Artist:  Devil Driver, Behemoth, Suicide Silence, Trigger The Bloodshed, Malefice

Venue:  Rios, Leeds

Date:  18 October 2009 

Trigger the Bloodshed:
Another band with an early stage time and a short set is second band Trigger the Bloodshed. Veterans of the support slot on UK metal tours in the last couple of years, the band don’t have the best of nights as they are blighted by sound problems from the off and the first couple of songs are performed unintentionally as instrumentals while the sound guys figure out they’ve not switched the singer’s microphone on yet.  Once that gets sorted things do get better, but only marginally.  Apart from the first few rows, the crowd seem largely disinterested and the band end up coming off as a little generic and stale. Not a bad set by any means but unfortunately one that fails to stand out tonight.

Suicide Silence:
Next up are the hotly anticipated Suicide Silence. Currently darlings of the screamo/Kerrang scene, cynics will see their inclusion on this bill as nothing more than just a tactic by the promoters to draw in the ‘scene’ kids and while there may be some truth in that assessment, there’s more to Suicide Silence than their image. While the screamo vocals may fit the image, the music is a bludgeoning mix of death metal and thrash and judging by the t-shirt ratio amongst the crowd, a large portion are here for them and from the word ‘go’ they turn the audience into one large moshing throng. Singer Mitch Lucker’s stage presence is inspired and he works the crowd like a veteran (despite wearing slippers – yes slippers!), with every word sung right back at him. Their music may not be for everyone but they’re tight and generate a massive response from the crowd (albeit mostly the younger members) and that is hard to argue with.

Behemoth:
After the world’s longest sound-check (seriously, how perfect do you want the drums to sound?!), Poland’s finest export Behemoth finally take the stage and receive what can only be described as a heroes’ welcome.  They are pretty much THE most popular band in extreme metal right now and this is somewhat of a rare treat as they aren’t often seen on the UK gig circuit. Frontman Nergal strikes a domineering presence on stage and has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand right from the start with his call-to-arms style commands and the man’s charisma just radiates throughout the entire room, the reasons behind his recent award of ‘Best Frontman of 2008’ in the Terrorizer readers poll becoming all too clear. 

The band also swept up several other awards such as ‘Best Live Band’ and it’s easy to see why – the band play one of the tightest sets this reviewer has seen in a long time, held together by the rhythm section of Orion’s rumbling bass guitar and the lightning fast drumming of Inferno and complemented by the machine-gun style guitars of both Nergal and Seth to give an all round, heavy as hell experience that leaves the audience thoroughly battered and bruised.  Behemoth also put on one of the best shows in metal today (Nergal’s microphone stand is easily in the same league as that of Korn’s Jonathan Davis or Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P) and as soon as Nergal dons his now trademark headgear for set-closer ‘Lucifer’, the crowd go ballistic.  Not many bands are able to give tonight’s headliners a run for their money in the live arena but if anyone can, surely Behemoth can.

Devil Driver:
While Behemoth certainly made a valiant attempt at stealing the headliner’s thunder this evening, few things come close to the experience of seeing Devil Driver in such a small venue and tonight is no exception.  The room is now uncomfortably full and you couldn’t squeeze another person in if you had to – such is the level of anticipation and excitement that an intimate Devil Driver show generates and as soon as Dez and co. hit the stage there’s an almighty push forward.  And in a venue that’s so full breathing space is like gold dust, you get the impression that if the night passes without injury, we can all count ourselves very lucky indeed.  

Almost immediately, at Dez’s command, the venue’s strict ‘no crowd surfing’ policy is rendered pointless as dozens of bodies begin flying over the top of the barrier at the singer’s instruction and there’s a real sense of camaraderie between the band and the audience that is one of the most appealing things about a Devil Driver gig.  The band could have quite easily played bigger venues on this tour but have purposely chosen the smaller clubs so that they can be more connected to their fan base and this becomes all the more evident after the show when the band hold a meet-and-greet downstairs, making sure that everybody leaves with their albums signed and photos taken – a real rarity at the moment and something that really elevates Devil Driver as a live band above so many others.

The band are on top form tonight and the dedicated fans scream every word back at Dez like loyal disciples and if Malefice’s circle pit was big then the several Devil Driver manage to get are downright enormous, giving you the feeling that this is what metal shows in clubs should be like but so very rarely are.  

The band have come a long way since their self-titled, first album in 2003 both in song writing and musicianship and although songs from the first album such as ‘I Could Care Less’ and ‘I Dreamed I Died’ are rapturously received (particularly the latter which nearly brings the house down and sees almost half the crowd come over the barrier in the space of four minutes), it’s the songs from the last two records (2007’s The Last Kind Words and this year’s brilliant Pray For Villains) that really show the band’s depth and their ever improving groove that you just can’t help but bang your head to. Songs like ‘Not All Who Wander Are Lost’, ‘Clouds Over California’ and ‘Pray For Villains’ are seemingly played with extra gusto tonight and are vastly underrated, should-be classics and get the whole place moving as one huge head-banging mass (albeit by now a very sweaty one).  

If you want an excellent, no-frills metal show delivered by a band who really do care about their craft and their fans then look no further than Devil Driver.  As Dez himself remarked during the show: “All you need to have a good time is good friends, good music and a little bit of alcohol”.  Never a truer word spoken, sir.

Setlist: 1. End Of The Line, 2. Not All Who Wander Are Lost, 3. Nothing's Wrong, 4. Pray For Villains, 5. Clouds Over California, 6. Fate Stepped In, 7. I Could Care Less, 8. Hold Back The Day, 9. I've Been Sober, 10. Back With A Vengeance, 11. Before The Hangman's Noose, 12. These Fighting Words, 13. Meet The Wretched.  Encore: 14. I Dreamed I Died.

Review by Adam G.

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