Mutant hit the stage and tear through a neck breaking
thrash set with extreme force. Very powerful music
with a lot of stop and starts so that when you
think it’s safe to take a break and let
your guard down it kicks back in and rushes through
your face. One thing I must say is I think they
are the least original band of the night because
for some parts sound quite generic but somehow
they manage to not be completely generic by including
some truly great hooks and riffs with a lot of
delay on the vocals. Its more of a party atmosphere
than a massive brutal metal gig which is a nice
change for once. Surprisingly the room by the
point of mutant playing is majority full which
for a support band to come on to is a very good
thing.
Elimination are a pure thrash metal infused with
battle and power metal elements. Much more distinctive
sound than Mutant. They have a lot more energy
on stage and they have a much larger stage presence.
However having all this should be a lot more exciting
than the previous band yet the crowd reaction
to them as opposed to mutant is much lower than
I expected. Maybe for a thrash crowd they were
a bit different however I thought it was much
better to have this kind of variety on a night
that could have been 3 bands sounding exactly
the same. In their last song half way through
they slip in the riff from Judas Priest classic
“Breaking the Law” which picks up
the crowd reaction a bit but not by much. Either
way I thoroughly enjoyed Elimination and think
they played a damn good set.
Evile bring my fears of a thrash gig without a
single mosh pit to an end; as soon as they stride
onto the stage and blast through “First
Blood” it opens up and the face smashing
begins. The thing with Evile is unlike a lot of
band including thrash bands you don’t need
to know the songs fully to bang your head to them
as they don’t have many sudden tempo or
style changes they ease into them instead so you
can pick them up. The only noticeable glitch in
the performance is the very uncomfortable silence
between songs due to excessive water intake by
Matt Drake yet when not inhaling water he is a
very funny confident front man. The set encompasses
an equal balance of song between both albums including
some Infected Nations songs rarely and never played
live “Plague to end all Plagues”,
“Metamorphosis” “My Parasite”
as well as the title track “Infected Nations”.
Evile want everyone to know even though their
second album was very experimental that they are
not going to lose their way with the taster from
the new album, the song “Bitch” from
the upcoming third album; there are no vocals
for the song which make it entertaining to listen
to Matt sing a lot of random “Something
and something again!” and Ol Drake not knowing
one section of the guitar parts and mess about
making for some good entertainment; very funny
to witness but the music is damn fast and heavy
showing just where the band are heading with the
new album. The classics from “Enter the
Grave” are the tracks that really destroy
the venue and cause the blood to shed, “Thrasher”,
“We Who are About to Die”, neck cracking
“Enter the Grave” and their encore
“Killer From The Deep” noted for being
written by the late great Michael Alexander. Glorious
end to a mental thrash gig that left me feeling
deeply satisfied.
Mutant – 3/5
Elimination -4/5
Evile - 5/5
Review By James Webb
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