of their material. Again, there's an alternative edge to their material, which straddles the border of hard rock and metal. Grog has a decent voice and can clearly play bass well enough. All three bands put on solid performances, but none of them were particularly noteworthy.

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To celebrate Lorri's birthday, Lorriworks were doing a set of Rainbow covers. Matt Pearce was on guitar, which was fine. He's a more than competent guitarist. But there's something about seeing Blackmore songs played on a Les Paul that just screams "wrong" at me. Still, the material is undeniably strong, and "Long live rock 'n' roll" and "All night long" were very good. A broken snare drum forced a break in the set which was filled by playing "Catch the rainbow" and a cover of Queen's "Love of my life".

The main Metalworks set was their standard collection of classic covers. UFO's "Doctor doctor", Priest's "Breaking the law". Maiden's "Prowler", Billy Idol's "White wedding" and so on. Ade Emsley joined the band on stage for some AC/DC, the highlight of which was "Back in black".

It's been a while since Triaxis last played London. I've been to see them all over the country, but it's nice to see one of my favourite bands in my home city. I was a little disappointed to see them as the opening act. As the more established band and as the main support for the other dates on the tour, it was somewhat surprising to see Dendera get that slot instead. The consequence of that was a very early stage time, which meant leaving work early to get there, and a slimmer audience than they might otherwise have had. I know a couple of people that couldn't make it because of the early start. There's little I can say about Triaxis that I haven't already said. They're a fantastic live band. Tonight's performance was marred a little by an unusally bad mix for The Underworld, and the vocals were buried by the other instruments. Fortunately, I knew the words anyway, so it wasn't a problem. Highlights were "Sker Point" and "Lies". Nice to see a new song, "Death machine" that will hopefully be on the next album.

I'd seen Dendera supporting Gloryhammer. The vocalist had impressed me, and the band played my sort of traditional metal, but I felt that they needed a bit more stage time to tighten things up a bit and to put it a bit more work on the songwriting front. Tonight's performance merely served to reinforce that view. It was a decent enough showing, and they're one to keep an eye on in the future. But despite the evident Maiden worship, they weren't as good as I would have liked. Still, they're young and have plenty of time ahead of them to improve.

Blaze has been playing smaller and smaller venues in London of late (Monto Water Rats and Aces And Eights, for example), so it was a welcome surprise to see him back at The Underworld. He's completely ditched the idea of having a band now, and just hires a backing band for each album and tour. This time around, he was using Absolva. That boded well, as they've always been good when I've seen them at their own shows. And for that matter, so has Blaze. I've seen him play everything from huge venues down to one man and his dog in the back room of a pub and he's never failed to give anything less than 100%. Tonight was no different. He was perhaps let down a little by the setlist, which included some comparatively weak tracks like "Eating children" and "Motherfuckers R us". Those served to break the atmosphere somewhat. But to counter that, there were plenty of excellent tracks in the mix too. My highlights included "The launch", "Watching the night sky", "Silicon messiah" and a set closing "Man on the edge".

Tonight's planned openers Palomino Club didn't show, but that's probably a blessing. Apparently they're an indie pop band, so I suspect they'd have been quite out of place tonight. Their performance at Islington Academy a couple of weeks earlier had been the best I'd seen so far from Second Rate Angels. This perhaps wasn't quite as good, hampered by a poor mix for the first few songs. But the sound improved later in the set and it was another strong showing.

I'd seen The More I See as a support act some years ago and had been impressed. I was hoping it hadn't been a one off and was pleased to see that it wasn't. The band is led by former Prodigy and Janus Stark guitarist Gizz Butt. The set started off well, and Gizz's guitar work is good, but I'm less convinced by the songwriting, which is maybe a bit patchy in places, and I felt it tailed off a bit towards the end of the set.

I'd never heard of headliners Broken Jaw before. They were advertised as being punky, but in truth I think they were more of a metal band than a punk band, with a mixture of clean and shouty vocals. They'd come a long way ("from Gaaarsterrr, where the hobbits arrrrr") to play to a paltry crowd, but while they were OK, they weren't really my thing.

Foggy's birthday celebrations saw him booking a couple of bands to play in his local pub. I'd never heard of Seventh Seeker before, but came away quite impressed. They had two guitarists, but no bass player, and a reasonable amount of their sound came from a backing tape. Singer Daisy Brookman has a great voice, but perhaps lacks as much control over it as she might have. The lead guitar work was impressive, and the songwriting was good. Covers of Within Temptation's "Stand my ground" and We Are The Fallen's "I am only one" went down well, too. Definitely one to watch out for.

I'd seen EnkElination before, so knew what to expect, but this was a much better performance. Elina's vocals were much more consistent and the band looked more comfortable. Sadly, I had to leave part way through the set in order to catch my last train home. I stayed until their cover of Nightwish's "Nemo".

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An ever changing lineup for this one. At various times, Idiom, The Wicked Lies, Death Koolaid and I think a couple of others were due to be playing tonight, but for unknown reasons, none of them appeared. In the end, though, the opening act were The One Hundred. They were quite young, but reasonably competent with it. All of the musicianship was fine, with the drummer being decent if not outstanding and the others being more than adequate. The songs were OK. I think they would have benefitted from a live keyboard player rather than a taped backing track, and some of the almost dubstep-like parts made me do a double take. But they really lost out on the vocals, which alternated between shouting and pseudo-rapping, with some occasional clean vocals for emphasis (and to be honest, the clean vocals needed work). It's rare for me to see generational differences. Music should just be music, right? But this is clearly not my music. It's another generation's music.

The first time I'd seen The Mercy House, I'd been pleasantly suprised, and looked forward to seeing them again. But the next time wasn't so good and so it was again this evening. They were OK enough, but it was all just a bit bland and uninspired. There vocalist has a good voice and manages a seamless transition from full voice to falsetto. But the net effect was lacking.

I'd never heard of Reachback before this evening, so I had no idea what to expect. As it turned out, they played female fronted alternative pop rock. The sort of thing you'd expect to hear playing at The Bronze in BTVS. Not normally my thing, but actually, they were quite good. The singer was tiny but had a big voice, and the whole thing had a slightly punky feel to it in places. I later heard them compared to Paramore, which probably isn't far wrong. They played a cover "which you'll all know". I didn't. I later found out it was "Burn" but Ellie Goulding. I've never heard of it or her. But anyway, I enjoyed them, and they had the best on stage quote of the night: "We're from Essex... What's that? Boos? Come on, it's not that bad. We're not all orange!".

I am I, then. I'd seen them a couple of times before, at Bloodstock and Download, but this was the first time I'd seen them in a small venue. They're a band I quite like, but will probably never really love. They're just a bit too watered down for my tastes. Andy is a fantastic guitarist, Rich knows what he's doing on the drums and of course ZP can sing. But the band are just a bit too nice, a bit too radio friendly for my liking. They need a bit of a harder edge to transition them from hard rock into heavy metal. The guitars were mixed too low tonight, which didn't help either. The highlight was once again a cover of John Farnham's "You're the voice".

I'd heard rave reviews about their previous UK show, so I thought I'd give this one a go. TSO are the end result of Paul O'Neill and Jon Oliva morphing Savatage into something that makes real money. The resulting product is tailored to a far more mainstream audience than the metal fans that followed Savatage. Among the consequences of that was an all seated show tonight. That's rarely a good start to a show in my eyes, and tends to kill much of the energy and atmosphere of the gig. But walking into the venue to the strains of Savatage's "Silk and steel" over the PA was a promising start. But when they started playing, it became apparent that it wasn't going to be a spectacular evening. That's not to say it was bad, and I certainly enjoyed it. But it was all a bit too tame and proper for my tastes. The set list was a mix of TSO's takes on well known classical music, some of TSO's own compositions and a healthy dose of Savatage covers. The highlights for me were "Gutter ballet", featuring Nathan James on vocals, who I'd been impressed with when he played with Uli Jon Roth, "O fortuna" and "Wizards of winter". James was sporting a cold and his vocals weren't quite what they could have been. This lineup also featured Jeff Scott Soto, another vocalist who I very much like. The show had clearly been cut down in size. They're used to playing to 30000 people a night in the US, compared to the 3000 or so that a seated Hammersmith Odeon holds. Even so, there was still a copious amount of lights, lasers, pyro and video screens on display. But I suspect the spectacle of the full show might have helped a bit. Would that have been enough? I don't know. For me, the whole thing was a bit too subdued and choreographed. For want of a better word, it was all just a bit too nice.

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Anniversary Circle were slow, dirgeful goth. Almost ethereal in places. The vocals came from both guitarists, one male, one female. They were OK, but didn't massively appeal to my tastes. Nine Day Decline were much better, with a punk influenced set of much more up-tempo material. I've since heard them compared to Killing Joke, and there's certainly an element of that, both musically and vocally. The highlights were "Fall from grace" (which included a snippet of The Sisters' "Lucretia my reflection"), a cover of The Chameleons' "The fan and bellows" and "Decisions".

Espelho Mau are a 3 piece Portuguese band. Except that there were only two of them here. As the singer explained, the third one couldn't make it, so it was just the two of them and a laptop. A set of traditional goth followed, and they were pretty good. If pushed I'd maybe say there were some similarities to The Mist Of Avalon in places. Near the end of one song, the guitarist put his guitar down and rushed off stage. The singer explained that he couldn't last until the end of the set and would have pissed his pants had he remained on stage. Upon his return, they resumed for the last few songs. By now, the evening was running way beyond schedule, which wasn't a good sign. I'd been concerned about getting home, but with their 11pm stage time, I reasoned I'd be able to catch probably half of Pretentious, Moi?'s set before having to leave to catch the last tube home. But they didn't take to the stage until 40 minutes later. I stayed for a few songs and then left. However, I'd cut it too fine and by the time I'd got to the station, I'd missed my train. So I headed back to the venue to catch the rest of the set. Tim's voice was a bit rougher tonight than it's been in the past, and it occurred to me that he'd make a decent frontman in a metal band. Rachel's voice was fantastic. I'm still unconvinced about the need for 3 live guitarists, but the overall effect is good and it was another strong performance. Highlights for me were "Better late than never", "The garden", "Witchhouse", "Faith and reason part company" and "Sense in segments".

Kinkade played a fairly generic slightly glam-tinged pub blues rock. They were OK, but really nothing to write home about. The lead guitar was quite good, but sadly mixed far too low. Cherry Scream were somewhat better. They started out as a covers band, doing songs by Poison, Gn'R, Mötley Crüe et al, but these days mostly play their own material. They were more energetic and had better songs than Kinkade, which resulted in an overall better experience for the audience. Lead singer Chloë is reasonably charismatic and her voice is decent enough if not outstanding.

Damn Dice were the only support I'd previously heard about, and then only in passing. They might be twenty years too late for the heyday of glam and sleaze metal, but they're clearly not letting that stop them make an attempt to recapture those days. They've got the appearance sorted, aided by a couple of giants, one on drums and one on guitars. But musically I'm not so sure, and in particular, they're hampered by a high pitched whiny vocalist. That in itself isn't a problem for this genre, but that particular pitch and tone just didn't work for me. The drums were quite good, but the overall effect wasn't quite there. Still not a bad performance, but I felt they could have done better.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Tigertailz. Guitarist Jay Pepper was the only band member in common with the last time I saw them. Distinctive frontman Kim Hooker had been replaced by Australian singer Jules Millis, a move which must lead to some logistical nightmares when it comes to touring. I was half expecting a train wreck. But actually, this lineup works quite well. Jules can't quite hit the high notes. But it didn't really detract from the experience. Jay Pepper has a great voice and his backing vocals (along with those of the drummer and bassist) helped fill in the gaps. Although Kim's absence on vocals was noted, it was his contributions on guitar that seemed to be missed more here. With just Jay's guitar, the songs sounded a bit thin in places, and having an extra guitar on stage would have helped. But still, a much better performance than I was expecting, with highlights being "Living without you", "Call of the wild" and the obligatory "Love bomb baby".

It was six years ago that I last saw Dyonisis. I'd never heard of them, but they were supporting Emilie Autumn and impressed me enough that I bought their album that night. Since then, circumstances have conspired to make me miss them on the few other occasions they've played a London show and in truth, although I like Lahannya, I probably wouldn't have been here had Dyonisis not also been on the bill. I wasn't sure what to expect in situations like that. There's always a risk that the previous show will have been a one off and they won't be as good the second time around. Fortunately, that wasn't the case here. Although they seemed a little awkward and ill at ease on stage, the performance didn't suffer for it. Backing singer Lou has a fantastic voice, and it would be tempting to say she's the strong point of the band. But in truth, it's the interaction of her voice with Nel's that really makes the whole thing work, and the pair of them make for a very strong vocal presence. The opening song, "Hunter" suffered with a rough mix, but fortunately that was soon sorted out and it was much better for the remainder of the set. The highlights for me were "Of the fear", "Arachne's song" and "Lunatic". I was midly disappointed that they didn't play "Winter", but that was a very minor complaint in an otherwise very strong set. I'll have to try and ensure it's not another six years before I get to see them again.

This wasn't a well attended show, and talking to Lahannya guitarist Chris Milden after the show, I found out that's because it had already been booked as part of a package deal with a couple of other more well known bands, who had later pulled out when more tempting opportunities arose. The band had decided that since the venues were already booked, they might as well play anyway. They played three songs, "Dying inside", "Payback" and "Sick and tired" as an acoustic mini-set, and for two of their older tracks, "Inside the machine" and "Burn", they brought former drummer Belle on stage to play. Their brand of somewhat lightweight industrial goth isn't bad, but for my tastes is less compelling than Dyonisis. I enjoyed the set, but somehow it just felt a bit lacking.

Chthonic hadn't impressed me at all at Bloodstock. This performance was better. Tonight, I could at least hear the music reasonably well. And actually, it's not bad. The keyboards are pretty good and Jesse Liu turns out to be quite a competent guitarist. The poor lighting meant that Doris Yeh wasn't the focal point she was at Bloodstock, although her fretboard lights certainly helped to draw attention in her direction. It's vocalist Freddy Lim, though, that is for me the band's weak point. The vocals need to be a bit more accessible before the band will hold any real interest for me. A better performance, then, but they've got a way to go yet.

Satyricon were the reason why I'd come. I very nearly didn't. I'd been feeling under the weather, and had considered giving it a miss. But unlike Chthonic, they'd put on a reasonably compelling performance at Bloodstock, so I'd wanted to see them again. I'm glad I decided to go. They were much better than last time, and I thoroughly enjoyed their set, despite being mostly unfamiliar with the material. They've been doing it a long time now, so it's not entirely surprising that they're a solid live unit now. Black metal is hard to convey well in a live setting, but a good mix and experienced musicians meant that they were able to pull it off with ease. The highlights for me were "Now, diabolical" (a song I'd never heard before) and in the second encore, "K.I.N.G", which was the only track of theirs I knew in advance.

I missed the opening band, so my night started out with Driven. I later found out they're a local band to me, but we'd both descended on Reading for the evening. They just payed relatively straight ahead heavy metal. The vocals were reasonable enough (and surprisingly, clean, which seems to be a rarity these days). Their final song demanded audience participation in the form of a conga line. Apparently their manager sees it as a gimmick and is trying to get them to drop it, but I think it works well and in their shoes, I'd keep it. Koru were a band I'd heard of, but hadn't actually heard. Like Driven, it turned out they play no frills heavy metal. Again, featuring mostly clean vocals, which is a big plus in my book. There was little to choose between the two bands, but for me, Koru had slightly better songs and thus were slightly better on the night for me.

I'd seen Evil Scarecrow a couple of times at Bloodstock. Their last Bloodstock show in particular was very strong, playing to a packed Sophie tent, so I wanted to see them when they next toured. Unfortunately, that tour inexplicably didn't include a London date, which is how I found myself in Reading for this show. As expected, they rattled through all the favourites, including "Blacken the everything", "Crabulon", "Thundercats" and so on. But naturally the highlight of the evening was "Robototron". Despite their humourous approach, they're all actually pretty competent musicians, which always helps. Once more, they finished with "The final countdown", even though they keep promising to retire the song from their live sets.

I've seen Sworn Amongst a few times now and sadly it seems they're getting worse each time. Tonight was just a wall of downtuned noise, with a bunch of indecipherable shouty vocals layers over the top. Very uninspiring. However, tonight for me was all about Tristania. I hadn't initially been overly impressed with their new album, "Darkest white", but it had grown on me with repeated listens. They started out very strongly with "Number" from the new album. But it rapidly became apparent that a poor mix was going to scupper their set, with the vocals being drowned out by the drums and guitars. Perhaps in acknowledgement of the headliners, some of the songs appeared to have been arranged to be heavier than normal here, particularly "Beyond the veil", which featured no female vocals at all apart from the brief intro section, and "The shining path", which is my favourite of their tracks, but this arrangement just didn't seem to work well. It was certainly heavy, but just wasn't epic enough for my tastes. Still, there were additional highlights in the form of "Year of the rat" and "Requiem", again from the new album. Another very good performance from them, then, but they've been better in the past.

Dark Tranquillity are a band I shouldn't really like. But some of their studio albums have got through to me anyway, and I've enjoyed them. However, their live performances have been another matter and I hadn't seen them put on a good show to date. Had Tristania not been on the bill, I wouldn't have been here at all. But I'm glad I was. They're still not a fantastic live band, but this was the best performance I've seen from them, by quite a considerable margin. Where Tristania had suffered, DT were blessed with an excellent mix. Making use of a support band with a female vocalist, Mariangela joined them on stage for "A bolt of blazing gold" and "Undo control". The new material from "Construct" came of particularly well, and although they didn't play my favourite track, "Punish my heaven", this was a pretty decent performance from the band.

I'd never heard of Dead City Ruins before this show, but I'm glad I got there early enough to catch them. They had a dirty, bluesy sound, somewhere on the border between hard rock and heavy metal, and put on a surprisingly strong performance for a band I didn't know, helped by a suitably charismatic frontman. Definitely one to watch out for in the future, although being from Australia might hamper my chances of seeing them again very often.

Ugly Kid Joe saw a huge amount of success in the early '90s, but broke up shortly afterwards. They reformed a few years ago, and this was the first time I'd seen them. In truth, I was never their biggest fan, although I liked a few tracks. This show highlighted why. The well known songs ("Cat's in the cradle", "Neighbor", "Everything about you") went down well. But the rest of it was very much filler, and somewhat dull, and even a set closing cover of "Ace of spades" wasn't enough to rescue their performance for me.

Skid Row, on the other hand, were the complete opposite. Even on the songs I didn't know, they were engaging and full of energy. This was clearly a band that were enjoying themselves and giving 100%. I had a bit of a revelation on the way home from the show. I've seen the band several times now, with both Bach and Solinger. And while Seb clearly has the better voice, I've enjoyed the shows with Solinger singing much more. In fact, this was probably the best I've seen them to date. Highlights were mostly the obvious tracks; "I remember you", "18 and life", "Slave to the grind", "Monkey business" (which was somewhat surprising, because it's not normally one of my favourite tracks), and of course the set closer "Youth gone wild".

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The day started with a bunch of bands I'd never heard before. First up were L'Endeví, who played something I guess I'd describe as a cross between alternative and doom metal. Slow and heavy, with part sung and part growled vocals. The growls didn't do much for me, and the clean vocals were nothing to write home about. It's not that they were bad, but at a festival like this, I hope to hear outstanding vocals, and she just didn't supply that. Next up were Hell City. They were perhaps a bit lightweight, straddling the border of hard rock and heavy metal. But the songs were good and her voice was also good, with a slightly rough, raspy tone to it which suited the music well enough.

The first surprise of the day came from Dalriada. Again, I'd never heard of them, but they were fantastic. Hungarian folk metal, sung in Hungarian. Gang vocal choruses, and clean female lead vocals (with the occasional harsh vocal for emphasis) proved to be a winning formula. The language wasn't an issue. The songs were sufficiently epic and it was a great performance. I wasn't surprised to see they'd sold out of merchandise very shortly after their set ended.

In contrast, Eleanor were disappointing. They come over from Japan, and sung in Japanese. Dalriada had shown that wasn't necessarily a problem, but Eleanor just didn't have the same quality songs or the same stage presence, and the lead vocals just weren't strong enough. In fact, I think the backing vocalist probably had a better voice than the lead singer.

Cadaveria were an Italian band playing "horror metal". They've been describes as both black and gothic metal, but neither label really fits. The sludgy songs were Sabbath like in places and the vocals were a mix of clean and growled with neither being very good. After their show in London supporting Turisas, I'd been looking forward to seeing Crimfall again. Once more, they put on a solid showing of folky metal. Sadly, the performance was hampered by a terrible mix, with the drums dominating everything else and Helena's voice was barely audible on occasions. Still, there were decent showings of "Frost upon their graves" and "Son of north". Sadly, this turned out to be their last show with Helena, who announced her departure from the band a week or so after the show.

When I'd seen Stream Of Passion before, Marcela's voice had progressed from decent when I first saw them to very good the last time. Tonight she'd stepped it up another notch and was absolutely fantastic. The songs were good, the band were good and Marcela's voice was outstanding. I'll make a point of seeing them whenever they come around again. I'd seen Anneke in London before and it was clear she's been doing this long enough to know what she's doing on stage. Tonight was another example of that. It was perhaps slightly better than the London show, but suffered from the same complaints. It's too lightweight and AOR. Her voice is fine, but the songs just need a bit more crunch to them.

To some extent, I've never understood the praise that's lavished on everything Floor Jansen does. I can't fault her voice at all. But in both After Forever and here in Revamp, the songs just aren't there to back it up. Revamp just has too much prog nonsense for my tastes. In comparison, Tarja has both the voice and the songs to go with it. Sadly, she's also got some dreadful songs to go with them, and played many of them here. There were copious taped backing vocals which never helps things. The highlights were "Wish I had an angel" in the encore followed by bringing Floor on to duet on "Over the hills and far away".

The festival proper kicked off with a band called Magion. I'd been told in advance that they were a bit like Epica. That wasn't too far from the mark. The songs were perhaps a bit less epic and the vocals weren't quite as prominent, but I thought they were very good and I bought their album at the merch stand. Azylya were next up, a band that took the increasingly common "beauty and the beast" approach to vocals. They were OK, and they made a decent attempt at putting on a show. But the vocals weren't particularly outstanding and I thought the songs were weak.

Polish band Victorians were next, or as they're sometimes called Victorians Aristocrats' Symphony. Faux Victorian costuming abounded, which would no doubt have anyone interested in authentic costumes of the period cringing. Musically they were OK, with epic songs and operatic vocals. The song structure was perhaps a bit average, but they were enjoyable enough. Their set ended with a cover of Woodkid's "Run boy run". I'd heard good things about Imperia, but for me, they just didn't work. The operatic vocals were rarely in tune, for a start. The songwriting was poor, the vocals didn't really fit the music and the overall effect was somewhat dull and unengaging.

Serenity, on the other hand, were much better. But then, having seen them before, I expected them to be. Not least because Georg is a great frontman and has a fantastic voice. This time around, in keeping with the festival, they'd reworked some of the songs to make Clémentine's vocal parts more prominent, and unlike a regular Serenity show, she sang on every song. Mostly that worked, but there were a few occasions where I felt her vocals weren't as powerful as they needed to be for the song, such as on the chorus to "Coldness kills" for example. Delain's Charlotte Wessels came on to guest on the final song, "Serenade of flames". Another strong performance, then, but I think they've been better in the past.

Chaostar. Where to begin? Are they an experimental art project or a serious musical band? Who knows? Way too much alternative random noises for my tastes, mixed with some occasional dubstep, which made them seem more than a little out of place at this festival. There were no guitars or basses. But there was a violin, along with two keyboards and one other choice (be it a lute, sitar or flute-like woodwind instrument). I've seen Kobra And The Lotus a few times now and I really want to like them. All of the elements are there. But somehow it just never seems to fall into place. I don't dislike them. But the vocals are never quite right and the songs always feel like they need a bit more work. Not bad, but nothing memorable. Again.

Visions Of Atlantis had been forced to pull out at the last minute, so local band Asrai were drafted in to replace them at short notice. I'd seen Asrai before in London as a support band. This time around, they seemed better. The music was more straight ahead metal, rather than the slightly alternative feel they had before. The vocals were good enough and it was a competent performance. If I'd thought Chaostar were out of place, Kontrust made them look almost normal. What were they doing here? Way too many rap and bizarre off the wall influences for my tastes. There was some actual singing, though far from enough, and there were two drummers on stage. Dreadful.

Having seen Leaves' Eyes a few times before, I'd always felt they were a bit lacking and that was mostly continued tonight. The highlight was "Elegy", but even that was a bit weak and washed out. However, they played 5 new songs here, and from what they played, I'm mildly optimistic about the new album. The new material was certainly very strong in comparison to their back catalogue. My other complaint, which will come as no surprise, was their over reliance on taped backing vocals.

So on to tonight's headliners, Lacuna Coil, a band I've liked since their very first EP. They've had their ups and downs since then, but the latest album, "Dark adrenaline" was a very welcome step back in the right direction. What I didn't know until about an hour before the show was that they'd decided to play the entirety of "Karmacode" tonight, an album that for me was one of the low points of the band's history, which wasn't a good start. Combine that with a muddy mix and you have a recipe for a substandard show, which is what we got. It wasn't all bad, and "Enjoy the silence" was good, along with an encore that included good performances of "Trip the darkness" and "Heaven's a lie". But this was far from one of their better shows.

Liv Kristine opened up the festival with a solo set. In some ways, the songs seemed a bit better than her Leaves' Eyes material. But they suffered from the same flaw that I've found when I've seen Leaves' Eyes. They were all just a bit lacking in bite.

However, tonight was really all about Eve's Apple, a collective of female rock and metal singers, originally conceived by Lisa Middelhauve after her departure from Xandria. Last year they'd performed an acoustic set, but this year was a full electric set, the first (and as it later transpired) last time they'd done that. The set consisted of a common backing band and an ever rotating selection of singers covering a selection of classic rock and metal tracks. Some were better than others, but overall, the quality was very high. Notable performances came from Mariangela Demurtas who was outstanding, and from Marcela Bovio and Iliana Tsakiraki. Suprises came in the form of Ailyn and Heidi Parviainen, both of whom seemed a bit weak, which is strange, because they've both been good when I've seen them before. My highlights would include Rainbow's "Stargazer", WASP's "The idol", Scorpions' "Rock you like a hurricane" and Queen's "The show must go on". For an encore, all 21 singers took to the stage for Doro's "All we are" and Hear 'n' Aid's "Stars". A fantastic start to the festival.

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If a support band serves any purpose, it's to warm up the audience in preparation for the headliner and to get the support band a bit of exposure among an audience that should appreciate their music. Which is why inappropriate supports from different genres have always confused me. Honestly, what was the point of Astrohenge being on this bill? Their jazz-tinged psychadelic instrumental doom was never going to go down well with Turisas fans and so it proved here. They were competent enough, but the songs were dull and they were completely out of place. To a lesser extent, so were Revoker, but at least their southern metal based approach was a bit more in keeping with what the audience would have expected. I'm unconvinced about the need to use the word "motherfucker" at least twice in every sentence, but the music was OK if uninspiring.

I've seen Turisas many times over the years, but in truth, this was one of their weaker performances. The new album has generated a lot of controversy on the Internet, with the majority feeling it marks too large a departure from the traditional Turisas sound. I agree that it does, but from the tracks I've heard, I still like it. However, drawing a full 50% of your setlist from a new album that hasn't been particularly well received is always going to be a bad starting point for a good show. Even though I like the album, there were too many songs from it and I'd rather have had a better sampling of their career. Although "Ten more miles" worked quite well, it was unsurprisingly the back catalogue that went over best with the crowd. "A portage to the unknown" and "To Holmgard and beyond" were both excellent, "Stand up and fight" was good and of course the obligatory "Battle metal" and an encore of "Rasputin" ensured the evening ended on a high. But they've been better in the past.

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All I knew of Skálmöld before the show was that they were Icelandic. As expected, given the other bands on the bill, they played viking themed folk metal. Of the three guitarists on stage, the lead player was particularly noteworthy. The main vocals were too harsh for my tastes, and the band was better when the other guitarists and bass player helped out on the vocals, and particularly when the keyboard player sang.

I'd seen Týr a couple of times before so I knew what to expect, and this evening was much like the others. I find them a frustrating band in that when they're on form, they're really very good. But they seem to struggle to keep it up for an entire set, and the good tracks (in this instance, "Hold the heathen hammer high" and "Blood of the heroes") are interspersed with others that, while not bad, do little to maintain the energy of the better songs.

Finntroll were frankly disappointing. The newer material seems to be emphasising the folk elements less and less and they're heading towards just becoming a plain death metal band, one that isn't particularly interesting. They still have a way to go before they get there, but they're certainly not the folk metal band that they used to be. The troll ears were impressive, though. How do they get them to stay on, despite all the headbanging? Naturally, by far the best crowd response went to the set closing "Trollhammaren". Which also sounded notably different to the other material they played, illustrating my point about their change in sound.

I had a ticket, but circumstances meant I wasn't able to make it to this show. Shame really, as I'd managed to miss the band in the '80s too.

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The Virginmarys were on one of the lower stages, and were the first band of the day for me. I'd heard the name before, but didn't know what they sounded like. I guess they could be described as vaguely bluesy indie rock, and actually, they weren't bad. Bush, on the other hand, were bland, inoffensive radio friendly rock. There were a couple of tracks I knew in the form of "The sound of winter" and a cover of The Beatles' "Come together". But mostly it was just very dull. Much the same could be said about Kaiser Chiefs. Just very, very dull, with nothing to keep the attention of the audience. Were it not for the two hit songs ("Ruby" and 'I predict a riot"), they'd have got an even lower rating here.

I noticed before the show that it had been 20 years since I'd last seen Bon Jovi. It didn't seem that long, but I was curious to see how the intervening years had treated the band. Opening up with a cover of "Rockin' all over the world" went down well with the crowd. But the following "You give love a bad name" felt a bit lacklustre, and that trend was continued throughout most of the set. Was it due to the lack of Ritchie Sambora? I don't think so. His replacement, Phil X, actually filled that role very well. Jon's vocals were mixed way too low initially, and although that did improve as the set progressed, it all just seemed a bit by the numbers. Jon's abnormally perfect teeth were projected onto the huge screen behind the stage, but that just served to highlight how mechanical the whole thing seemed. Even "I'll sleep when I'm dead", one of the more hard hitting songs in their repertoire seemed to lack bite. It's hard to say exactly what went wrong, and the set wasn't without its highlights.("Keep the faith", "Bad medicine" and "Have a nice day", for example. But as a friend of mine who also saw their Milton Keynes shows back in the day said to me "They're not like they were 20 years ago". That about sums it up.

For various reasons, I'd managed to miss all of the London heats again in this years M2TM. But I made it to the final. I couldn't find out who was going to be playing beforehand, so the first I knew of that was when I turned up at the venue. Negative Earth describe themselves as playing "brutal British groove". I'm not sure when the term "groove metal" came to be applied to that sort of music, nor do I particularly think it fits the music, but it describes the band reasonably well. I wasn't overly keen on the vocals, but the music was pretty decent in places, and the occasional clean vocal contributions from the drummer helped. Skarthia describe themselves as melodic death metal and groove metal, which wouldn't normally be my sort of thing. But there was something compelling about their performance that really worked. There were thrashy influences and the vocals were tending towards thrash rather than traditional death vocals. The timing was a bit loose in a couple of places, but that's nothing a bit more stage time couldn't cure. The female guitarist is no slouch, which was nice to see and quite impressive in places. Her vocals dramatically improved the one song on which they were used and it was a shame they didn't feature in the rest of the set. They also suffered from a poor mix, which meant the guitars were hard to pick out at times. But there's something there that's worth keeping an eye out for.

The Mariana Hollow were the only band playing that I'd heard previously, having seen them play a couple of times before. It has to be said, they've been better in the past. This time around, there were too many Kate Bush style laternative quirky vocals, and not enough metal. But in parts, they were still good, such as on "Scars not wounds". From the name, I'd assumed Dethonator would be a death metal band, but no, they played straight up traditional melodic heavy metal. Occasional guitar and vocal harmonies were very welcome, and even the sporadic harsh vocals worked well, rather than detracting from the music. The lead vocals were mostly good, but perhaps need a little work in places, with power and pitch not quite hitting the spot at times. Still, it wasn't enough of a problem to spoil the performance.

One For Sorrow were another so called groove metal band, but for me the sound had too many hardcore influences and not enough metal. The vocals were sometimes OK, but mostly not. That said, some of the guitar work was quite interesting. But overall, not a band for me. Which could be said of Anoxide too. They had plenty of energy, but the death metal they were playing was extremely dull and lacking in pretty much anything to interest me. Again, there was some occasionally interesting guitar work, but not enough to save them. The winner of tonight's show earned a spot at this year's Bloodstock Open Air and I was somewhat surprised when Simon picked One For Sorrow. I'd have given it to either Skarthia or Dethonator.

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I only caught the end of Widow's set, but was kicking myself that I wasn't able to get to the venue earlier to see more of it. As might be expected given the headliners, they played straight up no frills metal. NWOBHM with a modern sound. Imagine Holy Grail playing trad metal rather than power metal and you won't be far off. I really enjoyed their performance and bought the album. I'll definitely be looking out for them in the future. Midnight Messiah are born from the ashes of NWOBHM band Elixir. Like Widow, they played a set of NWOBHM inspired trad metal, albeit with perhaps a little less immediacy. The lead guitarist was very good without being too flashy with it. Their own material wasn't bad, and they also threw in a few Elixir songs for good measure. For me they were at their best when covering Elixir's "Treachery (ride like the wind)".

Grim Reaper were one of those bands you always felt should have made it more than they did back in the day. They were certainly one of the stronger bands of the NWOBHM era. For whatever reason, they're now branded as Steve Grimmett's Grim Reaper, and that reflects the fact that a large part of why they deserved better stems from Grimmett's outstanding vocals. 30 years on and his voice is perhaps a little more gruff than it used to be, but still very, very good. He was having to refer to printed lyrics occasionally, which he freely admitted was due to his memory failing with age and his inability to remember them all. The new material sounded strong, and like Midnight Messiah, they had a surprisingly competent lead guitarist. Highlights for me included "Rock you to hell", a cover of Dio's "Don't talk to strangers" and the obvious "See you in hell" set closer.

It's hard to say much about Bleed From Within. I'd checked out a few videos online beforehand, so I wasn't expecting much anyway. But the sound was so bad that I literally couldn't hear the vocals at all. I could see the singer moving his mouth, but I could only hear the drums and one of the guitars. The rest was relegated to a dull, muddy droning coming from the side speakers. Actually, the guitar work was quite interesting in places and far better than the 7 string chug I was expecting.

After a couple of really very good live performances the last few times I'd seen them, I was expecting big things from Megadeth. But sadly they too were let down by some of the worst live sound I've heard in years. True, it was better than for Bleed From Within, but that's really not saying much. The band appeared to be putting in the effort, but the accompanying sound just didn't make for a good live experience. It was so bad that I didn't even recognise "Architecture of aggression" until over a minute into the song. The highlights, such as they were, included "She wolf" and "Countdown to extinction" but they were nothing special and even "Symphony of destruction" wasn't particularly outstanding. One of the weakest Megadeht performances I've seen to date. Very disappointing.

I'd never heard of Awake By Design before this show. They played a set of melodic, slightly prog-tinged, slight gothic-tinged rock/metal. Despite never having heard of them before, I was reasonably impressed and quite enjoyed their performance. I'd never heard of Lacrimas Profundere either before I saw them supporting Apocalyptica some years ago, but they had similarly impressed me that night, sufficiently so that I was happy to see them here at their own headline show. They started out with a dreadful mix, but fortunately that improved after a few songs. The bass and keyboard parts were taped, and were too dominant. But mostly they played a set of pretty decent gothic metal. In places they were heavier than I'd remembered too. I'd pick out "Again it's over" as my highlight.

Motherload had come out of nowhere and had impressed me at Day Of Rockening. Their presence combined with an inability to make the London date on this tour made the trip to Reading worthwhile. As before, they showed that they're a great live experience. I hadn't really noticed it before, but Simon Hall pointed out similarities to The Almighty, and now that he's done so, I can see them. The vocals were mixed too low which detracted from things a bit, but it was still a strong showing. Highlights included "We are the authority", "Hang your head" and a cover of AC/DC's "TNT". Also the drummer eating a banana in the downtime between songs, much to the amusement of both singer Tom Ford and the rest of the crowd.

I'd seen Men That Follow Hell at an M2TM round, so I knew roughly what to expect. Southern groove metal with gruff vocals was the order of the day. They're a reasonably accomplished band, but tonight's performance was nothing special, and I felt they were better last time around. Much like Bull-Riff Stampede, to be honest. They're another competent band, but they were hampered by the poor mix. They were also a bit too full on. Yes, thrash is meant to be full on, but there was no let up, no light and shade in the sound. Just a wall of noise. That's OK for a while, but a full set of it gets to be too repetative. Also the drums seemed a bit uninspired and the mix meant they were dominating the sound. They're a decent band but they've been better.

I'd been very impressed with Beholder's progression from a covers band playing in the tent at Bloodstock to a band writing and performing their own original material. Their first album was very strong, but the second, "The order of chaos" was better in pretty much every respect apart from the songwriting and for me was a weaker offering. Unsurprisingly, given this tour was in support of said album, the set list featured many songs from it and I'm not sure that helped things. The new album certainly has some highlights, and "Splinter", played here, was notably good tonight. My other highlights were "The heretic" and "The awakening". Chris Bentley once again stood out on drums. Not a bad night of metal, then, but three bands that have been better in the past, and Motherload who took the honours for my band of the night.

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I didn't arrive in time to catch Raised From Oblivion, so Black Emerald were my first band of the night. I'm struggling to come up with a better way to describe them than just a modern take on straight up heavy metal. The lead guitarist looked competent. The vocals were slightly gruff, vaguely thrashy. I think a cleaner voice might have suited the material a bit better and that they could do with some work in the songwriting department, but they're basically a pretty solid band.

Men That Follow Hell had brought with them a bit of a crowd and were clearly the most popular band of the night. They played southern groove metal, with some doom and blues influences. In theory, that's not really my thing, and I should have preferred Black Emerald. A friend had noted that they've upped their game recently and it shows. The songwriting was good, the band were very tight and even if it's not really my chosen genre, they were actually very good. So were Mutagenocide. Musically, at least. Again, some competent guitar work and thrashy songs. But then it was all completely ruined by a tuneless shouty vocalist. They don't need to have a Halford or Dio style frontman, but they do need someone that better suits the music and a traditional thrash style singer would fit in much better. The judges ruled Men That Follow Hell to have won the night, followed by Black Emerald and then Mutagenocide, who will qualify for a second chance heat later on. That pretty much agrees with my assessment of the bands.

The only thing I knew about Maleficent beforehand was that they had Alice Rain on bass, formerly of King Lizard, and that they had a female lead singer. As it turns out, they had two lead singers; one male, one female. Miss Maleficent Martini, has a backround in ballet dancing, and performed pretty much the entirety of the first three songs on pointe, which was certainly an impressive sight, even if I imagine it will have been somewhat painful. After those three songs, she swapped her ballet shoes for a pair of ridiculously high heeled shoes, presumably for some modicom of comfort. Musically, I'd have described them as alternative industrial metal. They describe themselves as performance-lead industrial metal, which clearly emphasises the theatrical aspects of their live show. There were stage props in the form of a shop dummy, a birdcage (initially on Rain's head, later on that of the dummy) and miscellaneous additional bits and pieces. Combined with the general stage presence of the musicians and Martini's shedding of clothes (she started out looking like an Emilie Autumn clone, but by part way through the performance she was down to just a body stocking), the whole thing gave the impression of a band that's determined to go places. Good luck to them. It's nice to see a band that's actually trying to actively promote themselves. They're not normally my sort of thing, but they put on a compelling performance, and I'll gladly go and see them again.

Switzerland's Neosis continued the evening with some industrial cyber noise. The drums were good, the fretted instruments both had too many strings (5 for the bass and 8 for the guitar, which you don't see too often). The guitar work mostly consisted of chugging riffs, but occasionally escaped into some flashly solo leads. There were lots of taped backing guitars (or maybe synths, it was hard to tell), so it wasn't easy to work out how much of it was actually being played live. The vocals were raw and largely shouted, over a noisy polyrythmic musical backing, which didn't do much for me. When he was playing the solos, guitarist Greg Anxionnaz showed he was clearly very competent and I noticed a couple of guitarists in the audience paying close attention to his playing. But ultimately, the band weren't providing the stimulation that I want to see from a live performance.

The Borderline isn't known for its great sound quality and all three bands suffered from poor sound this evening. But it was disappointing to see headliners Pain suffer worse than the supports. But even so, they put on a strong performance, full of the industrial metal stomp I'd come to see. The show was sold out, and the crowd went crazy when the band hit the stage, resulting in quite a crush at the front, despite the venue's limited capacity. The guitars were barely audible, being completely drowned out by the bass and drums, but it didn't matter. Main man Peter Tägtgren has been doing this for a while now and is obviously very much at ease on stage (even wearing a straight jacket!) which always helps make for a good show. Fellow guitarist Michael Bohlin was equally at home, pounding out riff after riff. Notable highlights were "Zombie slam", "Nailed to the ground" and "On & on", but there weren't really any weak tracks in the entire set. Hopefully next time around they'll be able to find a venue with better sound.

Toledo Steel don't have an original idea between the lot of them. They make no pretense at forging their own path. Instead, they're purely about early-mid '80s Iron Maiden worship. But that's no bad thing. As my friend Dave said, he doesn't expect to see them playing Wembley any time soon, but they brought a smile to his face. And ultimately that's what it's all about. Originality doesn't matter when you're entertaining the crowd, and they certainly managed that. The highlight for me was a track called "Speed killer". They also ended the set with a couple of covers, namely Anthrax's "Metal thrashing mad" and Grim Reaper's "See you in hell".

Stuka Squadron had built up quite a following due to some decent songs and a larger than life stage show. But then the band felt the need to fire their bass player, who felt compelled to then trademark the band's name and threaten legal action if the band continued to use it. All thoroughly unpleasant stuff, but rather than fight a lengthy and no doubt expensive legal battle, they opted to just change their name and get on with it. Thus were the Iron Knights born. This time, they had yet another guitarist. I'm not sure I've seen them with the same guitarist twice (Gravedigger Cox excepted, naturally). Along with the name change, they've cut back on the live show, and gone were the skulls and sword of yesteryear. In truth, they suffered a little without them. But still, a good enough performance, playing a mix of tracks from the Stuka Squadron and Iron Knights albums. I hadn't heard the latter (although I picked it up on the night), but the new material sounded fine. Highlights were "Tiger I" and "On the Volga bridge".

Incassum were the first band of a night of female fronted metal. For my tastes, there were too many harsh vocals. Not necessarily a problem in and of itself, but the clean vocals used as contrast weren't outstanding either, and the combination of the two just didn't work. To be fair, they were better than the samples I'd heard online would have implied, but not by much. They also suffered from poor sound, which didn't help.

I'd gone up to Manchester at the end of last year specifically to see Triaxis and Hanging Doll and with the same pairing touring several cities this time around, I was determined to see them again. With no London date on the tour, Birmingham was the closest venue to me, so that's the one I went for. Triaxis can do little wrong these days, and this was another outstanding performance from them. Tonight's highlight was "Under blood red skies", a song that I'd liked on the album but until tonight, it hadn't really hit home in a live setting. Unlike Icassum, Triaxis had good sound quality for their set. Strange how two bands playing through largely the same equipment and mixing desk can sound so different.

I'd spoken to Sally earlier in the evening, and she'd said she had a cold and wasn't sure how well her voice was going to cope. Sure enough, she struggled here. I know she has a great live voice, but tonight wasn't an occasion where she showed it. That said, it was still a far from poor performance, with "Lacrimosa" and "The inauspicious host" both impressing, but they've been better in the past. Sally brought a smile to my face with the on stage quip "It's February. Love is in the air. How about a song about suicide?" Of note was that this was the first Hanging Doll show I've seen where they didn't play "Sweet retribution".

Dead Shape Figure were just completely out of place on this bill. The vast majority of Iced Earth and Evergrey fans aren't going to appreciate a frontman shouting tunelessly into a microphone. Poor songs and lacking vocals didn't make for a good showing. Steel Engraved, on the other hand, were a complete surprise. I'd never heard of them, but they turned out to be very respectable German power metal. The frontman had a decent voice and they had the songs to go with it. I'll be looking into them in more depth after that performance. It had been 6 years since I'd last seen Evergrey, during which time, Englund had replaced the entire band apart from the drummer. Would they be any good? The answer was a resounding yes. The band were tight, and Englund is a great frontman. Highlights were "The masterplan", "Recreation day" and an excellent "A touch of blessing" to end the set.

Iced Earth had been a bit lacklustre at Bloodstock. Maybe that contributed to the poor ticket sales for this show, or maybe it was a combination of the economic climate and the proximity of Christmas. But the show was downgraded from The Electric Ballroom to The Underworld, a venue with less than half the capacity. Not great from the band's point of view, but for a fan experience, it was great to see them in such an intimate location. Further, I suspect it added to the atmosphere, resulting in a better performance than at Bloodstock. I've said before that Stu Block is the perfect frontman for Iced Earth, and he showed that again tonight. Luke also seems at home in the band. Sadly, the sound quality wasn't great which took the shine off the performance a bit (odd, given that it had been better for the previous couple of bands). Although many in the crowd were calling for "Gettysburg (1863)", it didn't feature tonight. Of those that they did play, the highlights were "I died for you", "Melancholy (hly martyr)" and a bonus encore of "Watching over me" which wasn't on the set list, but they decided they had time for one more track at the end of the show.

Stream Of Passion had greatly impressed me at MFVF. This wasn't quite as good as that performance, but was another decent showing nonetheless. Marcela has a great voice. The highlight for me was a great "In the end". However their cover of Radiohead's "Street spirit" was a little odd and didn't really work for me. In contrast to Stream Of Passion's set, Epica were cursed with very muddy sound, which detracted from their performance. Still, "Cry for the moon" and "Unleashed" were both very good. Marcela came out to guest for a couple of songs near the end of the show, which was a nice touch. A good evening, but both bands are capable of better.

Review to follow

Stormborn had been a bit mediocre at Bloodstock and this was basically more of the same. They have that vocal sound typical of Italian power metal bands (even though Carl's Brazilian) which has a quality that just sounds a bit weak, and for me his voice is letting the band down. The band themselves are Maiden wannabees, and are OK. That was shown by a cover of "Hallowed be thy name" in the encore, which was followed by a cover of Steel Panther's "Death to all but metal". Clearly a band that don't take themselves too seriously. I'd seen Inner Fire supporting Beholder and they were OK, but a bit nondescript. Tonight, however, was much better. They describe themselves as a melodic thrash band, which I wouldn't have said was entirely accurate, but it's not a bad approximate. Cliff's vocals are gruff in a way that reminds me of Peavey Wagner, without descending into full on harsh vocals. The guitars were also particularly strong tonight. I should hate enkElination for the gratuitously incorrect capitalization of their name. But musically, they were pretty good. Elina's voice is very strong, and the musicians with which she's surrounded herself are more than up to the task. The only real criticism I have is that perhaps the songwriting could use a little work. That said, in the places where it's good, it really works. "Higher ground" was a good example of that.

Review to follow

Review to follow

Stormbringer were a pleasant surprise. It's rare to see a band that play music as heavy as this but still have a vocalist that can actually sing. The result is something melodic that reminds me at times of Leadfoot and Nightvision. The vocals also had an occasional hint of W Axl Rose, although he's far from an Axl clone. I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future. I'd seen Black State Highway supporting Blaze Bayley and had been impressed by how big a voice the singer had, given her diminutive size. Tonight was more of the same. In truth, she seemed to be holding back a bit at times and was drowned out a little by the other instruments. However, at other times she was really going for it and belting out the vocals at full volume, and the band were at their best when she did that.

Sorcerer's Spell had undergone a major lineup change since I'd last seen them. With a new vocalist, new guitarist and with Season's End's Dave Stanton on bass, I was curious to see how they'd fare. The net result of the changes was a much more professional appearing band who were much tighter than when I'd seen them at Bloodstock. That could have come from the personnel change or just from the passage of time. Probably a bit of both, but it was very welcome. New vocalist Mitchel Emms has a great voice and plenty of on stage charisma. Highlights were " Lead us to Anthror" and the obligatory set closer, "Jägermeister metal".

Vexillum kicked off the evening with some power metal. With the band all clad in kilts, it was tempting to bring comparisons to Grave Digger, but in truth, there were few similarities. Musically they were fine. The lead singer had that tone of voice so typical of any number of Italian power metal bands, and was perfectly adequate. But really, they were just too bland. They did little wrong, but also nothing to make me pay particular interest. Orden Ogan had gathered quite a decent reputation among my friends, and I'd heard a few tracks online which sounded promising. It was somewhat disappointing, then, when they turned out to not be a particularly compelling live act. Unlike Vexillum, they're blessed with reasonably strong songwriting skills. But somehow it just didn't work on stage. It's hard to put a finger on exactly what went wrong, but an over reliance on a backing track certainly contributed.

I've seen Freedom Call several times now, and they've yet to put on a bad show. Tonight wasn't as promising as it might have been, with the first couple of songs suffering from an apalling mix. Fortunately the sound quality improved throughout the set. Once again, the set list included some less than stellar songs such as "Power and glory" and the dreadful "Rockstars". Fortunately, however, there was still enough there to make up for that, and highlights included "The quest" and "Warriors".

This was the first UK outing for Luca Turilli's Rhapsody after the split, with the other half of the band continuing as Rhapsody Of Fire. Sadly, they also suffered from a dreadful mix, if anything even worse than Freedom Call. It's hard to see what Luca was intending by splitting off from the rest of the band. The music is good, as you'd expect, but it's not sufficiently different to the other Rhapsody warrant the two camps, particularly given that the split was apparently amicable. It's also hard to see it making sense financially. On his own, he's a considerably smaller draw than the full band, as evidenced by a relatively sparse crowd here. That said, the songs featuring Sassy Bernert were a major improvement on the ones with just Alessandro singing, good though he is, and there were some real high points in the performance, such as "Demonheart", "The village of dwarves" and "Dawn of victory". Once again, the backing track was far too evident, and there was too much messing around between songs. Trying to create a cinematic experience with interludes on the projector is a noble goal, but here it just served to kill the mood between songs, and that was particularly evident when the projector broke! When they were good, they were very good. But there was too much mediocrity in the set as a whole for my tastes.

A friend's band, playing at his 50th birthday. They weren't sufficiently organised to have come up with a name for the band. But given that they'd only had a very small handful of practice sessions before the show, they were actually quite reasonable. Typical pub rock, playing covers of classic rock songs. The highlights for me were "Comfortably numb" and when Kayleigh, the female vocalist, sang on songs like "Black velvet" and "The chain".

As it turned out, this was one of the band's final shows under the name Stuka Squadron. Legal wrangles over the name following the departure of the bass player resulted in a name change to Iron Nights. Also present tonight was a new guitar player. While not as obviously high quality as his predecessor, he was competent enough, and new drummer Larry Paterson is a big improvement. But absent from tonights show were much of the theatrics of their previous performances. Gone were the skulls and swords, and while this wasn't a bad show, it all felt a bit subdued. The last time I'd seen Astral Doors, the Dio influences had been extremely obvious. Here, though, they were much less apparent. But that didn't prevent them from putting on a strong performance of power tinged traditional metal. The highlight was probably "Quisling". It's just a shame that the audience was as slim as it was. The band deserved better.

There were several bands playing at the Singapore Grand Prix, but Pretenders were the only one I was interested in seeing. She may be getting on a bit now, but Chrissie still has a great voice. And while Hynde and Chambers may be the only original band members left, the current lineup has been together for over 4 years now, and that's brought with it a tightness borne of familiarity. I left before the end of the set to ensure I caught the start of the race, but it was a decent performance, with my highlight being "Don't get me wrong".

Profane Omen started the evening off with a set of what they describe as groove metal, but to my ears had much in common with melodeath. Their studio output features a mix of clean and harsh vocals. Here, though, it was pretty much all the extreme vocals in evidence. Bland. I was expecting Amoral to be more of the same, but actually they were much more interesting. Apparently they started out as a technical death metal band, but over time have changed their sound to the point where some are calling them power metal. I wouldn't quite go that far, but there's evidence of that sound in some of their songs. In truth, they show a mix of both styles, and on the songs with more of the latter style, they were definitely suited to my tastes. Ensiferum's live performances of late haven't been quite up to the standards they set in their early days. But this was a definite step back in the right direction. The sound quality was a bit muddy, which didn't help, but overall, a decent showing. Highlights were "Guardians of fate", "Heather throne" and "Battle song".

I knew nothing about Sound Storm beforehand, and was somewhat surprised to find not female fronted gothic metal, but male fronted power metal, albeit with an operatic female backing singer. Actually, they were quite reasonable, but a bit generic and they did nothing to stand out. Kells had a good live reputation, but other than that again I knew nothing. It's easy to see where the reputation comes from, and they were full of energy on stage. But while they were heavy, both the song structures and in particular the vocals were a bit too punk and/or alt-rock tinged for my tastes, and they just didn't do it for me. The drummer was good, though.

Sarah Jezebal Deva is something of a figure of hate in the UK rock world, and I really don't understand why. OK, so she might not be the young, slim model frontwoman found in many bands in the genre, but it shouldn't be about looks, it should be about the music, and on that front, she's pretty strong. That said, she made heavier use of a backing track than I'd have liked. Also, the mix was dreadful, and at times her vocals were barely audible. She apologised for having a cold and not being on form, but her voice was still good, and the music was suitably epic and symphonic. I'll keep an eye out for her next London show.

Tonight, though, was all about Tristania. The last time I'd seen them here was one of their first shows with the new lineup and it was an outstanding performance. I was hoping for more of the same tonight, and indeed a setlist they'd posted from a show a couple of days earlier looked promising. But as Sarah Jezebel Deva had done earlier, they suffered from a poor mix, which didn't help. They played a couple of new songs that will appear on the next album. Of the two, "Requiem" was very promising but "Cathedral" didn't grab me as much. Those aside, "Exile" and "Tender trip on earth" were both highlights. I was somewhat disappointed to see them drop both "The shining path" and "Illumination" from the setlist for this show, given that they're two of my favourite tracks. A good performance, then, but they've been better.

Review to follow.

Apollyon were sort of thrashy, but with rubbish vocals. There's nothing much more I can say about them. Splintered Soul had impressed at the London M2TM show, and were significantly better than when I first saw them at Bloodstock a couple of years earlier. Here, they were again good, although perhaps not quite as good as in London. That might have been in part due to the poor sound quality. Benediction were poor at both of their previous Bloodstock appearances. This was better, but they're still a pretty dull live act. From the name and logo, Merciless Fail give every indication that they're going to be black metal. But actually, they were just traditional heavy metal with decent songs and proper vocals. I'll be keeping an eye on them in the future.

Savage Messiah's set continued the poor Sophie stage sound which had afflicted Splintered Soul's performance. I'm not convinced their brand of thrash would have wowed me anyway, but the clean-ish vocals were promising. But it was hard to tell because the sound quality was so bad. Stormborn are European power metal by the numbers, with nothing to make them stand out, and with the "almost good but not quite and slightly out of tune" vocals that seem so prevalent among the genre's less successful bands. I Am I were a very weak booking. There had been much complaining about the lack of melodic bands on the main stage, and this was the response of the organisers. A new band that no one had ever heard of, that had never played live or released an album, but who happened to feature the former lead singer of Dragonforce. That said, they were actually pretty reasonable. ZP's a decent frontman and they played a solid set of melodic metal. But I'd still have rather had a better known band.

Dripback were noisy and mostly tuneless, but I'm sure they were worse last time. Chthonic have plenty of eye candy in the form of Doris Yeh, but musically, their black metal with an oriental slant just didn't really work for me. Still, did I mention that Doris Yeh was very easy on the eyes? Rising Dream were odd. Almost as hard to categorise at Sanguine. In parts, they're just pure power metal. But then there are the parts that are closer to melodeath. The two make for a strange mix. Ines has a voice that varies between an Angela Gossow clone and a decent clean voice, and she switches effortlessly between the two, several times each song. Odd, but I quite liked them. In some ways, the Jägermeister acoustic stage could just be named the Rock Sector Records stage. Fortunately, I like several of their bands, and Triaxis are one of those bands. Much as I would have liked to see a full electric set from them, an acoustic set what they were given at this year's Bloodstock. They're really getting to be a very competent live act these days, and this was no exception, with yet another strong performance. The highlight was once again "Lies".

Mayhem are one of the stalwarts of the Norwegian black metal scene, but they have a reputation for poor live performances. I wasn't convinced they were going to be great, but I wasn't expecting them to be as bad as everyone was claiming. If anything they were worse. It was just a very sloppy wall of noise with virtually no redeeming features, and they came across as very amateurish. Not a trait you'd expect from a band with as much experience as Mayhem. I'd missed Furyon when they'd last played Bloodstock, so I had no idea what to expect. As it turned out, they put on a pretty decent set of melodic metal. My friend Lorri said they were reminiscent of Alter Bridge. She's sort of right, and there are certainly similarities. Bull-Riff Stampede had won the London M2TM final, so I knew to expect some traditional thrash. It was good, but somehow it seemed a bit less intense than it had done at The Underworld.

Winterfylleth had been heralded as one of the leading lights of the new breed of British black/folk metal bands. But their last Bloodstock performance had been dreadful, with very poor songwriting, average musicianship and weak vocals. This was a bit better, with some Ensiferum-style chanting in places, but overall, they've still got a long way to go. Tempus Fusion were better than when I last saw them. Melodic-ish prog metal, but I'm still not convinced by the vocals. Sanctuary appeared to have been booked to cater for all those crying out for Nevermore. I'd never been a huge fan of the band, feeling they were OK, but nothing out of the ordinary. That view was further reinforced by this performance. There were fewer high pitched vocals than I'd remembered. Maybe that's just a reflection of Warrell Dane's increasing age.

Cosmic Vortex Of Doom surprised me by being not particularly doomy, instead playing modern shouty metal. Dreamcatcher's acoustic set was OK. They're melodic enough, but the songs were bland. Hopefully the electric set tomorrow will be better. Witchsorrow played actual doom metal. I sometimes feel they're going a bit overboard with it, but the doom fans I know lap it up, so they're clearly doing something right. Testament had been very good the last time they played Bloodstock and then comparatively weak when supporting Judas Priest in London. Fortunately, this performance was more reminiscent of their previous Bloodstock show. Just plain old Bay area thrash, but they do it well and Chuck Billy is a very capable frontman when he's on form. Highlights were "Into the pit" and "True American hate" from the latest album, which shows they're still relevant. Orange Goblin were exactly what you'd expect. Doomy, stoner metal. I'd only seen them once before and they'd been OK. This was probably a better show, but nothing great for me. But still, that was better than Machine Head, who were vaguely thrashy, but too shouty and generally uninteresting.

I'd seen InComa in Reading, so knew what to expect. Musically, they were probably better here, but the vocals still ruin it all for me. Still, they seemed to be relishing the bigger crowd. I hadn't enjoyed Malefice when I'd seen them a couple of years ago, and this show did nothing to change that opinion. Musically unexceptional with annoying shouty vocals. Control The Storm were another band where I pretty much knew what to expect. If she could sing in tune, they'd be great. But until then, they'll remain also-rans. I'm a big fan of guitar virtuosity, so I was looking forward to The Commander In Chief. She's clearly very talented in that regard, and that showed through here. But I feel she was let down by the songwriting, and her vocals were too screechy to make for an entirely pleasant experience. Freedom Call were much as you'd expect. Good, cheesy power metal fun. The performance was fine, but the setlist wasn't the best they've had. The new album features a couple of comparatively weak songs ("Rockstars" and "Power & glory") that they seem to feel deserve to be heard in their live shows. A bit disappointing, but still good, particularly on "Warriors"

I'd never heard of the bizarrely name Gonoreas before they were booked for Bloodstock, but the video I found online looked very promising. As it turned out, they video only hinted at how good they would be on stage, and I came away very impressed. They play traditional heavy metal with some power metal influences. The guitars and vocals were particularly noteworthy, and combined with some strong songwriting, they delivered one of the stronger performances of the festival. I'll definitely see them again if the come to play anywhere near me. Grand Magus put in a relatively weak performance the first time I'd seen them, but then surprised me by being considerably better the next time. Fortunately, this show was more like the latter than the former. Their sound is gradually changing from doom metal to just plain heavy metal, and for me it's an improvement. The highlight here was "Valhalla rising". Primitai are another band that just play no frills heavy metal. In theory, they should be ideally suited to Bloodstock, but while they deliver a good performance here, complete with Scorpionsesque human pyramid, they've been better in the past.

Moonsorrow were the token nod to folk metal on the main stage, but as the sole representatives of that genre, they did a pretty poor job. The vocals were poor and the band were hampered by poor sound quality, which combined to make for a less than stellar performance. Iced Earth had recruited Into Eternity's Stu Block to replaced Matt Barlow when he left the band for the second time. Further, Luke Appleton from Fury UK had joined the band on bass. In fact, the band was a completely different from the last time I saw them, with the obvious exception of Schaffer. Appleton seem to fit in well, and Block is pretty much the perfect frontman for Iced Earth. He has a great voice and more to the point, he has the right voice for the band. "Watching over me" was the standout track. Death Valley Knights played a pretty good blend of heavy metal and southern rock (the latter being somewhat appropriate given their Texan guitarist). There were occasional Maiden guitar harmonies, and some glam-like vocal harmonies, neither of which did them any harm. Better than I was expecting, and including a cover of "Man on the silver mountain" was always going to go down well with me.

Sepultura were about as bad as I'd expected. If you're going to have vocals you can't understand, you need good music to go along with it. Sepultura had neither. How they ever got to be such a big name in the metal world is beyond me. Scare Tactics played modern metal with gruff vocals that still managed to stay the right side of intelligibility. However, ultimately, they were musically uninspiring and I found them to be a bit dull. Dave McPherson was a strange booking. Apparently he was the lead singer with InMe, but they're not really typical Bloodstock fodder and neither is he. He was performing a set of acoustic songs here which were OK in their own right, but were bland and out of place at a metal festival.

I've seen Pythia a few times now, and as before, they seem to have all of the right ingredients, but are lacking the right recipe to put them all together in a coherent form. No matter how much I want to like them, Emily's voice just doesn't fit the music. Dio Disciples on the other hand, have both all the right ingredients and they very much have the right recipe. They were on stage earlier than expected, having graciously agreed to swap with Watain so the latter could perform in the twilight. As before, Ripper and Jepson worked astonishgly well as a vocal pairing, and Craig Goldy was once more outstanding on guitar. If the musicians are one half of the ingredients, then the material is the other, and that is basically faultless here. There were many, many strong songs, including "The last in line", "Kill the king", "Heaven and hell" and "Rainbow in the dark". But it was "Stargazer" that really made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Stunning.

When Like Appleton had left Fury UK to join Iced Earth, the remaining members formed a new band, Absolva, to occupy themselves until such time as Luke's Iced Earth duties left him with enough free time to continue with Fury UK. In theory, they were playing on the acoustic stage, but this was a full on electric set of no nonsense heavy metal with some strong lead guitar work. Behemoth had been forced to pull out of their slot in 2010 due to Nergal's leukemia. Fortunately he recovered well, but bizarrely they'd been promoted to headlining status this year, despite the band not having released any new music or toured since their cancelled special guest slot two years earlier. I was unconvinced that they were worthy of the headlining slot, but they certainly did their best to try and justify it, bringing with some interesting looking stage props, as befitting a headlining act. I'm not a fan of the band, though. It feels as though they want to be Dimmu Borgir, but they lack both the songs and the stage presence to do so.

I'd arrived too late to catch Saturnian, so Bloodshot Dawn were the first band of the festival for me. I'd seen them at Day Of Rockening a couple of weeks earlier, and they were OK, but nothing special. Here, they were cursed with terrible sound, which didn't do them any favours. Again, the music was OK, but the vocals were poor, and this performance was weaker than they'd been a fortnight earlier. Marionette were apparently stuck in Slovenia and unable to make it, so we went straight into Viking Skull. I'd originally gone to see them years ago, knowing nothing about them, solely on the basis of the name. For a band that started out as a spoof, they're actually not too bad. This, however, was an unremarkable set of dirty rock. And Roddy didn't even set himself on fire this time.

An all day festival at a pub in Hampshire wouldn't normally have attracted my attention, but the addition of Season's End as headliners pretty much guaranteed my attendance. I arrived too late to see the first few bands, so my first band of the day was Bloodworks. They were technically competent, particularly the lead guitars. But they were let down by some uninspired songwriting and needlessly bad death metal vocals. Sinuism continued that trend, with more vocals that sounded like the frontman was vomiting into the mic. The song structures tended more towards handcore punk than metal and the band were certainly heavy but showed little to merit further investigation. Ravenous were somewhat better, playing straightforward heavy metal. The lead singer had sort of Hetfield-style gruff vocals, which worked reasonably well. Their set included a cover of Machine Head's "Davidian".

Headstone Down were pretty poor, with unintelligible harsh vocals and weak songwriting. Nervous Endings weren't quite as bad. They played sort of groove metal, but not quite. The vocals were largely shouty, but sometimes intelligible. Not great and they over ran their timeslot significantly. From the name, I was expecting Hurtcore to be dreadful, but actually they weren't too bad, mixing clean and harsh vocals over heavy (albeit uninspiring) music. Blowgoat were enthusiastic, but that's about the only positive thing I can say about them. Shouty vocals, which sounded better from the bar than they did in front of the stage. They did include an amusing cover of AC/DC's "Dirty deeds", though.

Pravus took a somewhat unusual step of having no bass player, just two guitars, drums and vocals. They played alternative metal, with some proggy sections and both clean and growled vocals. Again, not my thing. Sumer played heavy alternative rock, which was OK, but a bit too subdued and shoegazing for my tastes. Motherload were the first band of the day to make a real impact, playing a blend of glam and sleze rock that really worked. The band were tight, full of energy and had some great songs. They also had a banner behind the drum kit, which I always like to see. It shows they care enough about the band to try and promote themselves. They included another AC/DC cover, this time "TNT". I'll be keeping an eye out for them in the future.

Alzir played what sounded to me like a doomy brand of southern rock. They were competent and tight and put on a decent show. Unlike Flayed Disciple, who were technically competent enough, but their high speed death metal did nothing for me. I'd managed to miss Alternative Carpark when they'd played Bloodstock, so this was the first time I'd seen them. They played decent straight up heavy metal, with clean vocals and, as a local band, were clearly popular with the crowd here, drawing one of the larger audiences of the day.

Breedapart were another band with a banner, but unlike Motherload, they really didn't impress me. Their brand of modern shouty metal is just not what I want to be listening to. Bloodshot Dawn were headlining the outside stage and played technically proficient thrash. Occasionally the vocals veered a bit towards the shouty end of the spectrum, but they were mostly OK. As mentioned previously, Season's End were the reason I was here. After having the world in their hands in 2005/6, they threw it all away by fading into obscurity rather than releasing a new album and growing the band. Still, they were a great band, and it was good to see them again for their first show in 3 years. Yes, they were unsurprisingly a bit rusty in places. But it didn't matter, and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance. I hope this is a sign that we'll be seeing more of the band in the near future.

Beatlemania	Santa Pod Raceway
	20th July 2012
A Beatles tribute band at Bug Jam. They were competent enough, but their George was a bit sloppy in places, and their Ringo played far more fills than the real Ringo's more simple patterns. The real problem, though, was the sound. Modern amplification techniques and a sound engineer that wasn't sympathetic to the material left a hugely bass heavy mix that jarred and simply didn't do justice to the songs. Not bad, but nothing special either.

Metal 2 The Masses London: The Perfect Storm	The Underworld
Splintered Soul	15th July 2012
Zodiac N Black
Bull-Riff Stampede
Divine Solace
The Conflict Within
Abandon The Faith
Bloodshed
Thames Burial
Second Rate Angels
Kremated
Blind Eye Fury
Asperitas
Skreamer
I had to wait until the bearer of my ticket arrived, so I missed the first three bands. Kremated played reasonable enough traditional thrash, but it was all a bit bland and repetitive for my tastes. Second Rate Angels were much better, providing some hard edged sleaze rock. Decent guitars and some good strongwriting helped out there. Thames Burial were just shouty thrash-tinged metalcore. All blast beats and scripted crowd interaction and an extremely lacking performance all round. Bloodshed gave a much better example of how to play thrash. They may be young, but these guys show some decent songwriting and a lot of promise. One to watch for the future. Abandon The Faith opened with a melodic keyboard intro that hinted at something good. But when they started playing, it was just blackened death metal by the numbers, with dreadful vocals. The keyboard player didn't actually seem to be doing anything as all of the synth sounds were coming from the backing tape. The Conflict Within were another band that failed to live up to their potential. OK, so they're not playing my favourite genre of metal, but even so, they could have been better. The cookie monster vocals were overdone, but the clean vocals from the guitarist helped out somewhat. They reminded me of The Hollow Earth Theory, but without the quality of songwriting and with worse vocals. Divine Solace played some good folk tinged metal, with guitar harmonies and a mix of growled and clean vocals. Ensiferum would perhaps be the closest comparison I could come up with, but that's not an entirely accurate representation of the band. Bull-Riff Stampede played heavy thrash. I'd heard of the band in advance, and they featured Jay Walsh and Rod Boston, both of whom have played in several bands I've seen before. The lead singer also looks familiar, but I can't think where I'd have seen him. They were very professional, very tight, and are probably destined for bigger things. Zodiac N Black played a heavy alt-rock mixed with groove metal. It was OK, but they were just too bland to stand out. I'd seen headliners Splintered Soul when they played Bloodstock. Melodic female fronted metal is usually my thing, but although they'd been OK, they hadn't really impressed. What a difference a couple of years makes. Tonight they were very polished, the vocals were much better, and the songwriting appeared to have improved. It's not often you get to see a band featuring a six stringed fretted violin, either! The purpose of the evening was to select a couple of bands to go on to play this year's Bloodstock festival. My picks would have been Divine Solace and either Bloodshed or Bull-Riff Stampede. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the latter were indeed picked, but the choice of The Conflict Within as the second winner was a baffling one to me. It was nice to see Splintered Soul (who weren't in the competition) also be granted a slot at the festival. Metal 2 The Masses Reading The College Arms, Reading InComa 14th July 2012 Dark Karma Soul Control The Storm Strike Offensive A regional M2TM final to determine which of the bands would go forward to play at Bloodstock this year. This was originally scheduled to be at The Face Bar, but a fatal stabbing at an R&B night had left the venue closed while the police investigation was underway. The organisers had scrabbled around and The College Arms was the only other venue they could find in the Reading area. In truth, it was too small to be putting on live music with any sizeable audience. But it was better than nothing. The night's openers, Strike Offensive, played a traditional brand of thrash. It started out quite strongly, but by the end of the set, it was all sounding a bit samey. They had a ridiculous pit for the postage stamp sized venue, too. I'd been given Control The Storm's demo at a Delain show, and I'd heard good things about their live show from friends. The Bloodstock lineup was desperately lacking in melody, and I hoped that Control The Storm would be able to improve the situation somewhat. Musically, they were spot on. But as is so often the case, the weak point was the vocals. Her voice just isn't good enough, either in pitch or in power, and it was a disappointing performance. Dark Karma Soul played a set of industrial metal. Initially it was a bit thin and watered down, and tended more towards the industrial end of the spectrum than the metal end. But as the set progressed, it got heavier, and better to my ears at least. The last few songs in the set were very good. I'd seen InComa before at the Music 4 Mental Health show a few months earlier, so I had a fair idea of what to expect. This time they started the show with all of their band members present, and put on a better performance than last time. Once again, though, the vocals were rubbish. If she'd sing a bit, rather than scream and growl in an attempt to mimic Angela Gossow, they'd be a much better band. On the night, Control The Storm were chosen to play at Bloodstock, although it's hard to see why. On the basis of tonight's performance, I'd have put Dark Karma Soul through. Queen + Adam Lambert Hammersmith Apollo 12th July 2012 Queen are one of my few regrets in life. I'd thought about going to see them at Knebworth, but it was going to be a lot of money and a logistical nightmare, so I decided to give it a miss and wait for the next tour instead. Of course, that turned out to be Freddie Mercury's last ever show. Hindsight is always 20/20. I didn't see them when they subsequently toured with Paul Rodgers, because he was frankly the wrong vocalist. He has a fine voice, but it doesn't work for their music. Earlier this year, they were announced for Sonisphere with American Idol contestant Adam Lambert singing. That didn't sound promising, and the videos I saw online did little to change that view, with him using horrendous amounts of misplaced vibrato. But I thought I'd give it a go anyway. However, Sonisphere was cancelled, and the band booked a series of shows in Hammersmith. Given that I work just around the corner, it seemed worth a shot. John Deacon had retired a few years earlier, leaving just Brian May and Roger Taylor representing the band. The show opened with a medley of "Seven seas of Rhye", "Keep yourself alive" and "We will rock you". Medleys are always risky, and frequently leave me unsatisfied, as was the case here. I want to hear the whole song. And particularly the guitar solo at the end of "We will rock you". "Fat bottomed girls" was much better, though, and Lambert's voice is actually quite good. He faces an impossible task, in that Mercury simply cannot be replaced. But given that, he's doing a decent job of it. "Under pressure" saw Roger Taylor emerge from behind the drum kit to sing David Bowie's parts, and he stayed out to sing "A kind of magic". His solo output and occasional Queen vocals showed he could sing, but you wouldn't necessarily have expected him to sing Mercury's lines. However, he did so with aplomb here. Brian's acoustic section saw a crowd singalong to "Love of my life", complete with Mercury making a taped appearance on the video screens at the back. Naturally, the crowd went wild. My highlights were "Another one bites the dust", "'39", the mandatory crowd participation in "Radio ga ga", "I want it all" and a reprise of "We will rock you" in the encore, this time with guitar solo. They're not the same band without Freddie. But this was a strong showing despite that (helped by a back catalogue that means they can't really go wrong), and because of that, I'd go and see them again. Shred Santa Pod Raceway 23rd June 2012 Hard to say too much about these guys. They played reasonable enough rock and blues covers, but my lift wanted to go, so I had to leave after the first few songs :-( Megadeth The Electric Ballroom Sanguine 12th June 2012 Sanguine had impressed at Bloodstock last year. They're probably the hardest band to categorize that I can think of, but whatever it is they do, it works. Tonight, though, lead singer Tarin was unwell. Despite that, her vocals were surprisingly strong, but perhaps it contributed to the lack of spark that was present when I'd last seen them, and they were a bit subdued tonight. The highlight was probably "Live, consume, drive" and a new song that I didn't catch the name of. I was a little disappointed not to hear "Simplify", though. It's been many years since I've seen a venue as packed as this one. But when you're playing in a 1000 capacity venue as a one off show after playing to 60000+ at Donington a couple of days earlier, I suppose it's to be expected. Regardless, I could barely move. Megadeth had been hugely impressive supporting Priest a few years earlier, and I hoped they'd be able to repeat that performance here. Mustaine was clearly enjoying the audience feedback from being in a smaller venue than he would normally play, and that helped make for another strong performance. Highlights were "She wolf", "Symphony of destruction", "A tout le monde", and of course "Peace sells". The band seem to be in a good streak of form right now. Long may it continue. Judas Priest Hammersmith Apollo Saxon 26th May 2012 Kobra And The Lotus Kobra And The Lotus kicked the evening off with a wall of noise, so bad was the sound quality. Fortunately, it improved as their set progressed, but it never really reached acceptable levels. The band themselves were OK, although I feel Brittany's voice just doesn't fit with the band's music. "50 shades of evil" was reasonably good, though. Saxon were, well, Saxon. I've seen them enough now that I pretty much know what to expect, and they didn't disappoint, playing another set of classic crowd pleasers, interspersed with some of their newer material. Highlights were "Princess of the night", "Wheels of steel", "Crusader" and "Denim and leather". This was the first time I'd seem Priest since the departure of KK Downing. Like many others, I thought that might be the end of the band. But they recruited Richie Faulkner as KK's replacement. Many were sceptical of that move, but I've long been a fan of Faulkner, having seen him play with Metalworks, Deeds, Lauren Harris and Voodoo Six. Yes, he had large shoes to fill, but he's coped admirably and his new bandmates are claiming he's breathed new life into the band. On this tour, Priest were playing songs from their whole career, promising at least one song from each album (or from the Halford fronted albums, at least). Halford himself was on good form, with little evidence of the vocal deterioration that others have claimed of his recent live performances. Faulkner looked completely at home and put on a strong showing, and the band as a whole were on top form. This was probably the strongest performance I've seen from them yet. The only thing I can pull them up on was the use of taped backing vocals during "Victim of changes", but as far as I could tell, they weren't used at any other point in the show. Other notable songs were "Rapid fire", "Beyond the realms of death", "Judas rising", "Electric eye" and "Painkiller". All in all and outstanding performance, and I hope they return to London sooner rather than later. Metal 4 Mental Health The Face Bar, Reading Ghost In The Static 16th May 2012 The Hype Theory Mask Of Judas Rurin Mary Kelly Triaxis Edge Of Ruin The Affronted Ghost In The Static InComa Winter Storm Junction 13 Everyone Needs A Nemesis Deprevate I'd forgotten I was going to be working when I'd originally planned to go to this show. I didn't have time to go home and get the car, so I caught the train straight from work to Reading. Sadly, I missed the first few bands, arriving just as Winter Storm finished, which is a shame as they're one of the bands I wanted to see. The first band of the night for me was therefore InComa. Hard to describe. The music was melodic, the vocals were Angela Gossow-like death metal growls. But the combination didn't really fit the melodeath description. Amusingly, they started their set without the bass player who was late arriving and joined in part way through the second song. Reasonably good at what they did, even if it wasn't my thing. Ghost In The Static played a set of industrial metal. But for me, it was a bit more industrial and a bit less metal than I'd have liked. It was OK when they were going for it, but the quieter industrial sections served to kill the mood somewhat. The Affronted played modern shouty metal. Plenty of energy, but little else, and the interspersed clean vocals were very weak. Edge Of Ruin were closer to hardcore punk with a slight crossover into something resembling groove metal territory at times. Triaxis were the band I was primarily here to see. They've been consistently good live performers, and tonight was no exception. They suffered a bit with the mix, with Glyn's guitar and Krissie's vocals being way too low. But the band was once again tight and Krissie's voice has come on leaps and bounds since I first saw them. Sadly they had to cut "The wicker man" from the setlist due to time constraints. Mary Kelly provided more hardcore noise. Simplistic music played at high speed and with a vocalist screaming undecipherable nonsense over the top. A poor showing. Rurin were a bit more promising, with some reasonably melodic female fronted offerings. However, her voice droned too much, and she needed to put some force behind it. The songs were also a bit on the bland side and she was off pitch too often for my liking. Mask Of Judas mixed more death metal growls with some clean vocals. She has quite a reasonable clean voice, and it's a shame it wasn't used more. The song structures were slightly proggy in places, and the guitarist was pretty good although he was sadly lost in the mix much of the time. The final band of the night were due to be The Hype Project, but they pulled out for reasons unknown, and Ghost In The Static did another set in their place. I normally like gigs like this. You get to see a large number of bands, most of whom are rubbish and you occasionally find a gem mixed in with them. Sadly, tonight wasn't one of those nights, and it was mostly made up of weak, amateur sounding bands. I don't much like the trend of unsigned metal bands in the UK all heading down the "we're not going to sing" route, but that does seem to mostly be how it is right now. Triaxis were the obvious exception, and were head and shoulders above everyone else on the bill. Delain Islington Academy Trillium 16th May 2012 Halcyon Way Halcyon Way are hard to describe, but however you choose to do so, they were completely out of place on this bill. They played a sort of modern traditional heavy metal, with mostly clean vocals and a few harsh vocals thrown in. The vocals sounded a little out of tune at times and the song structures were a bit to progressive for my tastes. They also had a very intrusive (to my ears) backing tape. It's a shame because they're clearly competent musicians, but somehow it just didn't work. I knew nothing about Trillium other than that they were Amanda Somerville's latest band. Somerville has been a vocal coach for Simone Simons and had contributed to Epica, Avantasia and a number of European melodic metal projects. As might be expected, you couldn't fault her voice. But the songs were a bit bland and the band as a whole fell squarely in my "OK, but nothing special" category. The last time I saw Delain was a bit of a gamble. I like the genre, but I'd only heard a couple of tracks by the band and was unfamiliar with most of their material. They impressed enough that I was more than happy to see them again. This time around I was a bit better prepared. Even so, they still managed to surprise me by being heavier than I expected. For reasons unknown, guitarist Timo Somers was unable to make this tour, and Bas Maas did a fine job of standing in for him. Charlotte's voice was great and the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. As before, They played a number of new tracks from the forthcoming album, all of which sounded very promising. Of particular note was "Get the devil out of me", a song which impressed last time around as well. Other highlights were "Stay forever" and "Invidia". The encore saw "Control the storm", and "The gathering", the former of which didn't really work for me without Marco's contrasting vocals. But that aside, it was another strong showing. This gig was originally due to be at Koko, but was downgraded to the smaller venue presumably due to poor ticket sales. They can't have been too bad as it was reasonably packed. If tonight's performance was anything to go by, they certainly deserve to be played larger venues to bigger crowds. Hopefully the release of the new album "We are the others" will propel them on to bigger and better things. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter The Underworld Emil Bulls 25th April 2012 Malrun Malrun were not a good start to the evening, and were basically just shouty noise, with few redeeming features. But Emil Bulls were worse. Shouty vomiting into the mic, peppered with intermittent singing. Musically, they sounded like hardcore crossover punk. Not my thing at all, although a track called "Nothing" stood out as being better than the rest. I'd managed to miss Die Apokalyptischen Reiter at Bloodstock, but had heard good things about their performance, and on tonight's evidence, that praise was completely warranted. The Rammstein comparisons are a little off the mark, and I suspect come about just because both bands play heavy music with German lyrics. Where Rammstein are firmly industrial, DAR have more folk metal leanings. They were heavier than I expected but put on a strong performance, and I'd go and see them again if they play in London. Axel Rudi Pell The Underworld Mad Max 22nd April 2012 I'd only vaguely heard of Mad Max before, but they turned out to be unexpectedly good, playing something that straddled the line between hard rock and the lighter end of the metal spectrum. I couldn't tell if the AOR style choruses were coming from an effects pedal or a backing tape, but a good performance either way. Axel Rudi Pell is one of those artists where you generally know exactly what you're going to get. His sound hasn't really changed much in the last 20 years and tonight was more of the same. Melodic, guitar driven metal with good, clean vocals courtesy of Johnny Gioeli. I was a little surpised at how song-centric it was, with little evidence of the soloing and guitar wizardry for which he became famous, but the performance didn't really suffer for it. Highlights for me were "Carousel" and "Fool fool". Metalworks The Monarch Queenworks 12th March 2012 Review to follow. Elimination The Unicorn Triaxis 8th March 2012 Tempus Fusion Oaf I was later leaving work than I'd hoped for and I'd expected to have missed Oaf's set. But as it turned out, I arrived in time to see the last few songs. They play a sort of punky alternative rock, with comedic lyrics. But mostly it was just noise, and they did nothing for me at all. Following them were Tempus Fusion. I'd checked out a few videos online beforehand, but was somewhat suprised to hear how heavy they sounded live. It turns out there are two bands with that name, and I'd been watching the other one, who are quite different! This one features half of Season's End. Although there was less prog wankery than I was expecting, they could do with a better vocalist. Or at least, to cut out the harsh vocals. When he actually sang, he wasn't too bad. And of course, David Stanton (who was playing bass here) has a great voice. But really, the only reason I'd come to this show was to catch Triaxis again. They're a great live band, and I take every opportunity I can to see them. Tonight they were due to be showcasing songs from their new album, which should be released later in the year. Time constraints meant they had to cut a couple of those songs ("...and shadows creep" and "The infected"). But we were still treated to "Sand and silver" and "Sker Point", both of which I'd heard before, and "Black trinity" which I hadn't. It's all sounding very promising for the new album. In addition, they played a couple of songs from the first album (including my personal favourite, "Lies") and finished off with a new Iron Maiden cover, "The evil that men do". Glyn is turning out to be a fine replacement for Gav on guitar, and Krissie's vocals were better than I've heard them before. This was among the best performances I've seen from them. They really are a band on the rise at the moment. I'd seem Elimination at this same venue a few months earlier (also with Triaxis). As before, they put on a competent display, but it just came across as very bland. They play a traditional brand of thrash, but although they don't do much wrong, they don't get much right either, and it rapidly turns into background music. As before, the guitarist showed a level of competence that makes me want to like the band. But until they improve the songwriting, and possibly get a new vocalist, they're likely to remain also rans in my mind. Lorriworks The Fiddler's Elbow Nightvision 24th February 2012 Roxville The Black Room This was a gig organised by my friend Lorraine to celebrate her birthday. The Black Room kicked off the evening, playing glam metal. Jacko has a decent enough voice, but he could do with projecting it a bit better. I've seen Dani before with both Achilla and Metalworks. His guitar work is good, but it was a bit on the sloppy side in places this evening. But overall they weren't bad, and ended with a cover of Skid Row's "Monkey business", in which Jacko did a surprisingly good impersonation of Seb Bach. Similarly, Roxville also played a set of glam tinged metal. They'll never be more than a pub band, but they're good enough with it. The headliners for the night, Nightvision, were a bit different to the preceding two bands. Lorraine described them as straddling the line between hard rock and heavy metal, which is probably about right. They threw in a cover of Black Stone Cherry's "White trash millionaire", which didn't sound out of place, and should give an idea of roughly what they sound like. They lack the glam element of the first two bands, which prompted the crowd to thin out noticably. That's a shame, though, as they were by far the most polished band of the evening, and for me were comfortably the band of the night. After Nightvision, Lorriworks hit the stage. They're basically an impromptu band formed of various people associated with Metalworks who agreed to play a bunch of covers in order to help Lorraine celebrate her birthday. Of note was that Mark Cross (of Helloween and Firewind) was on drums. They played songs by Bon Jovi, Ozzy, Twisted Sister, Tyketto, Scorps etc. Luka got the words wrong on a few occasions, but it didn't really matter, and it was a decent way to end the night. Rammstein The O2 Arena Deathstars 24th February 2012 Deathstars are an OK band, but nothing special. However, when you're sat up in the gods, with dreadful sound, they deteriorate into a very lacklustre live experience. I couldn't hear the lyrics at all, and the music was very muddy. Probably due to the demographics of the audience, they appeared to choose their harder edged song for this show, which was a definite improvement. But the sound quality really hindered them. Rammstein are a very different experience when you're seated compared to when you're stood at the front. But that doesn't make them any less entertaining. They certainly know how to make an entrance! They entered the arena from the side, and climbed up to a small stage in front of the mixing desk. From there they crossed to the main stage via a bridge that was lowered from the roof, and then launched into an excellent "Sonne". The sound wasn't great, but it was much better than for Deathstars. It was nice to see "Sehnsucht", "Mutter" and "Du riechst so gut" all make an appearance. As expected, the pyro was plentiful, and an excellent "Links 2-3-4" followed by "Du hast" preceded "Haifisch" to close out the show. But two encores followed, which saw almost as many songs played as in the main set. The first of which was on the small stage, which was a nice touch. Then the second encore saw "Mein herz brennt", "Amerika", "Ich will", "Engel" and finally "Pussy". With tracks as strong as those, it's hard to go wrong. Good though it was, I felt they were slightly less on form than the last few times I've seen them. But nonetheless, they remain one of the best live experiences in the world right now. Dragonforce The 100 Club Pythia 16th February 2012 I've seen Pythia a few times now. They're a band much like Adastreia, in that they have a more than capable vocalist, but one that is woefully unsuited to the music that the rest of the band are playing. I like both the music and the vocals. They just don't belong together. This was the first time I'd seen Dragonforce since Marc Hudson had taken over the frontman role from ZP Theart. Vocally, he's fine. Possibly better than ZP. He's a bit green, but the basics are there and he has a promising future ahead of him once he's got a bit more experience of being on stage. The rest of the band were much better, with none of the sloppiness that's plagued their previous live performances over the years. The downside was that they suffered from a terrible mix. It sounded a bit better further from the stage, but it still wasn't great. But that aside, this was a decent showing. Highlights were "Black fire" and "Through the fire and flames". I was very surprised to see "Valley of the damned" omitted. I think it's the first time I've ever seen them not play it. Edguy Islington Academy Voodoo Six 4th February 2012 Primitai Primitai have put on several decent live performances of late, and this was another one to add to the list. Sadly, they were only given a very short set in which to show off their talents. Still, they made the most of it, with "Sin city" and "Degeneration" both being very good. This Voodoo Six incarnation is virtually unrecognisable from when I first saw them. Nevertheless, this lineup seems to have garnered plaudits, and in particular, a certain amount of mainstream recognition. Matt Pierce is now the main lead guitarist, and Luke Purdie has replaced Henry Rundell, bringing with him a very different vocal style. They came across as very polished here, with a dirtier, more bluesy sound than they had in the past. The standout song here was their current single "Falling knives", which has seen a reasonable amount of radio airplay, and deservedly so. It's probably fair to say that Edguy are past their prime. The last few albums have been sub-par and their accompanying live performances have suffered as well. That said, they're still a compelling live act, and Tobias is a great frontman. "Tears of a mandrake" was head and shoulders above everything else here, with "King of fools" being the only other track that came close. I just don't understand why the keep playing weak songs like "Lavatory love machine" or "Save me" in their live sets. Once again, "Mysteria" was a criminal omission. They're a good band. But they're really doing themselves no favours with their choice of setlists. Sabaton Koko Hell 16th December 2011 After their performance at Bloodstock, I was expecting good things from Hell. However, it wasn't to be. Although the performance was fine, and they were doing all the right things, they were let down by apalling sound that essentially made it barely listenable. Apparently is sounded fine downstairs, but for those of us on the balcony, it was dreadful. Sabaton opened up with "Ghost division", which has become a common theme of their live shows for a while. But they then followed it up with "Primo victoria", which normally doesn't make an appearance until the end. Joakim explained that the setlist only had a few songs on it. As it was the end of the tour, when they'd done their handful of preplanned songs, they were just going to let the audience choose the rest of the setlist. To impose some kind of structure on that, he offered the choice of two songs at a time, and they played the one that received the louder cheer. As always, the band put on a superb performance. I could pick out highlights, but honestly, pretty much every song was outstanding. They are a very real contender for best live band in the world right now. Def Leppard Wembley Arena Mötley Crüe 14th December 2011 Steel Panther I remember Steel Panther from the days when they were a covers band called Metal Shop/Metal Skool. It was clear back then that they had a certain amount of talent, but I never expected them to achieve the success they've had since then. Changing their name to Steel Panther and writing their own songs helped, of course, as did concentrating on the comedy aspect of their music. But underneath the comedy veneer, they're actually a pretty decent band, and in some ways it's a shame they'll never be taken seriously because of their image. 20 years ago, I was watching Mötley Crüe in this very same venue, and it was like being transported back in time. Steel Panther played a very creditable selection of music that was perfect for that era, yet amazingly, it doesn't really sound dated. This was billed as a co-headlining tour, and I wasn't sure in which order the two main bands would play. It turned out that Mötley Crüe were on first. Much as I liked Steel Panther, the gulf in quality between them and Mötley Crüe was immediately obvious from the first few seconds of opener "Wild side", which was followed by equally strong renditions of "Saints of Los Angeles" and "Live wire". Because they weren't the last band of the night, I'd expected us to miss out on Tommy's rollercoaster drum kit, but there it was in its full glory. His choice of dance music to accompany his upside down drum playing was a bit unfortunate, and with Mick Mars playing some less than stellar guitar solos, the set took a bit of a downturn in the middle. But things picked up again towards the end, and the combination of "Girls, girls, girls", "Smokin' in the boys room" and "Kickstart my heart" brought the set to a close on a high. Vince Neil seems to be getting more sloppy every time I see the band, and tonight he was at times only bothering to sing every third word or so. But somehow it didn't matter. Mötley Crüe are a fantastic live band, and they put on another great show tonight. Def Leppard were going to struggle to follow a performance like that. But to be fair, they gave it a decent shot. Wisely sticking to a set dominated by material from "Hysteria", they nonetheless included songs from a decent selection of their career. The stage show consisted of a wall of video screens which was sort of good, but like the Within Temptation show, it tended to distract from the band's performance. In some ways, they were better than I was expecting, but at the same time, I just wasn't fully getting into it, and it was becoming background music. A good performance, with "Pour some sugar on me", "Animal" and surprisingly "C'mon, c'mon" from the latest album being notable highlights, as well as the encore of "Love bites" and "Let's get rocked". But although they it's hard to pick out anywhere that they really put a foot wrong, it somehow didn't quite work for me. Blaze Bayley The Underworld Primitai 9th December 2011 Disarm Goliath Disarm Goliath weren't quite what I expected. Despite appearances, they played quite a decent traditional metal set. The singer had a decent voice, and the songs were well written. They were a bit green, but are one to keep an eye on in the future. They're desperately in need of a logo designer, though! Primitai have been strong every time I've seen them, and tonight was no exception. I hadn't noticed how good their drummer was before, but tonight he really shone. They were somewhat let down by a poor mix, with the bass and drums drowning out the guitars and vocals. But that aside, another strong performance from a band that's going from strength to strength. Another Blaze show, and miraculously, he's managed to keep the same lineup as when I last saw him! He had previously stated that this show would be a greatest hits set before he concentrates on the next album, and true to his word, that's what we got, with only one song from each of his last couple of albums being played. What can I say that hasn't already been said? The guy just seems incapable of putting on a bad show, and this was another demonstration of that. Highlights were "Silicon messiah", "The launch", an outstanding "Voices from the past" and a set closing "The clansman". If I had a gripe it would be the inclusion of a couple of his weaker songs ("Virus" and "Blood and belief"), but really that's a very minor complaint about another strong performance. Dimmu Borgir Islington Academy 23rd November 2011 No support for this one, just Dimmu Borgir. They'd polled fans to ask which of their early albums they should perform in its entirety. The winner was fortunately "Enthrone darkness triumphant" which is the earliest of their albums that I like. They started out well, with "Mourning palace" and to a lesser extent "Spellbound", but as the album progressed, it seemed to fall a little flat. At the end of the album, the band took a break while an orchestral backing track hinted at "Born treacherous" without actually playing it. They came back out to play a set of assorted songs from their other albums. The sound was a bit muddy, with the result that my favourite Dimmu song, "Kings of the carnival creation" just didn't really work, which was disappointing. Also disappointing was the lack of clean vocals. Oh, they were there, but they were all on tape, with Shagrath lip syncing along to them. This trend was also evident on "Puritania". Although it was performed well, I couldn't help wondering how much of it was actually being performed, and how much was coming from the backing track. Other highlights were "Dimmu Borgir" and "Progenies of the great apocalypse". A good show, but they've been better in the past. Lacuna Coil ULU Straight Line Stitch 22nd November 2011 October File I'd missed October File at Bloodstock, so I had no idea what to expect here. The answer turned out to be nothing I was interested in. The first song was terrible, but they did at least improve a little later in the set. The music consisted of simplistic song structures, with a sort of punky, groove metal feel, overlaid with harsh vocals. The vocals were occasionally intelligible, but frequently were just another percussion instrument. Speaking of which, the drummer was actually very good. But I need more than a drummer to enjoy a band. Straight Line Stitch had much more promise. I'd heard some tracks beforehand, which were OK. Modern metalcore with some decent clean vocalled sections. However, that promise wasn't realised on stage. They were very weak, playing elements of rap and nu-metal, with the singing vomiting into the microphone for all she was worth. The clean vocal parts were out of tune, and featured massively layered backing vocals on tape. Probably to try and hide her lack of tunefulness. The lead guitarist, bass player and drummer all seemed pretty competent. But the songs and the vocalist ruined any hope of me enjoying the band. The last time I'd seen Lacuna Coil was a part acoustic show at The Borderline, where they'd played songs from the whole spectrum of their back catalogue, right from the first EP through the to the present day. Given how well the older songs went down with the crowd, I'd been hoping they'd take the hint and play a few of them in their regular shows. Sadly that proved not to be the case again with nothing earlier than "Comalies" being played. But that said, the show was an improvement over some of their other performances I've seen in the past few years. Fortunately, there weren't too many songs played from "Shallow life". They played a couple of new tracks from the forthcoming album, which weren't outstanding, but seemed to be a step back in the right direction. Cristina's voice was in fine form, but Andrea's was mixed so badly that I could barely hear him at times. I'm also not sure why they were playing such a tiny venue. ULU apparently has a capacity of 825, but I can only think that could be reached by including those in the bar at the back, who can't really see the band. It's a significant drop from when they played the 2000 capacity venues they've been playing in London on previous tours. Is that a hint of the band's waning popularity, or just a sign of the state of the economy? Anyway, my highlights were "Heaven's a lie", "Our truth" and "Enjoy the silence". Nightlord The Underworld Hysterica 19th November 2011 Stuka Squadron Designs Of Chaos Designs Of Chaos opened up with some heavy riffing and well crafted songs. Unfortunately, they threw it all away with the vocals. Barking and growling into the mic might have its place. But that place isn't here. If there had been discernable lyrics, then maybe they'd have been able to sustain my interest. But there weren't and they didn't. I'd seen Stuka Squadron before and had been reasonably impressed, so I knew what to expect. As before, they played traditional heavy metal with a somewhat ridiculous nazi vampire theme. Ridiculous it may be, but we need more bands like this! Great fun. Last time, I'd thought the lead guitarist was somewhat too good for the rest of the band. Sadly, there was little evidence of that tonight, and he was good but not outstanding. Hysterica had been completely misrepresented. I'd never heard of them before the show, but they'd been billed as an all female thrash band. All female they may have been, but there was no evidence of any thrash. Just straight ahead traditional melodic heavy metal. The singer has quite a range. It's rare for me to want to hear more harsh vocals from a band, but this was one instance where I did. The lyrics were still intelligible and the harshness gave the songs some extra bite, which I think they needed. The songwriting was a bit simplistic, but seemed to work well enough. This was very close to being a very strong performance, but it just went off the boil in a few places which let them down. Still, they did enough I think I'll investigate their studio output. Nightlord had been doing something I wish more bands would do, namely promoting their shows. They'd been out flyering at all of the recent London shows I'd been to. Sadly, they couldn't quite deliver the goods on stage. They played a set of traditional thrash metal, and while it was quite good, it was never more than that. I don't remember them the first time around, which is probably because they never hit the big time, and it's easy to see why. There's a reasonable amount of potential there. But somehow it just doesn't hang together. The star of the band is the lead guitarist, who is really very talented. But truthfully, they could use a decent songwriter. The Sisters Of Mercy The Roundhouse 13th November 2011 Five years ago, I'd sworn I would never give Eldritch another penny of my money after a dreadful gig at The Astoria. But time and some reports of improved performances mellowed that opinion, and I decided to give him another chance. A Sisters gig is always something of a lucky dip, and you never know if they're going to be on form or having a terrible night. Fortunately, this was the former. It wasn't without its problems. For example the sound which started out quite good deteriorated throughout the set. But it was still a vast improvement on the last few times I've seen the band. Not least among the contributing factors was the setlist, which I'd struggle to fault. A great selection from the EPs and all three albums. Highlights included "Marian", "Alice" and "No time to cry". Unsurprisingly, the "Floodland" material went down well, too, with the crowd (and me) loving "Dominion/Mother Russia" and "This corrosion". An encore saw a great "Something fast" followed by "More". A second encore brought "Lucretia", "Vision thing" and "Temple of love". As with any Sisters show, there was a large dose of the performance on a backing track. But unlike many bands I've seen of late, that didn't apply to the vocals, with the guitarists Chris and Ben providing backing vocals. Neither managed a passable impersonation of a female singer, but it didn't matter. It sounded real. I wish more bands would do the same. Good though it was, I can't help but wonder if I'll have to wait another 10 years before seeing them on form again. Within Temptation Brixton Academy Anneke van Giersbergen 11th November 2011 I'd never been a huge fan of The Gathering, but I knew roughly what to expect from Anneke van Giersbergen: relatively light weight pop rock. That's exactly what we got. Given that, there were a few songs that were surprisingly heavy. But it wasn't really enough to salvage the performance for me, which was mostly a bit bland. She's been doing this a long time now, and is clearly comfortable on stage. But it's not really my thing. Within Temptation have grown big. I mean, even when I first saw them playing to a couple of hundred people at The Scala, I could see they were destined for bigger and better things. But it was still something of a surprise to see just how big they've become. The Scala show saw a projector and a couple of small boxes at the sides of the stage for the band to stand on, in keeping with their budget at the time. A sold out Brixton Academy makes for a larger budget, and now we have large platforms for the keyboards and drums, a huge video screen with a walkway in front of it, two smaller video screens and a full light show. Very impressive. I'd had a ticket for this show for over a year. I bought it when they were first announced, but then Sharon became pregnant and the show was postponed. Because of that, Robert was staying at home looking after the newly born child, while Sharon was on tour. His replacement was a competent enough guitarist, and were you not familiar with the band, you'd probably never have noticed. The show itself was good. Sharon's voice has been better in the past, but apparently she's recovering from a cold, so I'll cut her a bit of slack. If there's a complaint, it would be that the videos were sometimes a bit too distracting. The flaming WT logo was fine, but with the full video for "Faster" playing in the background, I found myself watching it more than the band. For me, the highlights all came from the first two albums; "Mother earth", "Ice queen", "Stand my ground" and "Angels". The other complaint was that they were rotating the set list each night, and while "See who I am" is a fine song in it's own right, I'd much rather have had "Deceiver of fools" which they played in its place in Manchester. Manowar Brixton Academy 5th November 2011 No support this time, just Manowar. I'd seen them in Birmingham, and a great show it had been too. But I thought they were being somewhat ambitious with their choice of venues for this follow up tour and so it proved. The circle was closed off entirely for this show, and even the stalls weren't full. Realistically, this should probably have been at The Forum. To an extent, that will have affected the show, in that a packed crowd usually generates a great atmosphere and a thin crowd does the opposite. Apparently other venues on the tour sold extremely poorly, but fortunately the ranks in London were bolstered by a large number of overseas visitors, so it wasn't too bad. The set list was similar to Birmingham, in that they played the whole of "Battle hymns" (less "William's tale"), followed by a selection of other tracks from the rest of their career. After "Battle hymns" we had "Brothers of metal pt. 1" and "Hail to England", which went down well, but that was followed by a lengthy intermission, which killed the mood somewhat. Worse, still, they inexplicably returned after the intermission with an extremely weak choice of "Hand of doom", "Call to arms" and "Thunder in the sky". Things picked up again towards the end of the set with "Kings of metal" and the obligatory "Black wind fire and steel". But by then the damage had already been done. A good show, and the highlights (like "Dark avenger" and "Battle hymn") were great. But it wasn't anywhere near as good as the Birmingham show, not helped by the poor set list and the intermission. Metal Female Voices Festival IX Wieze, Belgium Therion 23rd October 2011 Visions Of Atlantis Draconian Stream Of Passion Midnattsol System Divide Triosphere Velvetseal Operatika Diary About My Nightmares Today's openers Diary About My Nightmares weren't really what I was expecting. The music was OK and somewhat reminiscent of Dark Tranquillity. No beauty and the beast vocals here, though. This was beast and beast in full flow. The Arch Enemy style female vocals just ruined any hope I might have had of enjoying the performance. Operatika were more the sort of thing I was hoping to see at this festival. As the name implies, operatic vocals were the order of the day here, but while Slava Popova has a decent voice, she doesn't seem to have the same level of control shown by, say, Therion's Lori Lewis. Also, the real star of the band was not the vocalist, but the shredding guitarist, who seemed a strange choice for a band of that name, but put in a great performance. They ended with a cover of Dio's "We rock", which seems an odd choice to be given the operatic treatment, and didn't really work that well. The vocals lacked the punch necessary for the song. I'd never heard of Hungarian band Velvetseal before, but the soundcheck sounded great and I had high hopes for them. She had a good voice, and they were competent musicians, but they were lacking spark, and felt like they were just plodding through the set, rather than particularly putting any effort into it. The taped backing vocals broke part way through one song, which put the band off their stride. Not bad, but the soundcheck promised more, and they could do with a better songwriter. Norwegians Triosphere were up next, another band I'd never heard of before the festival. The mid-range vocals sounded very familiar, but I can't think who they remind me of. The music was heavy, with progressive leanings. The earlier material was heavier than their more current songs. They were OK, but I'd have preferred the music to be a bit more epic. System Divide offered up more beauty and the beast vocals, but the beastly vocals were particularly harsh, which didn't do them any favours. They were heavy with a brutal onslaught of noise coming from the stage. They'd been billed as being somewhat like Lacuna Coil and Arch Enemy, but I didn't really see many similarities to either. The vocals might have been somewhat reminiscent of Cristina Scabbia in places, but the music was much closer to nu-metal/mallcore. Midnattsol came across as a heavier, folkier version of Leaves' Eyes. This shouldn't really be surprising, as lead singer Carmen Espenæs is Liv Kristine's sister, and the vocal and visual similarities are evident. They were good enough, but the songs didn't seem to flow well. I'd see them again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so. What on earth has happened to Stream Of Passion? The last time I'd seen them, they were OK, but a bit lacklustre and the songs were a bit lightweight. Clearly they've improved since Arjen and Lori left. They were heavier, Marcella had a much more powerful voice than I remembered, the songs seemed better crafted. All round, they've developed into a much more interesting band. The taped vocal harmonies were intrusive and annoying, but that aside, it was a very strong performance. I hadn't heard of Draconian until a few weeks before the festival, but I quite liked what I heard. That was reflected in their live performance, which was heavy and doom-laden. Normally, that would not be a recommendation in my book, but they managed to pull it off well. The songs were well crafted and well performed, and the taped backing vocals were the only negative point for me. I'd quite liked the Visions Of Atlantis tracks that I'd heard before, but wasn't really familiar with their material. Further, they'd acquired a different singer since they recorded the tracks that I'd heard. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no bass player, so the entire set was played along to a backing track. Although they featured both male and female vocalists, there was no beauty and the beast to be seen, with clean vocals from both. She was great at times, but slightly out of tune at others. Mostly, though, the songs were just too lightweight for my tastes, and I'd have preferred something with a bit more bite. Therion were one of the main draws that persuaded me to make the trip to Belgium this year, and they didn't disappoint. Thomas Vikström wasn't able to make this show, so the male vocals were solely handled by Snowy Shaw. Although he coped admirably, they definitely could have done Thomas on stage. His daughter Linnea still doesn't look entirely at ease on stage, but she's getting there and with a bit more stage time will probably do just fine. Lori's voice was flawless, as it always seems to be. The set list was both a bit longer and a bit more aggressive than at Bloodstock, both of which were an improvement. I still don't understand why my favourite Therion song, "Typhon", always fails to make an impact when performed live, but that was once more the case here. Highlights were "Lemuria", "Clavicula nox" and "The perennial Sophia". I would have liked to have seen more material from "Gothic kabbalah" and "Sitra ahra", but that's a minor complaint about what was again a strong performance from the band. So all in all, not a bad experience for my first MFVF. With travel and accomodation, it turned into a relatively expensive weekend, so I don't think it'll become an annual trip for me. But if the lineup's right, I'd definitely consider returning. Metal Female Voices Festival IX Wieze, Belgium Doro 22nd October 2011 Leaves' Eyes Diabulus In Musica Trail Of Tears Dylath-Leen Benedictum Deadlock Amaranthe Kivimetsän Druidi Coma Divine Nemhain Hanging Doll The Saturday opened up with Hanging Doll. I've been a fan for several years, and they were one of the bands that convinced me it was worth the trip to Belgium. It was a bit disappointing to see them given a short opening slot, and a correspondingly small audience. Fortunately that filled out during their set. Dan didn't have any guitar for the opener, "Sweet retribution", but that was sorted out in time for the remainder of their set, which ended with a strong "Forlorn". Every time I see them, I'm amazed at how large a voice Sally has for such a tiny person. Hopefully they'll have made a few new fans with that performance. Nemhain had surprised me at Bloodstock with a performance that was significantly better than their previous shows, and Amber's vocals in particular had been a massive improvement. Fortunately, this show continued that trend. The band play their brand of dirty, punky groove metal, and it works well, although they come across as slightly out of place here. Coma Divine played a quirky sort of alternative goth. It was OK, but not really my thing. It also wasn't what I would have called metal, which makes their booking here somewhat surprising. Kivimetsän Druidi's vocalist is much better than the one they had when I first saw them. She has a decent voice and good stage presence. However, the band are somewhat let down by having average songs which are OK but lacking spark. Amaranthe had impressed at Bloodstock, and this performance was again good. They somehow manage to blend industrial, techno and pop metal together to create something that works. If there's a complaint, it's that they come across as somewhat manufactured, as if there's a Simon Cowell like figure in the background. Whether that's true or not, they put on a good live show, and "1,000,000 light years" and "Hunger" both went down well. Deadlock were another band that I was looking forward to seeing. They're a band that aren't afraid to take risks with their sound. I'd loved their "Wolves" album, but "Manifesto" was a bit strange to say the least, and "Bizarro world" was no less so. The band had impressed me with their precise, technical excellence, but sadly there seemed to be little evidence of that here. There was no bass player, so the second guitarist seemed to be compensating by playing rhythm rather than the harmonized lead guitars I would have expected. The male vocalist, Johannes Prem announced that he was leaving the band a few days after the show, and honestly I couldn't tell if this was his last performance of if it was his successor's first show. It didn't sound much like him. The growls had a much different tone to how I would have expected. Sabine's voice was strong, as I'd expected, and the band put on a decent performance. But in truth I was hoping for better. Still, there were several highlights, notably "Virus Jones", "Code of honour", "The brave/agony applause" and a set closing "End begins". They could have down without the taped backing vocals, though, which I felt detracted noticably from the performance. Benedictum were another band from whom I was hoping to get a better performance. They were OK, and Veronica's mid-range vocals were a bit of a change from the higher pitched vocals more commonly found at this festival. But really, the songs just weren't strong enough. Dylath-Leen didn't even get that far, and were just weak throughout with a set of death metal howling on top of reasonable but uninspiring music. The occasional clean vocals weren't enough to save them. The last time I'd seen Trail Of Tears, their female singer had just left, so they performed with two male singers. This time, there was a female back out in front, but really it wasn't much of an improved performance. Using a beauty and the beast vocal style, the beauty was mid-ranged with occasional operatic highs, and the beast was OK but nothing special. I felt the songs and the whole performance just got dull and repetative after a while. Diabulus In Musica were something of a revelation for me. I'd never heard of them before this show, but I can see why they were so high on the bill. Epic music with operatic vocals and a Therion-style choir which really helped things. They were joined on stage by Maite Itoiz and John Kelly of Elfenthal, who provided guest vocals for a couple of songs. They're definitely a band I'll be watching out for in the future. On paper, Leaves' Eyes should be brilliant. But their stage shows always seem something of a let down, and while this was probably the best I've seen them, it just doesn't seem to work, and I find their live shows to be somewhat lacklustre. Doro, on the other hand has never failed to impress and this was no exception. Another strong showing from an excellent live performer. It's a shame the festival format didn't allow for a longer set, but she made the most of what she did have, including "Für immer", "I rule the ruins", the obligatory "All we are" and "Celebrate", the latter seeing Benedictum's Veronica Freeman and Leaves' Eyes' Liv Kristine joining Doro on stage. Metal Female Voices Festival IX Wieze, Belgium Battlelore 21st October 2011 Xandria Bare Infinity I'd been meaning to go to MFVF for years, but never quite got around to it. This year, a strong lineup tipped the balance and thus I found myself in Wieze for the weekend. Things opened on the Friday with 3 bands as a warmup for the festival proper. I'd never heard of Bare Infinity before. As has become increasingly common in recent years, they made use of a "beauty and the beast" dual vocalist setup, with clean female vocals alternating with harsh male vocals. They we OK, but really seemed to be playing the beauty and the beast angle by the numbers, sounding very generic and no different to countless other bands using the same style. The drummer appeared to be out of time occasionally, too, which didn't help. I'd seen Xandria a couple of weeks earlier in London, and hadn't been hugely impressed by their new singer. What a difference a fortnight makes! In that time, they've found some zing from somewhere, and were engaging and entertaining on stage. Manuela's voice seemed to have more variation, which was good. I don't know if the London show was just an off night or whether they were just really on form here, but if they can't repeat performances like this, I'll gladly see them again. That left everyone's favourite Tolkein metal band, Battlelore, headlining the opening night. I'd seen them twice before; once with an outstanding performance at The Underworld, and once with a decidedly average show at Islington Academy. This show was somewhere between the two, being much better than the Islington show, but not quite reaching the heights of their Underworld show. They were significantly heavier than the other two bands of the night, which I'm not sure did them many favours, but they had good stage presence and it was still a good show for me. I certainly wasn't expecting to hear a Finnish band playing in Belgium dedicate a song to stalwart of the UK metal scene, Rod Boston. Sadly, Tomi announced that it would be the last Battlelore show for the forseeable future as they were putting the band on indefinite hiatus. That's a shame, but at least they went out on a high. Personal highlights from the show were "Third immortal" and "Journey to undying lands". Out Of The Dark Festival Islington Academy Tristania 9th October 2011 Van Canto Xandria Serenity Amberian Dawn I'd seen Amberian Dawn a couple of times before, so I knew what to expect. Once again, I enjoyed the performance, but again it just seemed to be lacking something. The guitars were good, and the vocals were excellent as ever. But I think the band are just better suited to making studio recordings than they are to playing live. The set closer "River of Tuoni" was the clear highlight of the set. Originally, ReVamp had been part of this bill, but they'd had to pull out due to Floor's inability to cope with the rigours of touring. Their replacement were Serenity, a band I'd last seen supporting Delain a few months earlier. As before, they put on a polished performance, with Georg Neuhauser putting on another strong showing. He's a great frontman. This time around, the female vocals were handled by Whyzdom's Clémentine Delauney. She has a decent enough voice, but she could really do with eating a few pies! She's painfully skinny. The highlight was "Fairytales", but as with their last performance, I felt they were let down by the material, which could really do with being a bit heavier. With ReVamp's withdrawal, Xandria had been bumped up the bill to third. Lisa Middlehauve had shown herself to have an impressive voice the last time I'd seen them, and again when I saw her guesting with Serenity at the Delain gig. But she's no longer in the band, and the current vocalist Manuela Kraller seems a bit of a one trick pony in comparison. Sure, she has a great voice, perhaps even better than Lisa's. But she lacks the versatility, and everything was sung in the same high register with little or no variation. Still, a new track, "Euphoria" was played tonight which sounded promising, so perhaps the next album will allow her to show of her voice. Also noteworthy was the set closer, "Ravenheart". I'd seen all of the other bands on the bill before, but Van Canto were a bit of an unknown. I had one of their albums, so I knew roughly what to expect, but I didn't know if they'd be able to pull off a full a capella live show. The answer was mostly a yes. There had been some grumbling beforehand about them being a novelty act that didn't deserve co-headlining status on this tour. The naysayers were quickly proved wrong, with Van Canto easily getting the best crowd reaction of the night. They played several of their own tracks, with "The mission" being one of the better ones, but predictably, it was the covers that went down best. "Wishmaster", "Rebellion" and "The bard's song (in the forest)" were all popular choices, and they left the best until last with Maiden's "Fear of the dark". So far, so good, but it wasn't an complete success. For me, the use of a backing track was extremely invasive, and significantly detracted from the performance. If I'm going to hear a capella music, I want to know they're actually singing it, live, there on stage, and that just didn't happen. Sure, it would have thinned out the sound somewhat, but I would have much preferred it. The other co-headliners were Tristania. Despite my pre-show expectations, it was clear that they shouldn't have been the final band of the night, as half the crowd left after Van Canto. Tristania were outstanding at their last London show. Better than any of their previous performances I've seen, in fact, and the current lineup is very strong indeed. Sadly, they started their set with shockingly bad sound, and I had to move further back to get a good mix and to be able to hear it properly. They started strongly with "Year of the rat", but wavered in the middle of the set somewhat. Fortunately, it picked up again towards the end, with a very strong ending selection of "The shining path", "Tender trip on earth", "Exile" and "Illumination". Another decent performance, and they were clearly my band of the night, but in truth, it wasn't quite as good as their show at The Underworld. Bloody Kisses The Underworld Hærken 16th September 2011 The Mariana Hollow Openers The Mariana Hollow had sounded reasonable when I'd checked out a few samples online beforehand. They seem to have generated a bit of a buzz, and I don't imagine they'll remain unsigned for long. Lead singer Rebecca has a good voice and a decent stage presence. The songs are good, and while they're clearly a bit green when it comes to performing live, the future looks bright for them. The only downside for me was the massive overuse of a backing track. I'd missed Hærken at Bloodstock because they clashed with Therion, but I'd heard good things about them and was intrigued to see them myself. Sadly, I just don't think it worked. They played a sort of thrashy death metal, which was fine until the frontman opened his voice. I wasn't expecting opera, and harsh vocals are right for the band. But a bit of clarity would really help. Bloody Kisses are a Type O Negative tribute band. I'd seen the band a couple of times, but since Pete Steele's death, a tribute band is now the closest you can get. I'd have to say that Bloody Kisses are close, but ultimately unsatisfying when it comes to replicating the Type O Negative live experience. The sound was just too thin, and unlike The Mariana Hollow, they could really have used a backing tape to beef it up a bit! Steele's voice was always going to be hard to replicate, but Muiris does a reasonable enough job, and Chris has nailed Kenny's vocals pretty accurately. The high points, namely "Black no. 1" and "Love you to death" were very good, but mostly the rest was just average. They hadn't planned an encore, but the crowd wanted one, so they came out and did "Cinnamon girl". Somehow they had all of the right ingredients, but the whole needed to be more than the sum of its parts, and sadly it wasn't. Not bad, but could have been better. Metalworks The Monarch 28th August 2011 After Destroy The Silence, I had enough time to pop into The Monarch see Metalworks performing another set of classic rock and metal covers. I've seen them plenty of times now, so knew what to expect. Nothing outstanding, just some good honest AC/DC, Billy Idol, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden and so on. I think they're always going to struggle to find someone to fill Ritchie's shoes, but they seem to have a string of pretty decent players willing to making the attempt, and the latest one, Dan Panza, seems to follow that trend. Destroy The Silence The Underworld The Eden House 28th August 2011 Pretentious, Moi? Vendemmian Rhombus The Last Cry Dutch Order The Stripper Project Dead Eyes Opened This one got off to a good start. If the hearsay is accurate, the promoter was barred from the venue (which was now The Underworld, having originally been slated for Dingwalls) before the first band had hit the stage! That first band turned out to be Dead Eyes Opened, who played traditional goth. I only caught the end of the set, but what I heard sounded good enough. The Stripper Project are what remains of Children On Stun. They played what I guess I'd describe as slightly heavy, somewhat dark '80s pop, perhaps comparable to Echo & The Bunnymen. The band was about as minimal as you can get and still call it a band, with just guitars, vocals and a backing track. Dutch Order were next, with a very stripped down sort of goth sound, but not really falling under the goth banner, at least as I'd use the term. I'm struggling to find similarities, but maybe Bauhaus would be an apt comparison. Of note was a particularly hard hitting drummer. Well, I suppose the fact that they had a drummer at all made them somewhat noteworthy here. Not really my thing, though. The Last Cry were next, with a set of intense, dark traditional goth. They were quite good, but the singer was overly dramitic, which I don't think did them any favours. I'd heard some Rhombus before, but only a couple of tracks. The music was traditional goth, with both male and female vocals. It was a good performance, but after the intensity of The Last Cry, it felt a little subdued. Vendemmian are one of the stalwarts of the London goth scene, seemingly having been around forever. Traditional goth, with a guitar tone very reminiscent of The Mission. My memory's clearly hazy, but I'd remembered there being more than just the two of them. But tonight, that's all there were. 2 guitars and a backing track. Although I like several of the bands on the bill, I was primarily at this show to see Pretentious, Moi?, Tim Chandler's solo band that had been in the works for many, many years. Somewhat in contrast to his normal speaking voice, Tim has found a remarkably deep, suitably goth voice from somewhere when he sings. He's recruited Die Laughing's Rachel Iden to provide female vocals, too, which turned out to be an inspired move as she really made a big impact tonight. No drummer or bassist, and having 3 guitarists was probably a bit unnecessary. Still, a strong performance, albeit one let down slightly by a poor mix. Headlining the night were The Eden House, Steve Carey's all star project after the demise of This Burning Effigy. They surprised me a bit by being more energetic on stage than their studio output would imply. But overall, it was still a bit too mellow for my tastes, and didn't really do much for me. Blaze Bayley Monto Water Rats Silverbox 27th August 2011 Bury The Hatchet Black State Highway Bad Touch Whetstone I hadn't heard of any of the support bands before the show. Whetstone turned out to be quite interesting. Maiden-like guitar harmonies with black metal vocals. They were very young and very green, but with a bit of time on the road to tighten things up a bit, they could be one to watch in the future. In contrast, Bad Touch appear to have been doing this for a while and were much tighter. They played glam tinged hard rock, and had a decent drummer and lead guitarist. They were perhaps let down a bit by the small crowd, but they put on a decent show, including a cover of Zeppelin's "Whole lotta love". Black State Highway played female fronted blues rock. The lead singer was tiny, but she had a big, whisky soaked voice. Not a bad performance, but they highlighted one of my pet peeves with bands, namely a lack of preparation. "Is there a drummer in the audience? Can we borrow a drumstick?". Seriously? You've come to a gig without any spares? Sheesh. "We're Bury The Hatchet, and we're a bit different to the other bands you've heard". No shit! Shouts and screams over a wall of noise were not what I was expecting and they were truly dreadful. Silverbox were clearly the pros here. They were they only ones that had a backdrop, were handing out flyers, and generally doing the job of promoting their band. Sadly, their brand of heavy alternative rock wasn't really to my tastes. The frontman was confident and charismatic, but ultimately, I think the bass player had a better voice. And so on to Blaze, one of the most consistently strong live performers I've seen. Tonight was no exception, but sadly, the night had overrun considerably by the time he took to the stage, so I (along with many others) had to leave part way through the set in order to catch the last train home. Highlights were "Voices from the past", "Man on the edge" and "The launch". The Hamsters The Horns, Watford 25th August 2011 The Hamsters were on their farewell tour before they retire, so I thought I should go and see them again while I had the chance. Unlike previous shows, they were strictly alternating the Hendrix and ZZ Top tracks throughout the set. Slim's guitar was too quiet for the first part of the show, but things improved after the mid set interval. Highlights for me were "La grange" and "Tush". Not the best I've seen them, but a decent performance nonetheless. Elimination The Unicorn, Camden Triaxis 20th August 2011 Bleed To This Bleed To This played uninspiring downtuned metal. They were OK, but ultimately bland and unmemorable. I was expecting another strong performance from Triaxis and they didn't disappoint. They played a new track, provisionally entitled "Rather fast" (later renamed "Sand and silver"), which sounded great. Glynn was very good on guitar, and highlights of the show were the cover of Maiden's "Wicker man" and once again "Lies". This was the best I've seen the band for a while. Elimination were self described as thrash with Maiden-like harmonies. There was plenty of evidence of the former, but only occasional glimpses of the latter. The lead guitarist was competent, but stopped short of brilliance. Not bad, but nothing special. Bloodstock Open Air Catton Hall, Derbyshire Motörhead 14th August 2011 Criminal Morbid Angel Last In Line Amaranthe Lifer Achilla At The Gates Power Quest Pig Iron Talanas Exodus Northern Oak Survivors Zero Inferno Sanguine Hellish Outcast Hammerfall Twilight's Embrace Operation Error Nemhain Sacred Illusion Napalm Death Amaranthe Akarusa Yaki Evil Scarecrow Primordial Spires Grand Ultra 1349 Visitor Wolfcrusher Hell Candid Inquiry Review to follow. Bloodstock Open Air Catton Hall, Derbyshire Immortal 13th August 2011 Angel Witch Rhapsody Of Fire Northern Oak The Rotted Intensive Square Haerken Therion Deadly Circus Fire Obsessive Compulsive Pure Negative Wintersun Hostile Rising Hammer Of The Gods Guardians Of Andromeda Furyborn Ihsahn Def Con One Foul Body Autopsy Fantasist Blake Impaled Existence Finntroll Avenge Thee & Naime Uburen Dripback Tarot Bury The Conscious Grave Digger Soul Sphere Zombie Militia Skeletonwitch Blud Vera Review to follow. Bloodstock Open Air Catton Hall, Derbyshire WASP 12th August 2011 Lawnmower Deth Devin Townsend Project Primitai October File Brezno Kreator Training Icarus Byfrost Alternative Carpark Cryostorm Coroner Decimation Arthemis Rannoch The Furious Horde Triptykon Romeo Must Die Saturnian Spires Cerebral Bore Rannoch Poisonblack Foul Body Autopsy Primitai Imicus Forbidden Entro-P Mortad Wolf Inner Fire Shreddertron The Defiled Unknown Fear Review to follow. Bloodstock Open Air Catton Hall, Derbyshire Beholder 11th August 2011 Revoker Xerath Achren Review to follow. The Sideshow Bobs Santa Pod Raceway The Timing Retards 25th June 2011 Time for the now traditional bands playing in the Pro ET pits at the SPRC Summer Nats. The Sideshow Bobs were a competent pub blues rock band, but their set list let them down a bit. Had they played more material that the bulk of the audience were familiar with, they'd have gone down better than they did. They were good enough at what they do, but they needed to realise that the audience, while not exactly hostile, was not there as fans of them and was just looking to see a band play music they knew. The Timing Retards were Tig and Cath's hastily put together band. Again, a pub blues rock band, but playing some tracks that the audience knew a bit better. Full marks for having the bravery to get up on stage in front of an audience, but let's just say they've got a way to go before they grace the stage at Wembley. After that, The Sideshow Bobs returned for a second set, this time with some less obscure tracks. All in all, a decent night's entertainment, but perhaps not as good as previous years. Dio Disciples Islington Academy The Rods 17th June 2011 I'd heard of openers The Rods before, and knew about the Dio connection, but had no idea what they sounded like. I was pleasantly suprised to hear straightforward high energy metal, vaguely reminiscent of Motörhead, albeit without Lemmy's distinctive vocals. They were faster and heavier than I was expecting, and I was generally impressed. I'd been aware of Dio Disciples, but I wasn't really planning on seeing them. Without the man himself, I wasn't so sure it would work, particularly with Ripper on vocals. I have a lot of time for the guy, but on paper, his voice didn't fit. Download showed that to be false, and that it was worth shelling out to see them get a longer set at one of their headlining shows. Tonight's show was basically more of the same. Once again we got both Ripper and Toby Jepson on vocals, this time joined by Doogie White for "Long live rock 'n' roll" and "Man on the silver mountain". Highlights were once again "Stargazer" and "Heaven and hell", but also "Rainbow in the dark", "Neon knights" and "Don't talk to strangers". Dio may be gone, but his disciples are doing a fine job of keeping the legacy alive. Download Donington System Of A Down 11th June 2011 Alice Cooper Twisted Sister Cheap Trick Evile Mr Big Dio Disciples Down Sons Of Icarus Welcome Wednesday Royal Republic Hollywood Undead Maiden United Skindred Rock Sugar The Boss Hoss I arrived just in time to catch the end of The Boss Hoss's set. Apparently they normally play covers of well known songs in a country and western and southern rock style. I didn't recognise was they were playing but it wasn't bad. Next up were Rock Sugar, a band that plays medley covers of songs from yesteryear. I'd heard a few tracks on the net beforehand, so I knew roughly what to expect. The plan was to see a few songs, and then switch to another stage to catch Ghost, a band that everyone seems to be raving about at the moment. But Rock Sugar were good enough that I stuck around and saw their entire set. Opening with "Don't stop the sandman", they put on a great show of lighthearted entertainment. That said, Jess Harnell has an outstanding great voice, and although the overall approach is lighthearted, they're serious about the music. They also win the award for best onstage quote: "Do you want to hear a new song? Well you're out of luck, all of ours are 20 years old!". A set closing "We will kickstart your rhapsody" rounded off an impressive performance. On the main stage, Skindred were playing to an apparently enthusiastic crowd, but there was way too much rap and hip hop for my tastes. The only memorable part of their set was when they got the audience to wave around items of clothing, for what they called "the Newport helicopter", which worked spectacularly well with such a large crowd. On the Jägermeister stage, Maiden United were plodding through a set of acoustic covers of Iron Maiden songs. They're all decent musicians, and Damian has a great voice. Obviously the material is very strong. But somehow it just doesn't work. The acoustic treatment is missing the point. An interesting novelty for a couple of tracks, but it just doesn't work for me for a whole set. Hollywood Undead were following the Skindred path of featuring too much rap, albeit with occasional musical interludes. The gimmicky masks weren't enough to hide the lack of musical substance. Royal Republic were hard to classify. Sort of Swedish southern rockabilly, perhaps, playing an acoustic set. But not quite. Whatever genre you choose to put them in, they put on an entertaining show, with highlights being "Underwear", "Tommy gun" and "Full steam space machine". I might be tempted to go and see them play a full electric show. Welcome Wednesday played pop rock sort of in the vein of Fall Out Boy, but without the clever lyrics. Reasonable enough, but nothing to write home about. Sons Of Icarus played southern tinged blues rock. Again, decent enough, but little to stand out from the crowd. On the main stage, Down were too sludgy, and in need of much more melody. A brief cover of "Walk" didn't help things, it being one of the worst songs Pantera recorded. Dio Disciples were a revelation. I really hadn't expected Ripper's voice to be a good fit for Dio's songs, but he proved to be a great choice. The addition of Toby Jepson for some of the songs was also a good idea. The only real downside was the criminally short set which only allowed time for two Dio songs, two Rainbow songs and one from Black Sabbath. The highlights for me were a spine tingling "Stargazer" and "Heaven and hell". An excellent show. Mr Big were OK, but came across as just a bit too lightweight. They're clearly great musicians, but you feel they peaked early by opening with "Daddy lover brother little boy", complete with electric drill, and it was mostly downhill from there. The exception was a rather good cover of Roth's "Shy boy". Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan are both astounding musicians, but they just seem to be lacking something here. Evile are a band that are going from strength to strength. They do the classic thrash sound better than probably anyone else right now. Good sound and an appreciative crowd helped to make a strong performance. Cheap Trick were somewhat disappointing. Sure, they were OK, but like Mr Big, they just seemed too lightweight. They lived up to their name, with numerous gimmicks throughout the show. I've never seen so many plectrums thrown into the crowd (most not reaching that far, it has to be said). Rick Nielsen's 5 necked guitar made an appearance, although he only used the top three necks. I suppose highlights would be "Surrender" and "I want you to want me", but overall, I expected more. The same could be said to a lesser degree of Twisted Sister, but only because the put on such an excellent show at Bloodstock. This one was merely good. The set seemed to start very slowly, and they lacked the energy they had at Bloodstock. However, that did change towards the end of the set, and the last four tracks, "We're not gonna take it", "I am, I'm me", "Burn in hell" and "I wanna rock" were pretty flawless. I haven't seen Alice Cooper put on a bad show yet, and this was no exception. However, it wasn't one of his best either. For a 75 minute show, it was a poor choice of setlist, including a new song, drum, bass and guitar solos and a long instrumental. The three guitarists were probably unnecessary too. The classics were good, but he's been better, and I still don't understand why he includes "Cold ethyl" or "Halo of flies" in his live shows, when he has so many better songs to his name. The set closing "School's out" had a nice touch of including snippets of Floyd's "Another brick in the wall, part 2". Finally, I moved to the main stage to watch the last few songs of System Of A Down closing the day off on the main stage. They're not my thing, so I wasn't expecting much. They could have been worse. The bad bits were terrible. The better bits were OK, but nothing more. The only vaguely enjoyable bit for me was "Toxicity". This was my first return to Donington since Monsters Of Rock twenty years earlier. The festival lineup was pretty weak for me overall, but there was enough to tempt me for a day ticket on the Saturday. Before the show, I was expecting Twisted Sister to be my band of the day, but it was Dio Disciples who took that honour, and I'll be looking out for them in the future. Roger Waters The O2 Arena 18th May 2011 I wasn't going to go to this show. The tickets were horrendously expensive, and while I love "The wall", I wasn't sure the price was justified. But then a few things happened. Friends of mine who had been to earlier dates came back raving about how good it was. Then David Gilmour turned up at one of the shows, and played "Comfortably numb", video of which appeared all over the net. And then the first anniversary of the death of Ronnie James Dio came around, which made me realise that it may well be now or never if I want to see Waters live. Opening up with walls of pyro and a fiery plane crashing into the wall set the tone for what was an impressive production. As the set progressed, the wall was built progressively higher until it completely obscured the stage, before eventually being torn down in "The trial". Throughout, a range of still and moving images were projected onto the wall, featuring all that you'd expect; the schoolmaster, marching hammers, waves of flying bombers and much, much more. The flying pig made an appearance during "In the flesh". As far as I could tell, it was genuinly flying, rather than being suspended on wires, which made it a little disappointing that it didn't venture further towards the back of the venue. Highlights were "Another brick in the wall" (all three parts), the obligatory "Comfortably numb" and somewhat surprisingly, "Run like hell", a track which never really stood out for me on the album. For me, it was a good show, but not the utterly mindblowing one that others had been claiming. I'm glad I went, though. Tigertailz The Underworld Spit Like This 14th May 2011 The last time I'd heard Spit Like This was when they handed me their demo tape at a Manowar show in the mid-'90s. It wasn't particularly good, and I didn't really think much of it. Here we are, 17 years later, with them still going. Unsurprisingly, they've improved over the intervening period, and I enjoyed their set here. It's still the same basic sleazy glam tinged rock, but they're much better at it now. The last Tigertailz show I saw was woefully underattended due to lack of promotion, and I had my concerns that this one would be the same. While it was far from sold out, there did at least seem to be a few more people here. Maybe that was just the effect of fitting the same people into a smaller venue, or maybe there genuinely were more people, but whatever the reason, it made for an improved crowd response. The band were on top form, and this was the best I've seen them since Pepsi was still alive. The set list consisted mostly of material from "Bezerk" and "Wazbones", but it was nice to see the inclusion of "Shoot to kill" from the pre-Kim era. Highlights for me were somewhat predictable: "Noize level critical", "Call of the wild" and and encore of "Love bomb baby". Sadly, they had to cut the encore short due to curfew, so we missed out on "Deuce" and "Crazy horses", but that didn't really matter. A great performance from a band that really are on top form right now. Power Quest The Purple Turtle Neonfly 5th May 2011 Primitai Primitai had impressed me when I saw them at The Underworld, and this was again a stronger performance than that. The band just play straight ahead heavy, melodic metal, and they do it well. They have a bright future ahead of them. Neonfly are another band that have been impressing me of late. This time, though, while they weren't bad, they weren't quite firing on all cylinders. Power Quest have an entirely new lineup, with only band leader Steve Williams remaining. This intrigued me, as in particular, they now have a rather stunning guitar lineup of Gavin Owen and Andy Midgley, formerly of Triaxis and Liquid Sky respectively. Rich Smith, formerly of Metalloid, did a fine job behind the drums. But I felt somewhat let down by the guitars. If you've gone out of your way to recruit such a stellar lineup, it seems strange that the guitars were underused as much as they were. Originally, the new lineup featured Pete Morten, a move I strongly approved of. However, Morten left before the band recorded or toured, and was replaced by Chity Somapala. I hadn't been overly impressed when I saw him with Firewind many years ago, and sadly the same applied here. I feel the songs were begging to be given a somewhat heavier treatment than they received here, but that needn't have been as big a problem had the vocalist been able to carry the songs a bit more. I'm afraid that for me, Chity was a very conspicuous weak point. Delain Islington Academy Serenity 30th April 2011 Lost In Thought Lost In Thought were OK, playing progressive power metal, but it seemed to lack oomph, and was too bland for my tastes. Serenity, on the other hand, also played progressive power metal, but looked polished and accomplished with it. Georg Neuhauser has a great voice, and shows it off well in a live setting. In addition, they had Lisa Middelhauve, formerly of Xandria, performing guest vocals on several tracks. My only complaint is that they could have done with being a bit heavier. The same charge couldn't be levelled at headliners Delain, who were much heavier than I was expecting, and like Serenity, put on a confident, polished show. New guitarist Timo Somers performed very well in what I think was only his second show with the band. The highlight for me was a new song, tentatively titled "Get the devil out of me", which bodes very well for the next album. If there was a criticism, it was that there were perhaps a few too many slow songs in the set list. But that's a very minor complaint, and it was a good evening with strong performances from the two main bands. Manowar O2 Academy, Birmingham Paul Clark Jr 27th March 2011 Review to follow. Turisas Islington Academy Crimfall 17th March 2011 Review to follow. Epica The Scala ReVamp 15th March 2011 Review to follow. Beholder Sound, Leicester Square Rogue Male 10th March 2011 Inner Fire Snake Eyes I'd heard the name Snake Eyes, but hadn't actually heard any of their music until tonight. They turned out to be reasonable enough power metal with decent vocals. But they were let down by their songwriting, which was just poor, with the songs lacking power. A disappointing set, with only their cover of "Breaking the law" standing out as a highlight. Inner Fire were just straight up traditional metal. It's sort of refreshing to see a band doing that these days. They're not about to set the world alight any time soon, but they were enjoyable enough. Rogue Male was a name I hadn't heard for a very long time. They had some minor success and had released a couple of albums in the mid-'80s before fading into obscurity. Recently reformed, albeit with a largely different lineup, they turned out to be suprisingly good. Heavier than I'd remembered, and somewhat reminiscent of Motörhead in places. I have a lot of time for Beholder. I first saw them as a covers band at Bloodstock years ago. But since then, they've started writing their own material, released a very strong debut album, "The awakening", and have some impressive live performances to their name. That said, this wasn't one of their better performances. Although there was no lack of effort from the band, they suffered with a poor mix. However, "Heretic", "March of the damned" and a cover of "Holy diver" were all worthy enough to stand out in my memory. Metalworks The Monarch Wasted Sinners 6th March 2011 Review to follow. Rob Zombie Brixton Academy Skindred 16th February 2011 Revoker I arrived too late to see either of the supports, but I wasn't expacting to like them anyway, so I don't think I missed much. I'm not the world's biggest Rob Zombie fan, but I don't dislike him, and a friend didn't want to go on her own, so I'd tagged along. He'd promised to bring his full US stage show over, and sure enough, the stage had 4 huge video screens, pyro was plentiful, and all manner of Eddie-like creature strolled around the stage. But ultimately, no amount of showmanship can hide the fact that the music just wasn't to my tastes. The songs kept threatening to break into Rammstein-like stomp, but never quite made it, and the vocal lines just weren't varied enough to make the songs interesting. Even on the better received tracks like "Thunder kisses 1965" and "Dragula", it all just seemed a bit flat. He put in plenty of effort, but sadly it was a disappointing evening for me. Metalworks The Monarch 13th February 2011 Review to follow. Recent concerts Concerts from 2010 Concerts from 2009 Concerts from 2008 Concerts from 2007 Concerts from 2006 Concerts from 2005 Concerts from 2004 Concerts from 2003 Concerts from 2002 Concerts from 2001 Concerts from 2000 Concerts up to 1999