Artist:  Evile, Trigger The Bloodshed, Mutant

Venue:  Rios, Leeds

Date:  26 April 2009 

Mutant

First up tonight are Mutant and it’s a nice change that Rio’s have finally seen sense and not put the first band on as the doors are opening because it would be a crying shame if those who were there early missed Mutant.  These guys are full-on thrash and make no bones about it.  And not Trivium-thrash or BFMV-thrash either.  With Mutant we’re given a trip back to the glory days of the mid-80’s when thrash was king and you have to look twice at these guys to remind yourself that you’re watching a band barely into their 20’s.  The band are incredibly tight and despite a few technical problems play a fantastic set full of blistering solos and some seriously head-banging riffs that manage to whip the crowd into a frenzy early on. Hopefully they’ll soon be doing a headline tour of their own.

Trigger The Bloodshed

A late replacement for Warpath who unfortunately had to pull out, Trigger The Bloodshed stepped in at literally two days’ notice to play this whole tour but it kind of feels that they are up against it tonight.  This isn’t really their crowd and there’s no doubting that they do stick out a bit on what is otherwise a thrash bill.  They don’t fair too badly to be honest and there’s no denying that the drumming and the overall tightness of the band is top notch, but apart from the first couple of rows, the crowd seems somewhat indifferent towards their particular brand of death metal.

Evile

This is Evile’s first club tour of the UK in a year after their stint supporting Exodus in 2008 but as soon as they hit the stage and launch into a ferocious version of “We Who Are About To Die” it’s like they’ve never been away.  Evile are really on form tonight at what is essentially their home-town show (the band are actually from Huddersfield but outgrew that town’s small venues long ago) and the very partisan crowd lap it up and even suggest a great title for the band’s new album at singer Matt Drake’s request (Yorkshire! Yorkshire!), but whether or not the band take up the offer remains to be seen.

Much like tour-mates Mutant, Evile are thrash, whole thrash and nothing but thrash and both band and audience wouldn’t have it any other way.  You won’t find Evile slowing anything down with any ballads here.  If it’s even possible, Evile seem a little bit faster and heavier tonight than they do on record (it’s damn sure louder too, this reviewer’s ears are still ringing!) and songs like “Armoured Assault”, “Thrasher” and “Killer From The Deep” speak for themselves and provoke some seriously intense mosh pits.  We’re also treated to a couple of new songs tonight in the form of “Demolition” and the cleverly named “New Song 2” which continue where ‘Enter The Grave’ left off and it’s a pleasant surprise to hear such a warm reception for a band’s unheard material at a gig as opposed to the usual moronic shouts of “play (enter old song name here) will you!” Despite some more technical difficulties, Evile never lose their momentum and in Matt Drake have a genuinely down-to-earth frontman who the crowd are more than happy to let talk while said difficulties are resolved.  And without the usual pretension of an encore (is that really still necessary nowadays?) Evile continue to brilliantly batter us all senseless until the final notes of set-closer “Enter The Grave” are ringing in our ears and we’re drunkenly air-guitaring all the way home.  Excellent riffs, excellent solos, tight as hell and an all round great show is what we’re treated to tonight, hopefully we’ll be seeing Evile again very soon.

Setlist: Intro, We Who Are About To Die, Armoured Assault, Killer From The Deep, Man Against Machine, Demolition, Thrasher, First Blood, Bathe In Blood, New Song 2, Enter The Grave.

Review by: Adam G

 

 

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