The Exodus guys were actually finishing off a two day thrash fest all of their own on the Wednesday night having also played the previous night. Obviously they are very popular as the Wednesday gig was pretty close to sold out as the Tuesday night gig must've been as well.
2 Support bands to get through first. First was The Heretic Order who I've seen supporting at the Underworld before. They are like Ghost quite a bit in looks but not sound. They play a sort of brash and heavy ghoulish metal with satanic themes and quite a bit of melody here and there in the guitars. I've seen them twice now and I just can't get into them. They had two girls in white dancing on the stage with them for the first song but they left after that. They should've stayed for the whole 30 minutes as it would've given me something to look at!
Next up were the oddly mixed band English Dogs who number Gizz Butt in their ranks the guitarist from The More I See and of course he was in Prodigy as well. Any how their mix of raging power/thrash and punk was really quite cool with shredding solos from Gizz all over the shop. I enjoyed their short set without knowing any of their songs. Their riffing somehow reminds me of early Metallica and some power metal bands that like to super fast. The songs had simple catchy refrains which made them quite easy to enjoy. Quite a busy and relentless mosh pit started up for these guys but noting like the mayhem that would follow for Exodus. Managed to get a few cool pics of these guys but that was almost impossible for Exodus!
So at 9.30 the bay area heavyweights finally took to the stage and started immediately ripping out thunderous riff after thunderous riff sans Gary Holt of course who was back in the States with Slayer. Not that it made a difference as they just cut loose with a live performance to be reckoned with. Zetro was in amazing form as well and sounded better live than he does on record. I tend to find his over venomous rasp a little grating on record, but live he has the crowd eating out of his hand. They were promoting current record Blood In Blood Out of course and played a fair whack of that cd. I must admit I didn't really get into it when it came out although I saw the class of that album, but the songs sounded much better live. The title track was a complete riot in particular.
The mosh pit was non stop fucking mental all night and Zetro took great glee in whipping up the fervour even more and even mentioned that this night took him back to the days when the band would play Ruthie's Inn, obviously a joint they must have played a lot back in the day. Exodus were a literal firestorm of riffs and acid drenched vocals all night and the shredding was brain surgery level. You would be hard pressed to find a punter that wasn't sporting a shit eating grin as these guys laid waste to the Underworld with their tightly played and riffed mastery. Exodus has never really been my fave band from the classic thrash era but live they have few equals that's for certain. A mental, sweat drenched, avalanche of face melting thrash metal was delivered by these guys for two days straight. Hard to beat that!
Black 13
Blood In, Blood Out
Iconoclasm
Children of a Worthless God
(Preceded by 'Raining Blood'/'… more )
Piranha
Salt the Wound
Pleasures of the Flesh
Body Harvest
Metal Command
Blacklist
A Lesson in Violence
(With Gizz Butt from English Dogs)
Bonded by Blood
Encore:
War Is My Shepherd
The Toxic Waltz
Strike of the Beast
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