Evile and support came to the Underworld on Thursday night and the place was well and truly rocking and as sweaty as a BO sufferer's Convention on opening night!
First up was a band whose name I didn't catch and still can't tell who they were. They were a crossover band very much in the mould of Suicidal Tendencies. The singer made me laugh with his quips and funny Brummie accent. I think they were from the midlands somewhere cause they were making in house jokes about "this song is for our favourite band from Matlock" or some such! These guys were quite cool and not bad at all for a crossover band. They had some good thrashy riffs going on and the obligatory hardcore bullyboy posturing. They also had plenty of tongue in cheek humour going on with digs at closed minded metalheads etc. Not bad at all guys!
Next were the great new thrash band from right here in London that goes by the name of Mutant. I had already heard the samples of their new 4 track EP and also their previous songs and have also seen them supporting live once before as well. These guys are absolutely phenomenally catchy as a bad rash, rabid thrash metal! The bassist was a funny looking guy and looked far from a metalhead but hey he's up on stage and bashing out metal and here I am only writing about it. I guess he's more metal than me! Any how Mutant did not dissapoint for one nanosecond. The sound was pretty good for these boys to allow their killer hook filled thrash riffing to pummel away until the kids at their front and the oldies at the back got their fill. Stage divers appeared on a regular basis and knocked the mic stand over but this was nothing compared to Evile. Just you wait till you read about that. I bought their Laserdrome EP for a fiver and I am looking forward to playing it a bit later. All I know is these chaps need to get in a studio and make a killer disk...and FAST!
Unfortunately Irish thrash crew Warpath had to pull out of the tour for some reason of which I am not yet aware of and their place was taken by Bristol's Trigger the Bloodshed at two days notice apparently. I must admit I gave TtB's CD a glowing review on Pure Metal and once I found out they would be the main support I was pretty excited to see them live. Alas this was not their night. The sound mix unfortunately turned their brutal lightspeed death metal to an aural cocophany with little clarity. The fact that the guys play so fast and their songs have little in the way of light and shade didn't help matters. They tried hard and gave their all to try to get the crowd going but this crowd was here for thrash and their brand of brutal death just didn't work for me. I still really like their new album and may possibly see them again when they return, but I have a feeling that the Trigger boys are one of those bands that just do not transmit well to the live setting.
Finally it was on to Northern thrashers Evile. The Underworld was pretty full at this stage at around 3/4 or more full. The youngsters had already gone apeshit for Mutant but this was absolutely nothing compared to Evile. The stage was descended upon like locusts by stream upon stream of stage divers and crowd surfers. The mic stand took a battering and the band didn't know were to stand half the time so as not to get hit and to actually play the songs. I must admity I am not a huge fan of Evile on record but they are a good solid band. However in the live setting I was blown away by their performance. The sound mix was perfect for them too, allowing the riffs to crunch away with good clarity and power.
The band played for roughly 75 minutes in total with energy to spare. The guitarist/vocalist commented a number of times about how overwhelmed he was at the response from the crowd. They were literally going berserk for Evile. The songs themselves are not anything out of the ordinary themselves but are infused with this genuine uncontrollable need for a good head bang or mosh which is hard to resist even for a hairless idiot like me! They also debuted a couple of new songs which fitted in nicely among their first album although I must admit I didn't hear any major progress just more of the same.
Thrash was king last night at the Underworld and the token death metal band failed to prosper in the end. I look forward to seeing both Mutant and Evile again especially Mutant - what a great young band. Both bands should also make a full length album hopefully, especially the London thrash boys of Mutant. They really know how to tear it up!
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