Artist: Blaze bayley, Fury UK, Decadenze

Venue: Trillians Rock bar, Newcastle 

Date:  21 May 2009 

It's not often that we get down to Trillians these days but with an invite to see Fury UK support Blaze Bayley, well we simply couldn’t refuse and what a great night of Metal we experienced. 

Tonight we would witness three top notch bands all giving it 110% and first up was Decadenze, a young band that really know how to rock big style.  The band feature Chris Edge on vocals, Phil Haycock and Adam Dive on guitars, Steve Edge on bass and completing the line-up Rick Newsome on drums.  The band did a short but very impressive set opening up with ‘Throw It Away’, a great up tempo rocker which led straight into ‘Broken Glass’.  The band were firing on all six here tonight and the twin guitars really work well together.

The band were cramming in as much as possible into the short time scale they had been allotted, with little chat in between songs, but this didn’t matter too much as it was the songs we all wanted to hear and the band continued to impress us with ‘Tomorrow Is Too Late’ and the superb ‘Shoot Me High’.  But song of the set had to be the closer ‘Draggin Me Down’ a much heavier vibe to this one which went down well with the Bayley Metalheads in audience and with the band taking over from Fury UK for the next three dates on the Bayley tour their sure to made a few friends on the way. 

Next up was Fury UK, a band that I have seen on numerous occasions and one that has gone from strength to strength since our first encounter with them.

The band led by the guitar wiz Chris Appleton have seen many line-up changes over the past few years.  Strangely enough our first encounter with the band was at this very same venue.  These changes have only seemed to strengthen the band and if you're gonna make it big, then you're gonna want to get a band behind you that are truly in tune with what you want the band represent music wise.  After tonight's performance I really got the impression that the band are now a proper united front who truly believe in the music they create and the direction they are traveling in. 

The band also had a short set but with Appleton at the helm you know he’s gonna give you one hell of a show on the guitar, and tonight he was on fire.  Opening up their account with ‘Salvation’ from the EP of the same name, it was a great opener and one on which Appleton really went for broke but without being to flashy, something which a lot more named guitarist’s seem to do.

The heavy guitar powered sound continued their set with another song off the 'Salvation', EP this time it was 

‘Manslaughter' that was given the live treatment and seemed to really get the crowd pumped up as heads started banging and fists were raised in salute.

Next up was a sample of what to expect from the bands forthcoming album 'VR' and what better way than the title track ‘VR’.  This was sheer brilliance by Appleton once again and was more in line with traditional Metallica with plenty of bite, gritty riff driven metal at its finest.

Things continued with another new song, this time ‘Brotherhood’ which kept that heavy feel going as the band powered through and took Trillians PA to the limit, before ‘Call To Arms’ rocked the place.  Another song of the set had to be one of personal favourites from the band, the excellent ‘Death By Lightening’, which I’m glad to see is included on the new album as a bonus track.  This song is one of the finest pieces of metal you’ll hear and rounded off what has to be on of the best sets by the band I’ve seen so far.  There's loads more to come from this band in the not too distant future and no doubt bigger stages than the one they played tonight, and far off countries beckon if tonight's performance is anything to go by. 

Now to the headline act Blaze Bayley, a man who very nearly became the lost singer of Iron Maiden, when after Bruce Dickinson returned to the band, he became a little disheartened with the whole music scene.  Thankfully his wife Debbie soon put him back on the path and showed the world that Blaze was the man that wouldn’t lay down and die, and that their was plenty more metal to come from the man.

Sadly his wife Debbie died in September last year, but she would have been proud of her man, as he has taking on all that she had done before and put together this tour without label support, or any other financial support, just to show the world that Blaze is 

back and he’s come to kick some serious ass.

Opening up with the title track of his latest album 'The Man That Wouldn't Die', it was clear for all to see that Blaze meant business.  He had his game face on for sure as he powered through this song with his usual angst style.

This was Blaze giving it his all from the off as he produced one of the best sets I’ve seen performed at Trillians for a long time and the crowd were really connecting with the man and his music, as an eruption of fevered head-banging was the order of the night down at the front of the stage.

With a set that was taken from his Blaze days together with a couple of Maiden tracks and some new material thrown in for good luck, this was indeed a "Best of Blaze" set.  The band continued with the powerhouse metal of ‘Blackmailer' and the thunderous ‘The Launch’, with little chatter or just the song name in between songs.  Tonight the band were letting the music do the talking big style.  The first of the Maiden tracks was ‘Lord Of The Flies’ which seemed to act as a catalyst to the crowd who erupted once again into a flurry of heads, hair and fists down the front for this one.

The old school fans were really ignited with the likes of ‘The 10th Dimension', 'Identity' and the pumping ‘Kill And Destroy’, taken from the two Blaze albums which followed his Maiden days and the one's that should have pushed his career to greater heights than they did.

There were a couple of surprises tonight, no 'Man On The Edge' but he did do 'The Clansman', which was a far better choice and really rocked as the crowd once again raised their fists and their voices in salute.

It's about time I mentioned the band, who despite the small stage at Trillians were just superb, especially the guitar duo of Jay Walsh and Nico Bermundez who just spewed out lick after tremendous lick like men possessed.

The set was rounded off with ‘Robot’, the single from 'The Man Who Wouldn't Die' album.  Once again Blaze was really going for it on this one and showed us all he still has that same fire in his eyes that he had in the beginning.  I hope this new album once again finds the name of Bayley on the lips of metal fans worldwide because this man is a true metal survivor and deserves more credit for his music than he's received in previous years.  He is indeed "The Man That Refuses To Die!".

 

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