Bands: Destruction & Onslaught
Venue: An Cruiscin Lan, Cork, Ireland
Date: 11 November 2007   

It's hard to fathom how a band like Destruction can play huge open air festivals one month, and then completely re-adjust to playing small venues, just like Cork's An Cruiscin Lan, a bar venue with a capacity of 300 max, located just on the outskirts of what is essentially a very small city in the South of Ireland. So surely this scaling down to in your face intimacy can only result in the venue being jammed? Wrong. As Britain’s reformed thrash metal pioneers Onslaught take to the confined stage, the floor space is plentiful to say the least.

Nevertheless, those who have assembled to watch are treated to around 45 minutes of clinical thrash, complimented by an absolutely insane mosh pit on the floor, making up for the fact that still less than a hundred people are in the venue. Many had come especially to catch Onslaught and from talking to both sides afterwards, it was easy to see that both band and fans were hugely impressed with these Briton's first appearance in Cork.

Thankfully the crowd had become a bit larger by the time that the lights dimmed for the entrance of Germany's finest export (behind Erdinger and Helloween), and the ensuing performance was nothing short of sheer thrashtastic brilliance. I can only imagine that the experience was similar to that of the bands early club gigs, the sweaty, intense, in your face atmosphere, with fans falling onto the stage, and unfortunately for some of us, Schmier standing on your fingers with his New Rocks.

The latter, along with guitarist Mike and "new boy" drummer Marc ploughed through (quite literally) over an hour of thrash classics, which are about as comforting to the ears as a nuclear explosion, although I suspect that the desired results were achieved on Destructions part. 'Mad Butcher' and 'Nailed to the Cross' are absolutely clinical, Schmier is nothing short of a metal god as he treads the stage in his menacing way, truly appreciating the energetic pit in front of him, which to Destructions amazement consisted mainly of girls, giving it right back to the guys.

Following on from a question I asked him earlier on in the day, Schmier addressed the crowd to the tune of "I see a lot of Wacken t-shirts here, and I don't care where the fuck we're playing, if it's Wacken or Cork, I want to see everyone fucking moving!", before introducing closing anthem 'The Butcher Strikes Back'.

Destruction manage to make it look just so easy, pounding out song after song without breaking a sweat, and truly live up to the statement that the smaller gigs are just as important as the huge, open air shows located in rural areas of Germany. Kudos has to be given to both Destruction and Onslaught for giving such stellar performances to such a small crowd, when many other bands would have gone back into rock star mode in a similar situation.        

It doesn’t say much about the Cork metal scene though, that a band with such legendary status as Destruction, can play a tiny pub, and get a total of 140 people in attendance. The metal scene is obviously somewhere, as Gorgoroth 2 weeks afterwards was absolutely jointed with the black clad masses, but where were they for Destruction?  

Undoubtedly a return to Irish shores will be on Destructions future itinerary, after 2 great shows this year, but whether they come back to this Southern city is anyone’s guess.  Either way, Destruction live is not to be missed, they will kick you right in the face, and you'll enjoy every second of it. Fact.

* Review by Shadow Warrior.

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