'Unholy Alliance Tour'
Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon and Amon Amarth
30th October
London Hammersmith Apollo
Review by James 'Hammy' Hammond
Let me first start by saying that this review was due to be done at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, but due to an average speed of 10mph I missed half of the show!
This did not matter too much as on the 30th (my birthday!) I was going to see the same show in London. Anyway, on with the review!
Amon Amarth open the show, striding on and not giving a shit if anything gets in their way. They triumphantly kick into “Death in fire” and get the crowd stoked up for the rest of a short, but sweet set. Having not heard any material by Amon Amarth I wasn’t sure what to expect. But let me tell you, they were amazing. Playing a lot of newer material their set list included songs such as Twilight of the thunder god, Free will sacrifice, Cry of the blackbirds and Pursuit of Vikings. I have to say I have nothing but respect for vocalist “Johan Hegg” who walks onstage with a drinking horn attached to his side. Gulping whatever was inside between every song he really seemed to be enjoying himself as did the crowd. A very exciting performance but maybe with a longer set time they could really unleash themselves.
Mastodon were up next and again (sorry but I must only get to see bands live who I haven’t listened to!) I hadn’t heard any material apart from the song “Colony of Birchmen” which was included in the set. The crowd had really grown by the time they came on. Opening with “Blood and Thunder” and closing with “March of the fire ants” I found their set a little boring. Their songs had great riffs and potential but I found the vocals too samey and sometimes I didn’t know if they were still playing the same song or not.
Trivium, one word. WOW. I’m a fan of Trivium so I had heard all of their material including the new album. They nearly upstaged Slayer tonight. Their stage presence and musical performance were both top notch. Opening with a new song “Kirsute Gomen” and throwing in other new songs such as “Down from the sky” and “Insurrection” they certainly won a lot of people over. Playing the classic old material such as “Fire to the flies” and “Pull harder on the strings of your martyr” they aimed to please new fans and old. Despite a few technical hitches they put on one of the best performances I’ve seen for a long time.
Slayer have promised fans that they are going to play the album “Reign In Blood” in its entirety tonight. The venue is pretty much full and everyone is shouting SLAYER! Like there’s no tomorrow. Walking onstage to play “Flesh Storm” they are truly giving it their all. Tom Araya can still belt it out and the rest of the band are so together it was unbelievable. Playing other songs in the set like “War ensemble”, “Chemical warfare”, “Jihad”, “South of heaven” and “Dead skin mask” We are treated to the encore of the century. Every single track was played as if it was off the CD. Playing it in the exact order from start to finish Slayer were magical. The obvious songs got the crowd going, “Angel of death” and “Raining blood”. But I loved hearing the lesser-heard material such as “Post-mortem” and “Epidemic”. This was a very good performance and a brilliant end to the night.
At the end of the Wolverhampton show I bumped into Shane Embury “Napalm Death” and asked him what he thought of the show. Shane replied “It was an amazing show, you know what you’re gonna get when you see Slayer and they delivered themselves perfectly”.
With a new album confirmed for next year. Make sure you see Slayer live!
