We
arrived at Wembley Arena moments before main support
Five Finger Death Punch are due to take to the
stage and it is clear from the moment that we
walk in that Wembley is crammed full of people
waiting to be entertained by some of their favourite
metal bands for a couple of hours.
Five Finger Death Punch kicked off their 10 track
set in style with the explosive ‘Under And
Over It’ and from the off Five Finger Death
Punch look in great form on the huge stage at
Wembley as they energetically thrash their way
through the song whilst the crowd join forcing
with the majority of the crowd air guitaring along
whilst also singing word for word along
with front man Ivan Moody who is quickly becoming
one of the best front men in metal these days
due to his love for the fans and his unpredictable
nature where each performance is different from
the last.
As the set progresses the band blast their way
through some heavy yet melodic songs such as ‘Burn
It Down’, ‘ Hard To See’, ‘
Lift Me Up’, ‘Bad Company’,
‘Coming Down’, ‘ Burn MF’
before going on to close the set with the epic
sing-a-long crowd pleaser ‘The Bleeding’
which had the majority of the crowd singing-a-long
word for word whilst also holding their phones
and lighters in the air swaying around under Ivan
Moody’s orders.
I
have seen Five Finger Death Punch on the live
circuit quite a number of times now and it is
safe to say that tonight was easily one of the
best shows I have ever seen the band put on as
they played through many of their most loved songs
and they had the majority of the crowd on their
side from start to finish and for the people who
had come along to see Avenged Sevenfold only and
had no idea who Five Finger Death Punch were,
well they got a lesson in what heavy metal is
all about and I am sure soon as the show they
headed down to their local record shop to purchase
some FFDP albums.
Now
Avenged Sevenfold have been away from the UK for
a little while now as the last time they graced
the UK was back in 2010 when they did a co-headline
tour with Stone Sour and also when they took the
same show to Download festival on the same year
playing just before System Of A Down on the main
stage, Avenged Sevenfold are now back with their
sixth studio album ‘Hail To The King’
and are back in the UK for their first ever headline
Arena tour and this will be followed up next year
with an headline performance on the main stage
at Download Festival.
Before
Avenged Sevenfold even arrived in the UK there
was talk about the big stage show they were bringing
along with them and how amazing it will be so
tonight there was massive expectations for Avenged
Sevenfold and their stage show, as soon as the
curtain dropped and the band took to the stage
it was safe to say the talk about the stage show
was true as right in the middle of the stage was
a massive skull bat just like the bands logo or
mascot shall we say and throughout the set the
bat let out an extreme about of fire and this
mixed with the massive lighting show and various
other fire going off around the stage things seemed
pretty awesome.
Avenged
Sevenfold opened with ‘Shepherd Of Fire’
which also happens to be the open track from their
latest album Hail To The King and I have to say
it was a pretty epic opening and it had everyone
staring in awe as the band truly smashed their
way through the song in a heavy and energetic
way and to start with it was tough on where to
look as the likes of Zacky Vengeance, Synyster
Gates and Johnny Christ were all over the stage
unleashing some amazing instrumental work, whilst
Arin Ilejay was drumming like a mad man, and M
Shadows was singing away with his unique voice
gracing the airwaves with perfection whilst his
big tattooed muscular arms were being shown off
in various different poses and whilst the band
were unleashing the metal, there stage props of
fire explosions and massive bangs were going off
everywhere giving off such a spectacular visual
display.
Tonight
Avenged Sevenfold were in great shape and played
through their 15 track set with ease with the
likes of ‘Critical Acclaim’, ‘Welcome
To The Family’, ‘Hail To the King’,
‘Buried Alive’, ‘Nightmare’,
‘This Means War’, ‘Afterlife’.
and a few others being blasted out to over 12,000
fans tonight and throughout the set their was
not much interaction from the band but at one
point M Shadows was encouraging the crowd to kick
off as many circle pits as possible but in all
honesty I don’t think any encouragement
was needed as the crowd were on top form moshing
and unleashing their energy from start to finish.
The
show came to an end with the fan favourite ‘Bat
Country’, this was then followed up by a
two song encore which featured ‘Chapter
Four’ and ‘Unholy Confessions’
from their Waking The Fallen album and this prompted
the crowd to go mosh pit crazy one final time.
Overall tonight Five Finger Death Punch were on
top form and I am sure the majority of the crowd
tonight are looking forward to when Five Finger
death Punch head back to the UK in March for a
headline tour, whilst Avenged Sevenfold put on
a great show but I have
to say that towards the end their stage show started
to get a bit samey which left me thinking back
to how amazing their graveyard stage set up was
on their last tour and also I felt that the set
list was too top heavy on new songs and didn’t
feature some of the classics like ‘Dear
God’, ‘Beast And The Harlot’,
‘Seize The Day’ etc but then again
when you are a band who has a massive back catalogue
it doesn’t matter what set list you pick
you are never going to play everyone’s perfect
set but I do hope before Download Festival comes
around Avenged Sevenfold mix up their set list
a bit.
Five Finger Death Punch 5/5
Avenged Sevenfold 4/5
Review By Trigger
Photos By Robert Lawrence
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