Unholy Alliance Hammersmith Apollo 30th October

Well well well. I couldn't make my mind up whether to go when this was announced months ago but when Slayer said that they were to play the thrash classic Reign In Blood in it's entirety (well 30 mins!) it seemed well worth the journey.Read on.....

Arrived at 6.20 and AMON AMARTH were already well into their stride. As we opened the doors to the stalls the noise nearly knocked us off our feet! A Viking death metal band who's last cd went into the US billboard charts at number 48. Very heavy with synchronized head banging. The singer also managed to twirl his beard at the same time. He growled and when he spoke between songs he spoke the same!! Last song had a decent groove but no light to the heaviness and no geetar solo's. Singer also drank from an enormous horn on his belt!!!!

MASTODON were next and went down well although after seeing them at Wembley with Metallica I knew what to expect. At times I think the drummer was playing a 2 hour set in 45 mins.The bassist and geetarist sang(cough!!)but again all very samey and again only 1 solo!

TRIVIUM were next up. Now if anyone asks of my musical tastes I say from Foreigner to Slayer depending on the mood. The last thing I expected before Trivium was JukeBox Hero by Foreigner played at excess volume. I knew all the words (quite a few didn't!) I saw Trivium support Maiden 2 years ago and now appear ready to get to the next level. In 1 hour 15 mins they had it all played at an ear splitting volume. You could feel the bass drums vibrating your head. Five new songs off Shogun the new cd, only 1 off Crusade and then some oldies including Gunshot,Rain and Pull Harder.The light show was stunning, lots of audience participation in fact the only downer was Matt Heafy's thoughts that if they weren't liked you could all go away or words to that affect!! They were winning just go with it. Now if that had been the end you would have gone away happy but we still had SLAYER to come.

I first saw Slayer 20 years ago and old age has not dulled them one bit. A brutal display which was genre defying. Dave Lombardo on drums is an octopus, Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King riff like bastards and in the middle Tom Araya surveys the madness he is king to.

Trivium will see the level they need to aspire to every night. Starting with Fleshstorm off the last cd ,then War Ensemble ,Chemical Warfare and then Seasons In The Abyss (introduced like the Terry Jacks song "we had joy we had fun we had Seasons in the Abyss"). Now in all this thrash they do have some lighter moments which make it all work. South of Heaven next was stunning. Then the Reign In Blood cd starting with Angel Of Death all the way through to Reign In Blood. No encores - you don't do encores after playing that!

1hr 15 mins wow.Crushingly loud fab light show.Sorted.

In total 3 hrs 45 mins for your £30 ticket fee which in this day and age is good.

So very pleased that I went and as I lay in bed my ears weren't ringing it was beyond that like an electronic drone.Great stuff.

10/10 ME