The Heavy Metal Muppets is a place for all things Metal with a particular emphasis on the London Underground Metal scene. We are a bunch of friends who have been into Metal since the late 80's and want to share our enthusiasm with anyone else who's prepared to listen. The format varies and we hope keeps it interesting for everyone, so keep your eyes peeled for reviews, interviews, memoirs and live videos amongst other things \m/
Monday 4 July 2011
Sepultura, Nightlord & Revoker - Islington O2 Academy - 30th June 2011
Six, that's six bruises on my arms and chest and a really sore chin. I've either gone ten rounds with David Haye or Sepultura fucked me up last night, and given the way I'm hiding these bruises from the wife I'm going to tell her it was David Haye if she sees them, It's just easier than trying to explain what a mosh pit is. If any of you have ever tried to explain a mosh to the uninitiated, it's hard for it not to sound really, really lame especially when you're 36.
ME: "You know... it's like, guys pushing other guys but quite hard"
WIFE: "How old are these guys"
ME: I don't know 18 or 20 maybe some older"
WIFE: "So...you basically bash kids barely out of their teens on the floor, isn't that more like assault"
ME: "No it's not like that (yes it is), they like it"
That's the point you give up.
Anyway, back to the review and the first band up were Revoker.
These guys are amazingly talented musicians with a great vocalist in Jamie Mathias. I have to say to my shame I thought they were Yanks at first until I bought a t-shirt from Chris Green (Guitarist) at the merch stand, so It was a bit of a shock when he spoke in his deepest darkest Welsh accent. The boys from Rhymney Valley apart from handing out shots of jagermeister put on a great show and obviously are doing very well for themselves on the back of these great performances. I see they supported Ozzy as part of Kerrang's 30th birthday celebrations so they're doing more than ok. I have to be honest about not having heard of these chaps until this week so I wasn't that familiar with their material before the gig. I hope if they ever read this they don't think me saying they were not the best match for Sepultura is in any way a criticism of their performance because as I've already said they were really good. The aggressive sound of Sepultura didn't blend so well with the more thrash/hard rock sound and the catchy tunes of Revoker. I'm sure it wont be long before Revoker are choosing their own support bands for the O2 Islington. They really are that good.
As far as I can make out NightLord hasn't played since 1993 and 18 years of rust has obviously made it's mark on them. The few albums they did make I'm sorry to say weren't that great and maybe if they had stayed together and continued writing they may have developed their style a little more. It was always going to be a tough ask for them to have any kind of polished stage presence and the lack of natural charisma really showed with very little participation from the crowd. I did give them a chance, I went to the front for ten minutes and obediently put my hand in the air when they told me to but my heart wasn't in it and it was fairly obvious theirs wasn't either. The crowd were so bored at this point they may as well have put some organ music on and fucked off. Not a great warm up for Sepultura.
I love this band. The last time I saw them they played the Scala to a sold out crowd so I was a little surprised they were playing the O2 Islington. Whatever though, all the better for us. Again I was unfamiliar with the new album which isn't amazing I have to say. Their performance was however off the scale amazing. Derrick Green is the scariest vegetarian I've ever seen, with a seriously good vocal. Everyone knows how good this band are so there's little point me going on about it I guess. The mosh was fairly brutal and I have my battle scars to prove it. All together a great night of metal \m/.
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