The Big Four of Thrash, Sonisphere Knebworth 8/7/11

The Big Four in the UK for the very first time

After a long drive to sunny (yes, sunny) Knebworth, it was amazing to be in the intense, excitable atmosphere of a crowd that know something good is about to happen. And there WAS something good about to happen: The Big Four of thrash – Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax playing together in the UK for the very first time!

What better way to start the day than with British NWOBHM band Diamond Head? This is one of the bands that started it all and gave the likes of Metallica and Megadeth a massive influence. The waiting crowd went wild (though not as much as I would have expected for such a band) as Diamond Head took to the stage with classic metal tune It’s Electric. They then sped through a sterling set through to the song made famous by Metallica Am I Evil? Which closed an amazing, tight show.

After a short switchover, the band announced as the ‘Masters of Mosh’ Anthrax thundered their way onto the stage to the crowd-moving Caught in a Mosh. On this occasion, these thrash masters were without regular axeman Scott Ian but, in his place stood Sepultura guitarist Andreas Kisser who sang on a bone-crunching snippet of his band’s Refuse/Resist. Joey Belladonna was on top form as always, especially on new song Fight ‘Em Till You Can’t. The crowd went wild under the heat of the July sun throughout this set and, when it came to shouting the words to I Am The Law at the end of the set, everybody happily obliged.

As the black clouds loomed over the Apollo stage, Megadeth kicked into an insane rendition of Trust that was quickly followed by In My Darkest Hour. Dave Mustaine was commanding the stage as he chugged riff after riff into the arena. The growing crowd was a little quieter during Megadeth’s set, but the announcement of new album name (TH1RT3EN, if you’re asking) along with new song Public Enemy No.1 got pulses racing. An amazing play of classic songs Peace Sells and Holy Wars... The Punishment Due brought an absolutely watertight set to an end.

Just to make sure temperatures were raised to a socially-acceptable standard, Californian thrash gods Slayer blew the crowd away with opening song Disciple. Every drum hit, guitar riff and yell of “WAAAAR!” was in time as these guys showed none of their age with the bone crushing delivery of fan favourites South of Heaven, Raining Blood and Angel Of Death. The precision of the whole set was made all the more impressive considering Gary Holt of Exodus was playing in place of the absent Jeff Hanneman.

After a short while, the familiar opening notes of The Ecstasy Of Gold rolled out over the waiting crowd and undisputed heavyweight champions of heavy metal Metallica arrived on stage to the classic Hit The Lights. James Hetfield and co. were on fine form for this special performance and a blistering version of the technical, thrashing epic Master Of Puppets showed just this. This, for me, seemed like an odd set – there were some songs in there that I had never expected to see played live. Ride The Lightning was one of these songs and it was played flawlessly but the real surprise was the chilling, powerful Call Of Ktulu which provided an amazing ambience. More stock classics followed with For Whom The Bell Tolls and Enter Sandman but the real special moment came during the encore when, as everyone had hoped, members of Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and the man who wrote the song – Brian Tatler of Diamond Head joined the headliner onstage to play a massive version of Am I Evil?. This totally brought the atmosphere to its peak and gave everyone involved band and fans alike a final burst of energy for the intense set-closers Battery and Creeping Death, the latter having 50,000 metalheads shouting “DIE” to provide backing vocals. This outstanding, ground-breaking day could not have ended in any other way.

Carnage at the Keep (The Gryphon, Bristol 30th April 2011)

From the first look at the line up of Carnage at the Keep and you could tell it was going to be a good night of fast, heavy metal. This night saw bands from all over the South West (including Bristol’s very own Darkening Suns, End is Nigh from Bath, Inimisus hailing from Trowbridge and, travelling from Exeter, Red Mist) supporting the mighty Brutai from THAT London.

Using the smallish venue The Gryphon in Bristol, you could see that this was by no means going to be a massive event but kicking the night off were End is Nigh with a nice blend of their very own apocalyptic metal. These guys are a fairly new band having only played one or two shows before but they didn’t let that stop them as they got the capacity crowd moving with a good set.

The next band to squeeze into the small ‘stage’ area in the corner of the humid, sweaty room was Trowbridge warriors Inimisus. This metalcore five-piece really had the room shaking with their thundering grooves and heavy guitar riffs. The audience warmed to this punishing set a lot more than the first bands’, but this may be mainly due to Inimisus being a more established band.

Darkening Suns tear up the stage...

By now, the walls were dripping with the sweat of 70 frenzied metal heads and the floor was soaked with spilled beer. The mainly male crowd kept the cheers coming as local boys (and girl) Darkening Suns stepped up for their first ever gig. For a band who had never played before they had a remarkable fan base and the room stayed at capacity. It took Darkening Suns a short while to get into the groove of things and unfortunately the first half of their set was a little misfired. This changed as if by magic at the halfway point and these new faces stepped it up a gear to blast out their melodic death metal riffs and screams to the initially sceptical audience.

Featuring on the Gryphon’s predominately rock & metal programme before, Red Mist felt right at home when they took to the stage. This Exeter band played to a slightly smaller crowd as the room emptied a little as the audience went in search of fresh air and strong ale. Despite this, they blew away the 40-odd people who had stayed to watch.

London's Brutai pound their way through a great set

The final band, coming all the way from London was metal ear-abusers Brutai. This band took the unfamiliar atmosphere in their stride and produced an astonishingly good set which had the (by now slightly merry crowd) banging their fists and singing along.

This band was the perfect way to end a strong, heavy night of metal and, as people gradually hit the road, you could still feel the foundations of the Gryphon trembling.