Too often these days, the true meaning of Christmas is well and truly forgotten – in a world caught up in commercialism, twinkling fairylights and Little Britain Xmas specials, the religious significance of the holiday season can become an unimportant afterthought. Thank God that Slayer (or Sleigh-er) and pals have come over to the UK and taken the time to remind us all about the baby Jesus, and his message of world peace … have they fuck – as the ‘Unholy Alliance’ tour rolls into London for it’s last night, it’s time to throw away your bibles, polish up your pentagrams and sacrifice some virgins … it’s time to rock!
From a heaving queue outside the Brixton Academy, Lamb of God sound loud. Very loud (despite their name, which sounds like they should be more Christian folk band that thrash metal). There is an abundance of double bass drums, screams of ‘mooootherrrr fuckeeeersss’, and the distant rumble of a five string bass shaking the foundations of the venue. What else could you ask for?
Tonight’s crowd is made up of an interesting spread of age groups, and as Swedish melodic death metal merchants, Inflames take the stage, the younger members of the audience rush to the front, and get messy. It’s hard to believe listening to brutally hardcore tracks such as ‘Trigger’ and ‘Graveland’, but in general these lads’ music is not nearly as heavy as the other acts on tonight’s bill - weeping guitar solos break up the general metal dirge, and the guys certainly look the part (the sight of four grown men stood in a standard metal guitar pose, simultaneously windmilling their lank locks into oblivion never, ever gets old). But even when lead singer Anders Friden asks to see what the ‘bunch of pussies at the front are made of’, things are still a little tame. The sweaty, smiling youth leave the mosh pit, and in come the big guns: 16 stone Hell’s Angels with tattoos of the Iron Cross across their backs, and arms the size of tree trunks push their way to the front. Inflames are kids stuff, but Slayer are clearly the daddies.
The stage set-up is predictably Spinal Tap-esque; the amps are stacked in the shape of huge inverted crosses; behind the band, there is a giant screen onto which images of marching Nazis, the flashing Slayer crest, and yet more upside down crosses are projected; and there are more pentagrams on stage that you could shake a witches broom at. Despite being around for years, and churning out a good few albums, Slayer are clearly not ready to tone things down.
The set covers quite a mix old classics and new screamers from the guys’ latest album ‘Christ Illusion’. New number ‘Cult’ gets things really going, with flashing strobe lights, machine gun drum and raucous riffs that are terrifyingly intense. Like a massive guitar-wielding pitbull standing on its hind legs, Kerry King remains one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time, violently headbutting an imaginary troll in front of him as his fingers fly up and down his guitar at lightning pace, notably in tracks like ‘Post-Mortem’. Legendary. Aside from more of the same rock metal madness, the slower, atmospheric/melodic ‘Seasons In the Abyss’ provides a well needed rest from the intensity the hardcore back catalogue, and shows off the lads’ diversity – certainly not a one trick thrash metal pony. A killer encore sees old school classics ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Angel of Death’ raise the roof, with a remarkably accurate effort from a devoted crowd who manage to sing along with Tom Araya’s ordinarily indistinguishable vocals. The aging metalists have clearly still got it by the bucket load, and given tonight’s performance, are showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.
