A double celebration of landmark albums was on the cards in Manchester tonight and carving open the evening with a massive Swedish sledgehammer was the unequivocally crushing Orbit Culture and boy did they absolutely annihilate us from the opening chords of ‘Descent’ to the punishing bars of the absolutely colossal ‘Vultures Of The North’.
The vocals from Karlsson were commanding and potent, spat out with venomous intent and authoritative muscle while the strings of Hansson intertwined with those resting on the fretboard of Karlsson to generate an intricate maze of devastating and elegant riffs which were addictive to the senses. The whole set was technical and obliterating, punchy and catchy while being downright pulverising.
Once a quintet of tracks had been unleashed upon us the set came to an all too abrupt close, but even with a brief set Orbit Culture looked more than at home in the cavernous surroundings of the arena tonight.
Next up it was ‘The Poison’ in its entirety and that can mean only one thing, Bullet For My Valentine were about to entertain us. After a brief intro of a montage of videos and commentary charting Bullets career to date, and their rise to the top of the mountain, Matt Tuck et al burst into sight and launched into a truly savage ‘Her Voice Resides’ quickly followed by a titanic ‘4 words (to choke upon)’ which saw Tuck unbridle his vocals with an opulent beauty while he was backed up with an attack of barbaric and ferocious guttural roars.
As the set progressed the crowd seemed to grow into it, the action in the pit and the movement over the top became more animated and energetic, anthems such as a decadent ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ and a regal ‘The Poison’ seemed to propel each body through a safe passage until they landed on solid ground after infiltrating the barrier into the security pit. Mathias was an absolute beast on the thicker strings and the dexterity and beauty Padge generated from his axe was sublime and brutal throughout. The set was punctuated mid flow with a nice addition of ‘Hand Of Blood’ while the encore was reserved for ‘Knives’ and the colossal anthem from ‘Scream, Aim, Fire’, the absolutely gargantuan ‘Waking The Demon’.
The house lights then dimmed once more and it was time to cue Trivium and cue utter pandemonium as ‘Rain’ hit us full pelt and you could clearly see the hunger in the eyes of Heafy and the rest of the Floridians, the thirst and appetite which was literally exuding from their very beings was almost visible. ‘Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr’ was absolutely phenomenal, a beast of a track and executed tonight with precision and brawn, the vocals from Heafy were clean and powerful, the fretwork from all camps was on point, Paolo tamed his beast with pride while Corey exhibited his skills with passion and copious amounts of honour.
Mid set the band were joined on stage by a guest of honour when a demon zombie inflated and resided over the drum kit and stayed in situ for the rest of the set, an invitation for the set to be dispatched with even more ferocity and fervour which the band duly obliged with. The set then closed out with a heroic and triumphant ‘In Waves’ and we then saw the house lights illuminate to a sea of content and exhausted bodies all making their way out into the night sky, comfortable in the knowledge that they had been witness to an evening claiming a milestone for two of the most important and influential albums on the metal landscape.
Tonight had indeed been a celebration, a 20 year anniversary of two classic albums which just went to prove that they are both as fresh and as a relevant today as the day they were born back in 2005.
