You wanted the best – but did you get the best? – find out in a bit but while you hear about the support band who grabbed the hefty special guest spot. Going by the strange name of ‘Taking Dawn’ – taking dawn where? you may ask or are they referring to the opposite of dusk – who the hell knows.

Anyways, these guys have come all the way from Las Vegas, Nevada in order to support the well known New Yorkers tonight – well not exactly true because they’d recently supported Airbourne (my mate Al witnessed them at Rock City) and they couldn’t get back to the USA because of the Icelandic volcano dust cloud, therefore they thought they’d join their buddies Kiss – you believe that – didn’t think so – lol.

Musically it was kind of like Crimson Glory (according to Tony Watson) meets Skid Row bit without the memorable songs to be brutally honest with you. The sound quality was muddy a lot of the time making the bawly lead vocals incredible intelligable. They had plenty of confidence, worked the stage area well and openened with a number called ‘Vodka Revolution’ and finished with a pelted out cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’.

The classic cover ditty featured the lead man run around the stage left side of the floor and up onto the side posing to the crowd while playing away before leaping over the barrier (despite its height) and back to the stage again where he threw his guitar to the ground and left with the rest of the band.

Not sure if they enjoyed the gig or not it’s hard to tell. They did try to have us all chanting ‘England’ several times in one of their songs to get the patriotic bonding going with us. They went down kinda iffy mixed bag but no doubt we’ll here more of these guys in the future since they are also playing ‘Download Festival in June.

5/10

Set List:
Modern Day Delilah/Cold Gin/Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll/Firehouse/Say Yeah/Deuce/Crazy Crazy Nights/Calling Dr. Love/Shock Me/Eric & Tommy Jam/I’m An Animal/100,000 Years/I Love It Loud/Love Gun/Love Gun/Black Diamond/Detroit Rock City.

Encore:
Lick It Up/Shout It Out Loud/I Was Made For Lovin’ You/MSO Ensemble/God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll To You II (Argent Cover)/Rock And Roll All Night.

Not seen the healdiners since Donington 1996 and that was the original line-up of Gene, Ace, Peter & Paul and I missed the new line-up of Gene, Paul, Tommy & Eric when they played that very place a couple of years ago – well I weren’t missing ‘em this time. This was also the 1st night of their European Tour to make the occasion even more worthwhile.

We got the usual ‘You wanted the best, you got the best’ intro and we see the guys walking from the backstage area to the front before their truly maginificient entrance on a large hydraulic craned stage over stage from behind the main one – this was very cartoonesque and dreamstate to say the least and mightly colourful – an entranced I’d not seen before in my life.

Indtead of going into one of their own age-old classics they started up with a number from their new release Sonic Boom ‘Modern Day Delilah’ and then went into the familiar live staple territory of ‘Cold Gin’ with plenty of cocky poses and ballsiness from Gene Simmons.I think many were surprised to hear ‘Le Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll’ the not very much heard 12 bar special from the heydays of the band and the Hotter Than Helliness of ‘Firehouse’ with Gene givin’ it his all and nicely flown flame at the end of the song direct from the mans gob thanks to a mouthful of fuel of some sort. He need a good drink of water after it as well – can’t see the fuel flavour being too good – lol.

Back to the now we go after for more from ‘Sonic Boom – this time with the hard-hitting ‘Say Yeah’ or should that be ‘Say Yeah Yeah Yeah’ as the addictive chorus goes. ‘Deuce’ provides a ton of explosions and fire from the back of the stage and we can feel the heat up here in our seats in Block 102 – I dread to think what the temperature is down there on the stage – coupled alongside with the hot lights and hefty, heavy costumes they must be f*ck*n’ sweltering and sweating cobs – there’s little wonder that most of these guys are stick thin or the best part of. Paul Stanley tells us that there are no backing tapes, no one under the stage playing and no extra pre-recorded backing vocals either – it’s just us 4 guys up here on stage performing for you which gets a mass of applause.

He also goes on to say that fans say why don;t you play this and why didn’t you play that, so they have tried to put a set list to please everyone it seems and intruduces the overplayed time-life, rock club song ‘Crazy, Crazy Nights’ that he sets the audience sing quite a bit of at times to no doubt save his vocals for better songs in the set. Now here’s a shock and surprise for y’all – Tommy Thayer’s gonna sing a song for us – a number from the ‘Sonic Boom’ album I thought. Wrong! And how pleased I was that I was wrong because they did an exception version of one of my personal Kiss faves ‘Shock Me’ and kick me and whip me if I’m not toally correct on this by saying that Tommy sounds very much like Ace Frehley – they’ll have him doing ‘Rocket Ride’ or 2000 Man next – or is that boosting the dreams a bit too far and upsetting Ace a bit.

Kiss have never been a band to shy away from solo spots and tonight ain’t no excpetion with Gene & Paul dissapearing off for a piddle and a breather – no back stage antics theses days – it’s all professional – hahaha. Thayer gives us a killer solo accompanied with Singer that’s followed up with a solo Singer drum solo as Tommy needs a breather and a piddle too. Then Tommy’s back on the stage with a Gibson that fires explosive sh*t at the stage lighting rig few times with Eric joining in on the fun when a fake lighting bit falls down due to eric firing bazooka – no need to worry though as its made outta foam. Tommy is up there giving it his all on a mimi stage that rises him up in the air that sees Eric Singer’s drum riser burn into action as well – and he is hight up enough as it is. Drums rise and tommy on right hand side. More explosions take place as well before Gene & Paul join the newbies (well one is I guess) back onstage for Sonic Boom’s ‘I’m An Animal’.

I see that for 100,000 years that Gene is on his famous axe bass. There’s some audience participation too and Paul has us punching our fists in the air and screaming ‘Hey’ at the top of our lungs. In good old Kiss tradition the bat winged vampire does another one of his party pieces, bangs out his bass notes and spits out his fake blood before going up into air on strings and up onto a stage above the lighting rig. The crowd love it – as if they wouldn’t. It’s a f*ck*n’ good job that he ain’t afraid of hights as its a long way up to say the very least and from up there in the gods he performs ‘I Love It Loud’ before coming back down to earth for ‘Love Gun’ with starting accapella vocals from Paul before they crank into the song properly.

‘Black Diamond’ is up next – man we are being totally spoilt tonight that features an opening longish solo from Mr. Stanley and there’s a big silver ball above in the stage in the centre in case we haven’t notice it - lol. It goes to show that apart from being an incredible drummer, Mr. Singer is an exceptional vocalist as well – there’s a clue in his surname I guess – sorry – bad cheap ass joke line there on my part. Tommy Thayer can pose like the best of them during the instrumental section of the song and is on his knees looking up to Paul and Gene waling away on his Sunburst Gibson.

Paul talks about Detroit for a bit saying that it’s a lot like Sheffield (hmm – crimewise I think he may be right there) but I know what he meant by that because there’s a lot of industry (well there used to be) but it’s a very happening town when it comes to bands at times – unless he says that at all the gigs – I am guessing that will be the case but you never know. Funnily enough there are tons of explosives on song during D.T.R. It also seems that Gene’s bass is a bit worse for wear as his bass tech has to place some black electric tape above his bass output – well things don’t last forever do they and theres no doubt that axe has had a lot of hammer over the years. The song (or should I say main set’ is finished off with a sh*tload of explosions after Singer’s signalling with the sticks. After which they all depart from the stage.

When Kiss return Paul tells us that they ain’t gonna keep coming on and off stage again and again but are gonna stop up there and give us the longest encore ever’ amd then exclaims, ‘We’re gonna play’ and they immediately kick into the 80’s classic hit ‘Lick It Up’ that features tons of fire flamage from the back sides of the stage not to mention them also playing the main riff of The Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ in the middle of the song. Quality stuff indeed and nobody can help but sing along either – like they did in all the well known numbers played tonight.

It’s Destroyer chapter 3 time next and they are on the home-run just about with ‘Shout It Out Loud’. Sounding good boys. Paul Stanley then asks us if we wanna meet him because he wants to meet us (Kiss Platinum Package not mentioned either – lol). Every screams yeah or words to that effect or just screams in general and he is transported via flying wires in good old Slippery When Wet Jon Bob Jovi style over the centre of the crowd onto a stage in front of the mixing desk for ‘I Was Made For Loving You.

This is still lapped up as the late 70’s disco dancing classic gets many singing and a bopping – wonder what he thought when he saw all the empty seats towards the back of the arena. It don’t seem to bother him much though as he solos a bit for us too on the guitar before being flown back main tage for ‘God Gave Rock N Roll To You II’ with plenty of stars on screens that include John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, their own late, great Eric Carr Last and many more – just a pity we can’t get the cigarrette lighters going anymore like in the good old days – the smoking ban is good but they’ve took it a bit far.

Of course the final song is ‘Rock N Roll All Nite’ that sees Gene and Tommy up on high mini stages at either side of the stage as well as cannons shooting out white bits of paper at the left and right of stage and mixing desk area into crowd filling place – jesus I’d hate to be a cleaner in there after that lot. Stanley smashing the just brought on to use guitar that was paid for by the front row signifies the end of the show but what an amazing show it was – it’s gonna take some beating this one.

10/10

Review By Glenn Milligan

Photos by Glenn Ashley

‘Massacre Of The Megafauna’ were first on band on at half seven, with a band of five people and performing on the small cramped stage. With a half an hour set of just four/five songs, one being ‘Kill Your Boss’, the singer couldn’t exactly sing but could death growl well. All throughout the set, the crowd was small even for the small room. There was slight movement but nobody knew who the support band were.

‘Year Long Disaster’ were the second support band and the crowd grew more before they came on. The band got the crowd going throughout all the set by talking and getting them into the ‘zone’ who really seemed to love the band. They played an excellent 90 minute set. During ‘Show Your Teeth’, the bassist seemed a bit robotic as if he couldn’t move much, but managed to get the crowd cheering.

Karma To Burn played a well presented set by making the songs clash together at the end of every song except from when they spoke to crowd. The bassist from Year Long Disaster ended up playing again with Karma To Burn. The crowd seemed to love ‘Karma To Burn’ by head banging and being enthusiastic to most songs.

With a set of forty five minutes (as they went off twenty minutes before they should) have done, some drunken man ended up getting on stage from behind and making a fool of himself whilst ruining a song due to the bassist telling him to get off.

At the end the crowd got restless as the band walked off the stage and went out the front way. The atmosphere of the Corporation was angry and restless, everyone was shouting encore for five minutes then realised they weren’t going to come back.Overall view is it was an alright gig. I really enjoyed ‘Karma To Burn’ who performed really well as well as Year Long Disaster.

6/10

By Kayleigh Watson

They look the part and they totally sound the part as well and are incredibly authentic with their out-there dry witted old school humour not to mention their amazing use of masks and props which at times are even used as instruments such the Professor playing a large saw on the classic that Spike Jones covered or should I say murdered 'You always hurt the one you love' that sounded brilliantly bendy and so in tune with the song – honest! Malcolm "Lightfoot" Sked boomed out some gargantuan bass notes on basically anything that’s bass (as stated on the bands website – www.whoopeeband.de), not to mention wearing some really scary horror masks.

Funny lines and jokes were aplenty that were close or right on the bone at times that related to sex, dying and all luvverly juvverly things like that – haha. Love the little wound up, I mean wind-up hen that was walking about at the front of the stage in between a couple of the numbers for a lark. There was the wearing of giant female diaphragms on the head, one of which was swapped around because it was dirty – man it’s so wrong but we dug it!

10/10

Review By Glenn Milligan

Pictures mostly taken by Bernard Froggatt & some by Glenn Milligan

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