Elm Street do well as far as opening is
concerned, but I do wish someone would tell the
singer he didn’t have to scream when he
wasn’t singing, a) it hurts the ears and
b) it’s very difficult to understand at
times. There was no shortage of explosive energy
as they look like their having seizures with the
speed of that hair swinging round, they’re
enthusiastic and hungry to perform which is a
great thing to see and perhaps with maturity will
come a more professional feeling set, whilst I
enjoyed watching them I cannot say that I would
pay to watch them headline which mean’s
I wasn’t overly thrilled.
Warbringer are by far the superior thrash act
of the evening, they obtain an essential technique
when playing to a crowd of people whom may possibly
have no idea who you are, and that my friends
is the simple art of humour. Their vocalist manages
to poke fun out of the crowd and himself when
his failed attempts for a pitt crash and burn
and during those rare awkward silences that sometimes
arise. Crossed with this their material really
is extraordinary and really raises the energy
levels and pushes hyperactivity within me but
you’d never notice as everyone is stood
stiff as a board in the room with a few exceptions.
Promoting their latest album “IV: Empires
Collapse” they plough through their set
for what only feels like 10 minutes to me but
turned out to be more along the lines of 40 minutes,
time it would appear really does fly when you’re
having fun!
Iced Earth get off to a very rocky start when
the microphone doesn’t exactly perform as
it should… well it didn’t perform
at all, the only glimpse of anything lead vocal
wise was when the music died down and you could
hear what the band could hear through their monitors
and this wasn’t something that was apparently
even picked up by the sound engineers; you can’t
blame the band as they wouldn’t even be
aware but you’d think people would do their
jobs properly but no instead we were subjected
to a subpar experience which was then unaided
by the band themselves taking the piss out of
us claiming it was only in certain parts in the
crowd and implying we were thick not to move,
no offence lads but a few of us did and you could
hear fuck all anywhere in that venue. Knocked
out a fair few from their new album “Plagues
of Babylon” which is probably because this
is the latest vocalist’s first album with
them and they’re really trying to give it
a push and sprinkling a few classics around to
break it all up. I’m extremely disappointed
because having seen Iced Earth with Stu Block
before I’m well aware that his vocals are
extraordinary and the energy on stage was fantastic,
but the whole experience clouded by that monumental
flaw in setup.
Elm Street 3/5
Warbringer 4/5
Iced Earth 3/5
Review By James Webb
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