Havok were up first and whipped up a furious storm with quite a dangerous pit erupting straight away for these young whippersnappers and their fast fluid thrash. The sound was a bit unclear for them but it didn't really hinder them at all as they piled on riff after vicious riff and started the night off in pretty much perfect fashion. Some of the nuances and technical skill of the band got somewhat lost but they more than made up for it with youthful energy.
Next up were Spaniards Angelus Apatrida whose new album The Call is a vicious little thrashing bastard of an album I can tell you for nothing. As a live proposition they pretty much aped their studio persona with a thrashing fiery haired fron tman with acid barks for vocals instigating a tornado of blistering riffs. The band were tight and a little more controlled than Havok but they were still as intense. However the pit never got anywhere near as crazy as it did for Havok which goes to show how much Havok are respected and loved by the true thrashers. Angelus Apatrida were still very good and solid though and the new songs from The Call sounded blistering although again their sound mix could have been a touch clearer. They also had a few Spaniards at the front shouting their name and a few words in Spanish to give them encouragement, not that they needed it cause they managed fine on their own.
Next up were Americans Goatwhore whose music I have basically not heard a single note of. I've heard them described as black/death mix with groovy riffs and it was the perfect description of their sound to be fair. They weren't really my cup of tea but they went down an absolute storm to be honest. They have a great big imposing frontman who screams out the evil lyrics with great abandon whilst mean face pulling the front rows and throwing horns and high fiving them at the same time. The band is very intense and quite groovy as described with a few nice time changes here and there. I'm still not sure I will check it out but they weren't actually horrible at all and like I said the crowd treated them as the headliner rather than 3iob almost with huge moshing and fervent fist banging throughout their set.
Finally the hairy metal monsters from Vancouver took to the stage at 10pm and tore straight into Metal Woman from the new album like men possessed. The crowd was actually less packed than it was for Goatwhore and the energy was somewhat dampened by the riots from the three previous bands but the band was only just warming up and the crowd finally got going with pits breaking out here there and everywhere with circle pits, with the infamous Underworld mid floor pole acting as pivot!
The 3 Inches boys were tight as hell and were afforded the best sound of the night to boot which is understandable with them being the head liners. Front man Cam Pipes was screaming his nuts off and the band were feeding off the frenzy of the crowd to pull of vicious tight riffs whilst maintaining their newly found more melodic angle. Leather Lord from the new album was completely mind blowing and nearly took the roof off the Underworld! They tore through the rest of their set like they had a train to catch or something but they never missed a beat and were super tight right through. Dark Messenger was another amazing tune sung with ear raping power by Cam Pipes. 4000 Torches another huge slab of molten heavy metal. After an hour or so their set finally ended and a hi-octane night of heavy metal was over. It was an enjoyable night of diverse true thrashing metal watched by a rabid metal hungry packed out crowd of 500. Can't really beat it can you!
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