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Artist: Evile, Warbringer & The Fading Venue: 02 Academy, Newcastle Date:
18 January 2010
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another freezing cold night in Newcastle, a small crowd upstairs in
the cosy confines of the O2 Academy 2 were in for a raucous night of
thrash from across the globe (and Huddersfield!) and to kick off,
Israel's THE FADING produced a decent blend of aggro-thrash and
some solid tunes (think the heavy parts of every Trivium track) for
their 30 minute set. Taking a while to get the crowd going, they
eventually won them over, starting the first moshpits of the night, no
thanks in part to the phenomenal talents of drummer Shaked Furman, whose
thunderous drumming overshadowed most of the guitar parts in every track
the band played. Los Angeles band, WARBRINGER, were up next, and were much more enjoyable than the last time I had seen them on the larger stage downstairs supporting Testament, last July. The music may be thrash-by-numbers with more than a hint of a Slayer influence, but its clear to see that every member of the band is putting their all into every performance, frontman John Kevill dribbling all over the crowd like a crazed beast. Solid heads down thrash tunes like Combat Shock, Living in A Whirlwind, and Scorched Earth rattled by, and the band seemed to enjoy the crowds reaction. The Fading's bassist Elad Manor played bass for Warbringer on this tour, learning his bass parts the day before the bands flew out to the UK! Few bands have had a more up and down year in 2009 than tonight's headliners, EVILE. From a headlining tour in April and the release of their second album, Infected Nation, the bands year took a tragic turn in October when bassist Mike Alexander collapsed and died suddenly at the age of just 32 after a gig in Sweden. Before tonight's performance, lead vocalist/guitarist Matt Drake thanked all the fans of the band for their messages and donations to Mikes family and explained how the tour would be a tribute to him, before introducing new bassist Joel Graham, to rapturous applause. The band kicked off with Infected Nation, a slow burning to a crescendo thrasher similar to the material from the first album, before launching into the Rambo influenced First Blood. Killer From The Deep was dedicated to Mike, and will now be played at every Evile gig in tribute (as Mike wrote the track), before some more tracks from the new album, Now Demolition and Nosphoros, were aired. Frontman Matt explained that due to the last hectic few months that we wouldn't get to hear too many tracks from the new album as the band hadn't had much time to practice them, but those tracks they did play were played to perfection, along with the older material, such as the classic in waiting Thrasher, the gladiatorial We Who Are About To Die, and the 100mph thrash of Schizophrenia. Culminating with Olly Drakes comment that the stage "smelt like catpiss" in the corner, the band concluded a hugely enjoyable hour long set with the rampant Enter The Grave from the debut album of the same name. Overall an excellent night of thrash metal, hopefully Evile will be graduating to the bigger stage downstairs next time round! Review by: Dan |
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