Kreator/Celtic Frost/Legion Of The Damned/Watain -

Wulfrun Hall, WOLVERHAMPTON, 15th March 2007

What a bloody wonderful night! For eighteen quid we got four excellent European bands of fascinatingly-contrasting styles, include arguably the finest of them all, the incomparable Celtic Frost.

Sweden’s Watain kicked things off at 7:05 with 20 minutes of fine black metal, featuring a handful of songs from their highly-rated new CD ‘Sworn to the Dark’.

6/10

There was barely time to quaff a plastic cup of Stella Artois before Legion of the Damned were onstage (7:40). These Dutch thrash/death merchants were absolutely incredible – superb songs and convincing playing. Their 25 minute set ran something like:

Sons of the Jackal; Werewolf Corpse; Infernal Wrath; Avenging Archangel; Diabolist; Legion of the Damned.

Try to see these guys, they are well worth it.

9/10

What can you say about Celtic Frost? Their 65 minutes was easily as good as the performance I was lucky enough to see in Helsinki last year, and the sound was impeccable. Beginning at 8:30 in front of a terrific ‘To Mega Therion’ backdrop, the boys from Switzerland soon turned the hall into a seething mass of head bangers. The truncated setlist (to accommodate an early curfew) still managed to cover the majority of the classics and the best of the songs from last year’s ‘Monotheist’ ‘ masterpiece.

Tom was in stunning form, and Martin was his usual disturbed self! Franco played an absolute blinder, and I was also quite impressed by new guitar player V Santura.

Totengott (Intro); Procreation (of the Wicked); Visions of Mortality; Circle of the Tyrants; The Usurper; Ain Elohim; Necromantical Screams; Dethroned Emperor; Into the Crypts of Rays; Synagoga Satanae; Winter (Outro).

The Frost left the stage at 9:35 – no encore was necessary after the 15 minute battering they had given us with ‘Synagoga Satanae’.

9/10

Germany’s Kreator brought proceedings to a close (they went on at 10:05) with a good old fashioned thrash set – I have to say though that I felt they were an anti-climax after the Frost, but the crowd loved them.

Their set seemed to jump from one crowd favourite to another, opening with the dual assault of ‘Violent Revolution’ and ‘Pleasure to Kill’, and covering classics like ‘Extreme Aggression’ and ‘Coma of Souls’ along the way.

7/10

By Roy Evans

Ever wondered what it's be like to witness a stoner rock version of The Shadows - well you should have gone to see Karma to Burn and you'd have found out - unless you did of course. The solid stoner trio from Virginia don't take you down no country roads but instead pump out thunderous Sabbath styled riffs at earth shaking, deafening volume.

The set featured plenty of numerical instrumental mayhem from the new album 'Almost Heathen' like '38', '37' and '19' plus selections from their first two albums - the self titled debut and 'Wild and Wonderful'.

Karma's drummer Rob had to have his stick taped round his wrist less than halfway into the set due to a strain injury - but when he slams his kit as hard as that I'm not surprised. He soldiers on though and makes it through the set keeping solid perfect tempo throughout.

Rob's frontline of Bassist, Rich and Guitarist, Will had an absolute ball though (a dodgy mike seems to bother them - not - they simply carry on regardless - trading strings riffs and backing each other up throughout. In fact it's so tight it's like they are working on auto-pilot - such a well-rehearsed unit are Karma to Burn.

For wellover 60 minutes we were entertained with a gargantuan grinding groove of a soundtrack.

It's about time that people took note and appreciated the stoner rock scene - I hope more people turn up next time they play Sheffield to see these guys in action because the previous night in Swansea it was packed !!

8/10

By Glenn Milligan, BA Hons CS

Krisiun

Having never witnessed an aggressive blast beating trio before I found I was in for something quite impressive, needless to say, deafening !!! Krisiun are like listening to close-range road-works without wearing sound muffs. The drumming is very much pneumatic drill style due to all the double bass tapping and trigger effects. Bawling vocals were marred too much into the instrumentation - the technical guitar fretwork and bass booming virtually muffled them throughout the set - which was only around 25 minutes log - tops. Many of the played came from the new Century Media release 'Ageless Venomous'. The problem was, was that many of the punters missed around half the set because they hadn't yet entered the premises !!! They were still queuing to get in and when did eventually get in they appeared to be more interested in buying their first pint.

7/10

Kreator

Next up were a band who this crowd came to see - the mighty 'Kreator' - these guys should have headlined. We were greeted with a full-on old school thrash assault for well over an hour. Many of the old favourites were there including the anthem, 'Pleasure To Kill'. From what I could see - tonight really was their night - the fans were so into it. Before I saw this bunch I wasn't too bothered about them but live they totally changed my mind. To me, Thrash Metal works better live than on record because of the intensity of both band and audience getting off on it - and this was a clearindication.

The set was recorded for a future live album that I expect will be out some time in 2002. Kreator's Frontman, asked those present what songs they wanted to hear - I guess this would make certain that the album would feature songs the crowd wanted as well - although from what I could see from the set-lists taped to the sides of the front-line speakers - they didn't stray much from them. I guess Kreator already know what the crowd wanted - full-on 80's thrash in any order the band pleased to play it in.

If you weren't there - you missed some absolutely tremendous stuff!!

10/10

Cannibal Corpse

As soon as the double C hit the stage, it is down hill from here-on. They haven't changed at all. It's more of the same Grindcore drivvle and derivative Death Metal of the lowest order. Basically, it all sounded the same - tuneless noise with grunts and squawks from the vocalist - tediously boring I can tell ya. God knows what people see in these guys.

After a few good photos which were taken early in the set we decided we'd sooner get something to eat rather than see the rest of this.

Kebab 1 - Cannibal Corpse 0

3/10

by Glenn Milligan, BA Hons CS