Down to the Underworld again to see the "man who would not die" once again after not seeing him for many years. The new album Promise and Terror is quite good so I was really looking forward to this show. First up I had Northern Irish band Sinocence to entertain me which they did pretty much. I gave their album a pretty glowing review on the pure metal site as I recall so I was looking forward to seeing them. The singer's voice is a bit limited in the live setting but they have some great thrashy melodic riffs going on in their songs which helps to loosen up the crowd nicely. They played for about 40 minutes and got a decent response from the crowd.
Speaking of the attendance it was much better than I thought it was going to be. Camden Town station was closed but that didn't stop a fair sized crowd of around 300 or so turning up to witness the Blaze Bayley Band. At 8.30 prompt the band strode on to the stage and started the first song before the main man finally walked on and launched into the first song from the new album. The sound was pretty good and the band looked hungry and driven especially the bass player and of course the ever enthusiastic Blaze. To be honest I've seen Blaze round around more before but he's got a bit older and bigger since those days and the Underworld stage ain't exactly big either!
Anyway the beginning of the show featured tracks from the first two albums in the main which all sounded very good indeed. Blaze was using his Vibrato a lot at the end of the lines and whilst his range is limited, his baritone vocals sounded very powerful live. The band were on fire as well and the crystal clear sound helped matters no end. 1633 from the new album was an epic and brilliant track but there were so many good ones that it's hard to pick favourites. Letting go of the world from the new album was yet another highlight from a blinding set list.
Mid set we had the customary two Maiden tracks which had the best response of the whole night. Man on the Edge and The Clansman were both incendiary. The crowd even started mini good natured mosh pits for both of them. The Clansman was definitely the song of the night for me and immensely enjoyable and even a bit emotional.
Blood and Belief was also a magical heavy song as well with lots of head banging all round. Stare at the Sun was massively well received by the crowd. Blaze seemed to be genuinely moved by the adulation he received with regular "Blaze!" chants starting up in between songs and drowning out the man himself. Blaze is a rather humble guy with what seems an immense inner strength to play heavy metal and no one in the room was going to deny him that right. After 90 minutes the last song of the night was played as there was a strict curfew of 10.15. Kill and Destroy was a very heavy end to what was a great night of pure heavy metal and all for only a tenner. No doubt about it - this geezer Blaze is here to stay and bleed metal from every pore!
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