London Brixton Academy
20.11.06
The forthcoming Iron Maiden/Trivium tour may have been billed by some as “the best metal night out of the year“, but it faces some pretty fierce competition in the Unholy Alliance tour; a five-band bill comprised of some of the finest contemporary US and Scandinavian metal bands, with a rejuvenated Slayer in the headline slot. This is the second of two sold-out nights at the Academy, and the sense of excitement and anticipation in the air is almost tangible.
That said, Thine Eyes Bleed can’t be best pleased at having to start their set at doors-opening time. The Canadian quintet feature a certain Johnny Araya (brother of Slayer’s Tom) on bass, and make for a welcome treat for those who arrive in time to see them. Sadly, their punishing thrash metal attack doesn’t sound quite as impressive when you’re listening from the queue outside.
Children Of Bodom have always infused their synth-laden black metal anthems with a wicked sense of humour, and the band taking the stage to the ‘Naked Gun’ theme is a sure sign that it’s business as usual in the Bodom camp. Clearly delighted to be here, singer/guitarist Alexi Laiho goads the growing crowd to greater efforts as he rasps his way through the likes of ‘Needled 24/7’ and ‘In Your Face’.
The crowd need no encouragement for Lamb Of God, however: the Virginian quintet whipping a furious moshpit into shape with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the brain. Not since Pantera’s mid-90s heyday has a band unleashed such a potent and sickeningly heavy brand of hardcore groove metal with such brutal confidence as LOG do tonight. New offerings from recent album ‘Sacrament‘ are already crowd-favourites in the making, whilst the closing standard ‘Black Label‘ threatens to shake the Academy to its foundations. Folks, this is Pure American Metal, and you’ll be hearing plenty more from these guys in the near future.
In Flames sound like a black metal band playing stadium rock (or should that be the other way round?), and look as if they’re playing atop a fairground ride, with the drummer flanked by an abundance of colourful flashing lights. It shouldn’t really work, but somehow it does, with huge choruses and solos pushing ‘Pinball Map‘ and ‘Crawl Through Knives‘ into genuinely epic territory. Frontman Anders Friesen’s between-song mumbling stalls the momentum at times, but overall these Swedes do themselves proud.
Slayer can’t really fail tonight, but it’s still breathtaking to see just how vicious and vital these thrash veterans sound, over twenty years into their career. Tonight’s show features Marshall stacks arranged in the shape of inverted crosses, plenty of eerie dry-ice effects, and – most importantly – a wet-dream of a setlist that mixes plenty of the band’s classic material with choice cuts from this year’s excellent ‘Christ Illusion‘ album.
There’s no let-up in intensity throughout; Tom Araya screaming his throat raw on opener ‘Disciple‘; Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman still the ultimate thrash metal guitar tag-team; and Dave Lombardo anchoring the whole operation with deadly accuracy. A punishing encore of ‘South Of Heaven‘ and ‘Angel Of Death‘ is proof enough that Slayer can still hold their own amongst today’s young guns. Senslaytional.
Alex Gosman
04.12.06
Minneapolis/St Paul might not be the haven of hip hop as far as the global community are concerned – no doubt it’s the metropolises of Los Angeles and New York in the minds of most. But for those of us who like to dig a little deeper, it is the Twin Cities in Minnesota that are currently bringing the world of hip hop to its knees.
Black Label Society are definitely a man’s metal band. Not for them the dark romanticism of bands like HIM or the art-metal musings of Tool; these guys are all about the booze, beards and powerhouse riffs. One of the first things you’ll notice on this DVD is that whenever frontman/guitar hero Zakk Wylde isn’t playing his instrument, it’s usually because he’s drinking a beer.
No, actually it’s getting easier. We’ve not been around long enough to start losing our edge, so we’re still very musically virile. It’s just hard work recording-it takes a long time!
So what’s your ultimate goal as a band and as musicians?
Crossfire is the place to come for all the hook ups. Not content with being the hip hop writer and radio host on the hip hop show here at Crossfire, 
Hardcore stars Only Crime will be releasing their new album, Virulence, in late January as the follow up to their debut album To The Nines. The album will be released on Fat Wreck Chords and the tracklisting is as follows:
Def Jukie Aesop Rock recently updated his myspace blog to let everyone in on his upcoming album, which will be called None Shall Pass, and is due out in the first part of 2007.
The much anticipated new Stooges album, The Weirdness, will be released in March on Virgin it has been announced. It will be the band’s first proper release in over 30 years and will contain tracks such as ATM, You Can’t Have Friends, Free And Freaky and Greedy Awful People.
Good Shoes, in preparation for their Christmas Day single release, have unleashed the video to the track, The Photos On My Wall. You can check it out by clicking on of the links below. In addition to this, the group have announced some UK tour dates, so get yourself along to one of these!
In terms of publicity, it’s arguably preferable for a band to incite feelings of either love or hate from their audience, as opposed to mere indifference. Towers Of London definitely reside in the former camp, but tonight they’re an aloof, uninspired shadow of their usual snotty-nosed selves.