Credit: Found On Internet

19 November 2006
Brixton Academy

The usually chart-friendly playlists of the pubs up and down Brixton High Street has given way to death metal and the normal Sunday drinking crowd has been enveloped by a horde of black clad metal fans. For the second year, Slayer’s Unholy Alliance tour - a multi-band beast where you won’t hear a single song suitable for daytime radio – is in town.

It’s somewhat ironic that mid-bill Lamb of God wrote “Redneck” allegedly as a direct commentary and condemnation of ex-Pantera and current Down frontman Phil Anselmo, when Randy Blyth’s stage presence, posturing and patter could’ve been lifted straight from the Anselmo’s New Orleans swagger.

Coupled with “Sacrament”, a rolling thunderous monster of a record, and Lamb Of God are taking hints from Pantera in more than just the manner of their vocalist. Then again, with tracks like “Pathetic” to provide the fire, LoG are more than just a Pissing Razors-esque sub-tribute act. There’s an uncompromising fierceness that’s catapulted Lamb of God from just another workmanlike metal outfit into everyone’s new favourite band. There’s iron in their balls, that’s for sure.

Surrounded by banks of KITT-esque light displays, it was with knowing aptness that Sweden’s In Flames strolled out through the smoke to the Knightrider theme. Plowing into “Trigger”, a song that growls so fiercely that you’d need to muzzle and leash it if you dared take it out in public, it’s easy to see how they’ve risen in popularity in the last few years. And while they commanded the attention of those down at the front, being squeezed between the new heroes and the old kings of extreme metal they couldn’t help but come across as the weedy little brother of the other two juggernauts. And it takes something monstrous to muscle out Anders Fridén and his mob.

To over-analyse the raw primal force of Slayer is missing the point. They’re a progenitor of so many sub-genres of metal and inspirers of so many other bands that to try to count them is as foolish as accepting an invitation to a pool party at Leatherface’s little Texas hideaway. For a quarter of a century they’ve been top of the tree, and now their annual Unholy Alliance tour, a roster of riff-heavy bruisers with Slayer occupying the top slot, sees them still showing bands with less than a tenth of their pedigree the true meaning of heavy fucking metal.