BRITISH LION, Zico Chain @Academy 2 Birmingham 27/3/13

As has happened before RTM turns up at The Academy to be greeted with huge queues. Not, it has to be said for the band we are here to see, but for flavour of the month singer Emeli Sande, who is playing a second sold-out show in the space of two days at the main room.

As often happens during the course of these things, we are watching the gig from the viewing balcony of the Academy 2 and the odd fan of the popular act pokes their head around the door, turn their nose up and go.

It is doubtful that any of them who do so after 8.45 realise that there is a chap onstage who is directly responsible for some of the finest music ever recorded in history and is bass player in what in the opinion of RTM (and millions of others around the world) is the greatest band of all time. Hell, look at the backdrop we use for this blog. Steve Harris and Iron Maiden are the face of music as far we are concerned.

The elephant in the room tonight is a quite simple one. ‘Arry is here playing with British Lion, a band that he apparently formed in the late 1980s with a bunch of mates and didn’t tell anyone about until late last year when they stuck a record out. RTM needs to declare at the outset that we aren’t fans of this album and consider it to be fairly dull, lumpen and dated, but just like we forgive our football team for being consistently rubbish and still watch them every week, then you can support Steve Harris without caring for the music necessarily.

That is not the case with Zico Chain, who as we have written before on these pages, are excellent. Tonight they largely use their half an hour to sell their “Devil In Your Heart” album as all seven songs are from it. No problem there, as it’s an excellent record (making our top 20 of last year) but we do miss earlier material like “Pretty Pictures.”

The likes of “New Romantic” with its chorus meant for much bigger venues than this, make up for it, as does the pounding rhythm of opener “The Real Life.” This is a big chance for the band and they take it with aplomb – and are doing brisk business at the merch stand below us at the end of their set.

The five members of British Lion stride confidently out about half an hour later and immediately kick off with album opener “This Is My God” it has more life than it does on record and is better than expected. Neatly, it is a metaphor for the gig itself.

Of course challenge for the band is to flesh out a set to a decent length with only having one album out. There are many ways to do this of course (and thankfully no Maiden songs are played) what they actually choose to do is air five songs tracks that weren’t on the debut. It could have been a risky move, but for the fact they are all really good. “Father Lucifer” chugs along nicely, while “The Burning” is full of twin guitar bombast, best of all perhaps is “Guineas and Crowns” which is catchy and heavy all at once. Against these the actual album songs don’t quite cut it, with perhaps the most overtly Maiden-esque one of all Last Chance” coming over best.

The encore contains a cover of UFO’s “Let It Roll” and we end just after 10pm with “Eyes of the Young” which sounds like something you might hear on daytime TV as a theme tune.

Whatever quibbles there are about British Lion, there are three inescapable facts. First the guitarists David Hawkins and Graham Leslie are extremely good. Second singer Richard Taylor is less so – his voice lacking the power to carry some of the songs – and three Steve Harris is playing this gig because he wants to. He doesn’t need the money, he doesn’t need the fame, he just fancied playing some low-key gigs with his mates and good luck to him for it.

British Lion will never draw the crowds at the other gig tonight, but that was never the point, and that spirit of fun carried tonight through rather better than we might have thought.

The Black Crowes @Academy Birmingham 25/3/13

Conditions outside the Academy are awful. Ordinarily, RTM doesn’t do ice – sticks and slippy surfaces don’t mix.  However, tonight is anything but ordinary. Tonight is the second date on The Black Crowes first world tour for a very long time indeed.

The Black Crowes have, for over 20 years, been a massive part of RTM’s life. Since early 1990, when we first heard “Twice As Hard” as a 14 year old who had no idea about the Stones and The Faces, we have been fans. In fairness, that is fans with a “but” because, apart from perhaps The Wildhearts, there is no band with ability to enthrall and frustrate as The Crowes – and sometimes even on the same record. That said “Remedy” from album number two “The Southern Harmony Musical Companion” is one of our top ten records of all time, so it is in that context – a mix of excitement and trepidation – that we sit down tonight.

At dead on eight o’clock the band stroll out on stage, looking every inch like the folkie hippies you suspect they always wanted to be. Singer Chris Robinson looks a little more lived in than he did, brother Rich on guitar still appears to have born with a guitar in his hand, while of the others – and Jackie Greene on second guitar is the only new face – drummer Steve Gorman is the spitting image of the anger management consultant in Steve Coogan’s Saxondale.

None of that matters when they plug in. The opening bars of “Jealous Again” waft into the air and instantly you remember why you loved this band so much. “Thick and Thin” soon follows and its easy to be swept along on a tide of nostalgia.

However, if you thought this signified that we were set for a greatest hits show, then you don’t know the Crowes. They are onstage for over two and a half hours and the gig takes more turns than you might imagine. One minute they are playing Traffic’s “Medicated Goo” which is funky as anything, then its “Whoa Mule” with its almost gospel overtones. In between all this Rich Robinson is playing a majestic slide guitar solo during “Wiser Time” that is jaw droppingly good.

Chris smiles his way through and is in convivial mood. When the acoustic guitars come out mid-set he jokes with the crowd that “you don’t think we brought these beards through customs not to play some acoustic music do you?” On top of this he is still a fine singer.

After “Thorn in My Pride” is turned into a massive sounding jam (keyboard player Adam McDonald destroying his rig by accident in the process while the band carries on around him) the aforementioned “Remedy” is aired along with a medley of “Hard To Handle” and “Hush” which ends the main set.

After such a tumultuous end the encores were perhaps always going to be a little low-key, and after a cover of Eric Clapton endorsed folkies Delaney And Bonnie’s “Poor Elijah” they give a rendition of “Been A Long Time (Waiting On Love)” rather than, say “Twice As Hard”  or one of the hits.

In many ways though, that sums the Crowes up. Here is a band that for over twenty years it seems has been doing exactly whatever it wanted to, whether we like it or not.

Thankfully tonight, we did.

GHOST, Gojira, The Defiled @Academy Birmingham 23/3/13

With the awful, unseasonable weather robbing Hawk Eyes of the chance to open this show (and as an aside it struck me as odd that the different opening acts for this Jagermeister sponsored jaunt weren’t local anyway – its not as if we don’t have plenty of decent acts) it is left to The Defiled to kick the evening off.

The band are ones RTM has seen on a numerous occasions as they criss-cross the UK opening for anybody and it doesn’t matter how many times we see them, it always takes a while to get over the fact they look like some dirty version of the Black Veil Brides.

Strip away the image, though, and what there actually is a very good metal band. And one that, evidently, is going places. Their new album has been produced in Florida by Jason Suecof (Trivium, Job For A Cowboy) and is coming out on renowned metal label Nuclear Blast. They premier a track from it this evening in “Sleeper” and it sounds huge. It sits alongside older material like “The Ressurectionists” and the still catchy as hell “Call To Arms” and as always, The Defiled leave with some new fans.

It is something of a shock to RTM that Gojira aren’t headlining this shindig. The French titans have been to this country enough over the last 12 months (this is the third time we’ve seen them) to build up a pretty big fanbase. They played the venue next door last June and sold it out, before a rammed show in Wolverhampton in November. A proper international metal act, they have no problems in a 50 minute support slot tonight.

Of course, it helps that Gojira are, to be frank, brilliant. The act is well-honed. The band all racing around the stage during in second number “Flying Whales”, just as they have twice before, they give an airing to the aptly named “Heaviest Matter In The Universe” and play a magnificent version of the title track of their most recent record “L’Enfant Sauvage.” Quite fantastic.

It is however Ghost (or Ghost BC) if we were in America) that are the closing band tonight. They have a stage set that befits the occasion – and their ludicrous nature – as they mock up a church and the crowd to be far adores them over the course of the next 75 minutes.

For us, though, it is a joke that is wearing a trifle thin. We saw them back in December 2011 way down a Metal Hammer bill at the Wolves Civic Hall and for half an hour they were spellbinding. After this we got the album and (whisper this quietly because everyone seems to love them) we thought it was a little bit dull.

And that is exactly how we feel about them tonight. The eight songs they play from that debut album “Opus Eponymous” are good, but -  “Ritual” aside – RTM genuinely can’t see what the fuss is about. Bands like Merciful Fate were doing this type of thing better 20 odd years ago and, this is our first listen to the five new tracks and honestly, none of them grabbed too hard.

That is not to say that Ghost aren’t enjoyable, they are big dumb fun, but if we ever hanker for a band that doesn’t reveal either its face or its name, then we will reach for the first four Kiss album and the first two Slipknot records, which are genuinely exciting.

The organisers of this gig deserve great credit, the £5 entry fee is astonishingly good value, but for our money – and we are in a minority of one -  the wrong band headlined. 

BIFFY CLYRO @LG Arena 21/3/13

We have spoken before on this blog about feeling like an outsider at the odd gig we go to. Looking around the NEC tonight that is definitely the case here. The LG arena is close to being full- the floor in particular is packed – but RTM feels somewhat like a tourist.

You get the impression, that, for a lot of the people here this might well be the gig event of the year. For them its “Biffy Clyro!!” for us, it’s a gig ticket we bought literally on impulse while buying a Status Quo one last year. They had gone on sale that day and it was a case of “oh I’ve never seen these, I think I will.”

And that very much sums up RTM’s relationship with Biffy. A band we have casually liked for a number of years since someone in the very early days of file sharing handed us a copy of their debut album “Blackened Sky.” In fact is wasn’t until the release of this years sprawling and ambitious double album “Opposites” that we sat down and listened to one of their albums all the way through.

Nonetheless, here we are and what we find, actually, is a very, very good arena rock show, polished and full of massive sounding songs.

It is a show that starts with the three main members of Biffy – singer Simon Neil, bass man James Johnston and drummer Ben Johnston – all topless. The set, as an arena band should, includes walkways into the audience and a Bruce Dickinson-style ego ramp behind the drums – although this isn’t used too much suggesting that the band isn’t entirely comfortable with the more overt signs of over the top production.

Show opener “Different People” is one of no fewer than 13 songs from “Opposites” that are aired during the course of a very near two hours set, with “Black Chandelier” sounding absolutely fantastic.

During the course of that set, Biffy show while they connect with quite so many people in quite such a way. Their songs are by turns blistering metal riffs, “A Day Of” for example  echoes RTM favourites Kerbdog, “Biblical” is a singalong chocked full of whoa whoa parts and at points they almost do a passable impression of strutting Bowie-esque glam rock. Then Neil is on his own, stage front delivering the fantastic “God and Satan” with just an acoustic guitar.

“Many of Horror” sounds absolutely enormous in this setting and the perfect song for 10,000 people to sing, although arguably that might be topped by “The Captain” is the set closer.

The encores too are delivered with an obvious passion and as the band say their goodbyes, whether a casual observer or hardened fan, you have to say that Biffy can sell these Places out because they are a very good band with very good songs – and whilst they will never be in our top 20 (or even 50) bands, sometimes being a good band with good songs is enough. 

RIVERSIDE, Jolly, Dianoya @Leamington Assembly 17/3/13

Dianoya are a new band on us at RTM. Like tonight’s headliners they hail from Poland and also in common with Riverside they peddle a brand of metal that is best pre-fixed with the word “prog”.  Their roots are, perhaps, slightly more metallic, though. Guitarist Jan Niedzielski gives his tastes away with his sporting of a Pantera tshirt, for example. Their songs – most of which are epic in nature – are damn fine. “The Genius” lives up to its title, while “Far Cry” might borrow a title from Rush, but also shares sentiments with them too.

New York’s Jolly are next up and if ever a band is ironically named its them. Archly miserable and dark from the get-go there are precious few laughs in their 45 minutes. In fairness, singer Anadale explains mid-set that they were lucky to get their new album done at all, given that it was being recorded in the home of Louis Abramson, which was then destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Their’s was an interesting rather than outright jaw-dropping set. “When Everything’s Perfect” is excellent track, but perhaps best of all was closing number “The Pattern” which saw the band cut loose and really lock into a groove.

“Into this world I came/ Full of fear/ And crying all the time” so begins the opening track on Riverside’s new “Shrine Of New Generation Slaves” album. That alone tells you that, like Jolly, there isn’t going to be many songs with the lyrics “maybe” and “baby” in there (although it does contain the immortal line “no, I don’t have a stomach ache, its just my face”). At this point RTM should probably declare bias as, since hearing the band for the first time late last year, we have basically fallen in love the four piece. “….Slave” is the best record of the year so far and if there’s a better one that comes out at all then we want to hear it.

All that remains, then, is for the band to deliver a gig of the magnitude we are hoping for. Are they going to let us down…not a bit of it!

After the “Into this world….” etc starts us off the band then deliver the next two faultless tracks from “….Slave” before pausing for breath. The first thing to notice is that they are not only much heavier live than we expected, they have also taken great care to get everything right as from the lightshow to the sound, the entire show is exemplary.

There is a stunning guitar solo from Piotr Grudziński in “We Got Used To Us” while arguable set highlight “Egoist/Hedonist” is quite marvelous, as is set closer “Escalator Shrine” with its blasts of Hammond Organ from Michał Łapaj

There are a couple of well deserved encores as “Left Out” and “Conceiving You” bring things to halt, but this has been 90 odd minutes to savour.

Riverside are a bit of a cult band at the moment, although it is easy to see them making the step up, particularly in the UK where the more Marillion type elements to their sound should win them plenty of fans. However, if they are to remain a cult, then get yourself in the know pretty quick, because these boys are just a little bit special. 

FM, Vega @ Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton 16/3/13

“We work on the principle that you can never have too many whoa’s whoa’s in a song,” so says Nick Workman. The Vega frontman used to be vocalist with Brit AOR merchants Kick many years ago, but seems to have fond a decent home here.

Tracks like “Saviour” have all the right melodic boxes ticked. Massive choruses abound, which combined some crunchy riffs supplied by guitarist Tom Martin they posses a sound that is not unlike mid-period Europe. This is a hometown show for Workman and one which is to be enjoyed immensely.

It is fair to say that The Slade Rooms is packed this evening. It is also on the warm side. But its also correct to assert that there is much anticipation for this show on FM’s first headline tour for ages.

Whether people are doing what RTM is doing is open to question. In our case they were a name we knew. When we were kids and buying Bon Jovi, Kiss and so on, we vaguely remember the debut album “Indiscreet” coming out to rave reviews in Kerrang and Raw, but we don’t recall actually buying a record.

All that changed, though, when we saw them support Thin Lizzy last December. In preparation we acquired a copy of the recent EP “Only Foolin’”. It’s title track is quite magnificent affair, of the type that people just don’t write anymore. They then preceded to give a stunning account of themselves at the Lizzy gig.

Happily that was no one off. Since December, FM have stuck out not one, but two records in the shape of the “Rockville” CD’s. Mighty fine slabs of Thunder-esque rock they are too. It is with “Tough Love” the opening track from one of these that they kick off this evening, before a delve back to the debut album for “I Belong To The Night” and the tone is set for a quite superb 90 minutes.

The aforementioned “….Foolin’” rears its spectacular head about halfway through, but might well have been eclipsed by “Let Love Be The Leader” which ends in a triple guitar solo, with keyboardsman Jem Davis joining singer Steve Overland and Jim Kirkpatrick in wielding the axe.

In microcosm that song shows just what is so good about the band. Excellent musicians, with choruses to die for, when topped off with Overland’s voice – which is as perfect for this type of music as you could get – it is a pretty formidable mix.

For the encore they choose to come air “Crosstown Train” nominally the first single from “Rockville” it is six minutes of catchiness that probably won’t be beaten in 2013 and proves why this band was so right to reform in 2008. A tumultuous gig ends with “Otherside of Midnight” and all you can say is “thank goodness they supported Lizzy.”

In a world where bands like Journey are supposed to rule the melodic rock roost, we are doing what we often do in this country and looking across the pond for stuff, when we might just have the best of the lot right here. FM proved that tonight.  

IAN HUNTER, Jason Ringenberg @Wolverhampton Wulfrun 15/3/13

Getting on for 30 years ago, a band called Jason and the Scorchers started playing music that mixed country with punk, rock and blues. This was, lest we forget before bands like Whiskeytown and Uncle Tupelo came along and the Alt. Country genre became popular, they had a minor hit with their version of their version of the Hank Williams tune “Lost Highway” and still occasionally put out records to this day, but never really rose about the level of a cult band.

Jason from Jason and the Scorchers, Mr Ringenberg, is opening tonight. He still looks the part of cowboy chic, with his hat and his rhinestones and he still sings quirky little country songs. “Lost Highway” gets an airing after a request from the audience (“I can’t believe this, I am gonna call my mother and tell her they requested my songs in Wolverhampton,” he says.) But much of his set concerns itself with his anti racist beliefs with one particularly interesting story about the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African Americans who fought in the Second World War. Ringenberg’s set was good, but you were longing for Warner E Hodges on electric guitar and tracks like “White Lies.”

But the relaxed vibe continues when Ian Hunter takes to the stage. Tonight is an acoustic show for the former Mott The Hoople man too, joined by his producer Andy York (also John Mellencamp’s guitar player) and David Roe on double bass, Roe is a former cohort of Johnny Cash.

Hunter is sipping wine when he sits down, beginning with a laid back rendition of “Just The Way You Look Tonight” this is pertinent selection, given that it comes from his most recent CD, the quite brilliant “When I’m President” which by turns is biting, sardonic and yet still a warm piece of English rock.

This suits Hunter well, as for every love song there is a tale about Barry Manilow wanting to use “Ships” but his fans being “idiots” so not understanding it. This is juxtaposed by “Girl From The Office” a heart-warming tale of chivalry, which Hunter claims people on message boards don’t like because it’s too “pansy.”

The new album’s title track is an obvious highlight. A quite fabulous song in which the both “fat cats” and the apathy of politicians are lambasted, while there is a smattering of Mott The Hoople songs “Once Bitten Twice Shy” and “Roll Away The Stone” are rapturously received.

The audience has been seated throughout the show, but that changes. “Life” the closing track on “…President” which reflects on how rock n roll can divert you for a time, but life always goes on is followed by a singalong of “All The Young Dudes,” which given that Hunter is now 70 is perhaps slightly incongruous, but it is a fitting way to end a stellar very near two-hour show.

Acoustic shows don’t get too much better than this, who needs TV, when we got Ian Hunter. Or something very similar anyway.

STATUS QUO, The Treatment @Wolverhampton Civic Hall 13/3/13

You have to hand it to The Treatment. The chances are that if you have been to a rock gig in the last two years, they have been the opening act. In the last six months they have been around America with Kiss and Motley Crue, the length and breadth of Britain with Thin Lizzy, they have supported Slash on his recent short arena tour and now this, sold-out jaunt with the original Status Quo.

Such experience has proved invaluable and they are slowly moving from the fresh-faced kids with potential that RTM saw at the bottom of a free gig in Nuneaton a couple of years ago to a confident hard rock band.

Depending on your point of view they are outdated glam chancers, or are trying to inject some of the sunset strip into British rock. At RTM we are very much in the latter camp and, whilst you are never going to get a Dream Theater or Slayer or whoever singing songs like “I Want Love” or “Get The Party On” in a world where bands like Bon Jovi are sticking out execrable nonsense, there needs to be some good time rock and roll about and in that respect The Treatment are as good as it gets right now.

In case you didn’t know this reunion of the original Status Quo line-up – “The Frantic Four” of Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, John Coughlan and Alan Lancaster – is a pretty big deal. This is the bands second show in Wolverhampton in the space of a week and both were sold out.

The chants of “Quo, Quo, Quo” have started almost as soon as The Treatment end and at 8.05 precisely the houselights go down and the voice says “Are you ready to rock? Will you welcome the finest rock band in the world…..Status Quo!” The quartet duly launch into the old blues boogie standard “Junior’s Wailing.”

To say the reception is good is an understatement. All around RTM there is pandemonium a fact that the effortlessly charming Rossi has 3, albeit cheekily, when he says “you feel better now? It like you have finished after whatsitcalled….you’ve had your climax now, you’ve climaxed all over this band…”

Actually the whole show is one big thrill. Absolutely flawless from beginning to end, the band is clearly loving it and the crowd lap it up. The songs too are pretty much just a joyous run-through of boogie, Lancaster sings the first two, Parfitt weighs in with “Little Lady” and Rossi sings most of the rest.

The two guitarists show their skills here, with the interplay really to the fore, while Coughlan – who has aged a little better than bassman Lancaster, who is clearly struggling with his movement by the end – keeps the beat superbly despite the stifling heat.

After “Roadhouse Blues” finishes the main set they are soon back for “Don’t Waste My Time” and the Chuck Berry standard “Bye Bye Johnny almost literally waves us a fond farewell.

This is the second time RTM has seen Quo. The first was the Christmas show last year, which was good, but nowhere near as good as this. This is Quo as they should be, just a damn fine boogie rock band, with rubbish like “Margarita Time” and a Christmas carol medley stripped away. The gig had a relaxed vibe – Lancaster found time to pick his nose before “(April) Spring Summer and Wednesdays” for example – but was an almost perfect celebration of a fine British rock band. 

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, Halestorm, Miss May I @Academy Birmingham 12/3/13

The crowd is already packed by the time Ohio five piece Miss May I take the stage. Their cheery brand of metalcore goes over well, although the rather relentless positivity in the bands songs can get a trifle wearing. That said, there is a decent crunch to tracks like “Forgive and Forget” and “Hey Mister” and their profile can only rise with slots on bills such as this.

When last we saw Halestorm they were opening for Shinedown just over a year ago. That they were better than Shinedown says much for the latter’s use of backing tapes and rather over-earnest stage patter. Instantly they became the sort of band that we shouldn't like at RTM towers, but actually do – their overtly US Radio Rock sound reminds us of bands like Skid Row from the late 1980s.

Since that day a year ago, Lzzy and the boys have embarked on their own sell-out UK tour and their profile continues to rise. Within the first 30 seconds of their opening number “Love Bites (And So Do I)" it is easy to see why. It’s catchy, heavy and – lets be honest about this – sexy. There aren't many teenage boys in the audience who aren't blushing when Lzzy Hale sings the line about “having a thousand ways to make you forget about her.” Hale, actually is a fine frontwoman and posses a fine voice – witness her singing on Adrenaline Mob’s “Come Undone” for proof – and by the time they have caused not one, but two, moshpits it is very much mission accomplished.

This is an interesting time for Bullet For My Valentine. Very much on the rise a few years ago, this is a comeback that could have gone either way. What actually happened was that they stuck out the “Temper Temper” album a few weeks ago and gigs all around the country –including this one – sold out.

If they were a little nervous about the way it was going to go then it takes about a second of “Breaking Point” to ease the nerves. The crowd can only be described as rabid and the band are almost on a victory lap from the off.

“Your Betrayal” soon follows and proves the older songs fit in with the new ones with no problem at all. It is however, the title track of the album that really takes the eye, “Temper Temper” has a hook and a chorus to die for as does “Dirty Little Secret” which sees Lzzy Hale take it as a type of duet, while “Last Fight” has a riff borrowed straight from Maiden’s mid-paced chugger repertoire. By the time “Scream Aim Fire” has finished off the main set it is clear that this is a group that really is ready to cross over into the mainstream.

A few years ago BFMV embarked on an arena tour. In doing so they became the first British metal group born since Iron Maiden’s seminal debut album came out to do so. That they have to take so much flak says more about the mentality of the British public than anything else. Instead of being happy that one of “our” bands had become big they were subjected to bitterness and sniping.

Face facts though people, someone from the new breed of metal bands has to fill arenas as Maiden and Metallica won’t be around forever. They have the hooks, the looks and the catchy choruses, so it might as well be Bullet as anyone else. At RTM we say good luck to them.

KVELERTAK, Truckfighters @Academy 3 11/3/13

The first band that RTM saw play a proper gig was LA glam band Love/Hate. Their bass player at the time, Skid, used to cavort around the stage before the rest of the band joined him. We found ourselves musing on this while watching Sweden’s Truckfighters, as they start their gig tonight.

That, you see, was exactly the way the three-piece start their show too. A topless Dango races around playing a huge riff before being joined by his bandmates to play more, well, huge riffs.

Their half an hour is an entertaining one if you like heavy stoner grooves (which we do around here), but they do get just a trifle samey as they jam their way through. Singer/bass man Ozo has a fine voice for these type of songs, though and by the time they have dangled their guitars into the crowd to let them play their instruments, you feel that they have won plenty of new friends.

We can still vividly recall the moment we first saw Kvelertak. August 2010 we found ourselves at Sonisphere to see Iron Maiden. The disabled viewing area was, frankly, rubbish. So instead of pretending we could see (or hear) Slayer we toddled off to the Strongbow tent to check out a band we had never heard of. The singer ran out wearing an owl mask. The group appeared to be bellowing death metal songs in a foreign tongue, but equally appeared to be doing so over punky, hard rock riffs, with the occasional Mastodon groove thrown in.

We were excited, enthralled and captivated all at once. And, if you want to know what Kvelertak sound like, then that, ladies and gentlemen is about it. In a world where most new bands belong to a scene or are “core” this or “post” that, Kvelertak stand alone as totally unique. They seem, gradually to be crossing over into a more mainstream rock way. Certainly there are more here than when last we sat in this room and watched the band around 12 months back.

This tour is to celebrate the upcoming release of album number two “Meir” which is out later this month. They play plenty of it, and happily it sounds just as fresh and exciting as the self- titled debut CD. Full of riffs and energy, the new songs (which are not named by the band on stage) sound fantastic.

Actually, song titles don’t matter, since RTM can’t speak Norwegian at all (except for knowing the band name means “Chokehold” in their native tongue, watching a Kvelertak gig is more about a visceral feeling of excitement. Their hour long set flies by and ends – like last years did – with “Utryyd dei svake” but this is a band that is improving all the time – and bear in mind they were pretty good to start with.

CANCER BATS @Library Institute 10/3/13

It was Axewound that got RTM here.

The supergroup (ish) released the “Vultures” album last year and we like it – liked it a lot in fact. We saw them at the Slade Rooms and they were fantastic. What we didn’t know much about was their singer and guitarist.

So in the best traditions of the music obsessed we go to work. We had heard of the Cancer Bats, of course, but never really got around to checking them out. But after the Axewound show when frontman Liam Cormier had been especially impressive, we got hold of a couple of their albums – and boy were they good!

So hopes were high for seeing the band for the first time tonight and we certainly weren’t let down. The crowd is packed by the time the four piece hit the stage and begin with a crushing “Bricks And Mortar” which sees the audience rabidly chanting the chorus. Happily this sets the tone for remaining 75 minutes.

New Album “Dead Set On Living” is well represented, with its “Road Sick” sounding especially good, while older songs like “Shillelagh” and “Pneumonia Hawk” are delivered with such passion that they too, sound fresh.

However it is perhaps the end of the gig that shows why this band is so good. They cover “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys – neither a song or a group that we have any time for around here – and make it crush. They turn it into their own and it sounds absolutely massive. They then finish off with their own tunes in “Hail Destroyer” and “….Living’s” opener “Rats” and it rounds off a fine night.

Cormier himself acts as the ringleader throughout. Incredibly energetic, he also posses both an easy charm – he is happy to wear a hat that is thrown from the audience, and then lead the assembled crowd in a chant of “my new hat” to celebrate.

This is allied to what appears to be a genuine humbleness as to his bands rise in the UK. The first time they played here, he says, was to 20 people, then things have steadily grown to this packed out gig in front of hundreds. You suspect, he and his colleagues are totally appreciative of this.

Cancer Bats might be billed by lazy journalists as a “punk” band, but tonight they show they are so much than that. Bassist Jay is wearing an Entombed t-shirt and Scott Middleton spends the evening tossing out riff after memorable riff. Ok their roots are in hardcore, but like Hatebreed this is a hardcore band with a metal heart. And one that is very, very good live.

Thank goodness for Supergroups!

Neal Morse/Mike Portnoy, The Flower Kings @Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 8/3/13

It’s worth saying at the outset that this gig was originally slated to be at the much smaller Slade Rooms around the corner from the Wulfrun. It could never have taken place there. Not, unfortunately anything to do with the crowd. That would have just about filled the former, but rather it just would not have fitted physically.

Don’t believe me? The night ends with 11 of the world’s finest prog rock musicians onstage, two drum kits (and one of these belonged to Mike Portnoy) someone jumping off the speaker stack, someone else jumping out of a box all in one joyous finale. Not for nothing is this gig billed as Prog Rock Royalty.

The tale of how we got here begins some three and half hours earlier; When Swedish Prog masters The Flower Kings take the stage. Immediately kicking off with a 25-minute epic masterpiece in “Numbers” from their most recent album “ Banks Of Eden” their hour-long set is basically faultless.

They are far less po-faced than you might imagine too. Introducing the band, which includes a couple of Germans, front man Roine Stolt encourages to “not mention the war,” for example and throughout the exemplary playing, which also includes a stunning “The Truth Will Set You Free” they exude a happy, easy charm.

Indeed, so good were they that you did wonder if they might upstage the headliner. As it happened, not a bit of it!

Neal Morse, is a modern Prog Legend, his work in Spocks Beard and the supergroup Transatlantic affords him such status, and the fact that his band for this trek contains modern day marvel Mike Portnoy, who since leaving Dream Theater has managed to up his workload, only reinforces the thought that this evening is very special indeed.

Last year Morse released an astonishing record called “Momentum” (which, RTM, to its shame, didn’t hear until 2013) and it is the title track from that that kicks us off tonight. “Author Of Confusion” soon follows with its harmonies seeing all the band sing expertly, before Eric Gillette elevates the thing with a stupendous solo. Best of all, though is closing song “World Without End,” all 34 minutes of it in all its stunning glory.

How do you top that? Well with three members of Transatlantic in the room you play 45 minutes of their songs, with “Whirlwind” perhaps the pick, before the aforementioned jam closes the evening off.

The eponymous star is clearly enjoying himself, grinning throughout and even letting Portnoy play a touch of metal at one point. Morse’s songs deal with his spiritual beliefs, which makes him a rather incongruous listen for us. These are not views we share, or believe in for that matter, but he clearly has convictions and has crafted some absolutely magnificent songs to tell that story.

A quite joyous evening in all senses of the word and one of the gigs of the year.

The Viginmarys @Hare And Hounds, Birmingham 5/3/13

The fact that the tannoy is playing the Happy Mondays just before the band comes out tells you that RTM is slightly off territory tonight. This, ladies and gentlemen, is one of those occasions when stick our heads a bit of above the parapet and go and have a look at something slightly hip…

Actually, that should be hip with a but. Macclesfield’s The Virginmarys first came to our attention a couple of years ago when we discovered that Little Angels frontman Toby Jepson produced their debut EP and Classic Rock had the track “Taking The Blame” on one of their CD’s a couple of months ago, which we liked a lot.

Actually that track is a neat starting point for the band. Singer/Guitarist Ally Dickaty sings it in his accent, which gives the song a somewhat more indie feel than maybe we are used to, but the music the band play is pure classic rock.

Opening with appears to be an ode to casual sex in “Just A Ride” before “Out Of Mind echoes the Rolling Stones. Indeed the bands influences are hard to pin down, one minute they are knocking out Bluesy riffs, the next they are into screeching rock – and in places they remind RTM of long forgotten Brit sleazers The Glitterati.

With Dickaty and bass man and bass man Matt Rose preferring to let the music do the talking, the three piece might suffer from a lack of a focal point, that is if they didn’t have drummer Danny Dolan. Equal parts Keith Moon and Animal from the Muppets he seems on a mission to kill his kit, breaking his drums at least twice thanks to his energetic style.

Appropriately for a band with such diverse references the songs have a scattergun approach, “Same as It Ever Was” explodes, “Looking For Love” offers a change of pace while album title track “King Of Conflict” rattles along while sounding like the White Stripes.

After explaining they aren’t doing their usual encore as the dressing rooms are too far away, they stay on stage for the acoustic “Stripped” and the single “Bang Bang Bang.”

A band on the rise – Dickaty tells us they sold twenty tickets last time they were in Brum, while there must be 150 or so here tonight, The Virginmarys are a group to watch. Strip away the crossover appeal, though as this is what the Rival Sons would sound like if they were from North West England. The Virginmarys are retro rock UK style.

UFO, 4Bitten @Institute Library 3/3/13

4Bitten might be from Greece, but you just know that their hearts are in America circa 1987. They are seemingly going all out for the MTV sound that so defined that era. “Games You Play” apes Whitesnake, while “Far From Grace” is a more than decent stab at a Bon Jovi tune.

 Frontwoman Fofi Roussos has a decent voice for this type of thing, though, and they are enjoyable despite offering nothing that could remotely be described as “new.” “Let It all Burn” continues the clichéd song titles, while the last song of their half hour set rather neatly sums them up. Roussos sings about the need to “write a different song,” but does so over a riff that, shall we say, borrows extensively, from Queen’s “Tie Your Mother Down.”

Not that it matters a jot what the support band are up to. Tonight, you see, is all about UFO. Of all the reformed British hard rock bands of that era, Moggy and the boys can perhaps consider themselves the most unlucky. Yes, of course, the glory days are behind them in terms of record sales and yes, they might be best known to a generation of metal fans as the band who’s song is played before Iron Maiden come onstage, but that neglects the fact that out of all of them, UFO are arguably putting out the best records. Certainly last years phenomenal “Seven Deadly” has bothered RTM’s Ipod extensively in the last 13 or so months.

Even tonight’s choice of venue says much for them. Whether by choice or accident, it is in the smaller Library downstairs, but is so packed that surely it could comfortably have took place in the main Institute.

The setlist is largely the same as the one the trailed around the UK about this time last year, although this one does begin with “Lights Out” and if you are going to start with one of your songs, then you had better be confident, this, however, is UFO we are talking about, and by the time “Mother Mary” and “….Deadly.” highlights “Fight Night” and “Wonderland” have been played it is immediately clear we are in the presence of something pretty special.

The band is in fine form, guitar man Vinnie Moore is worthy successor to Michael Schenker, but is singer Phil Mogg that carries the band along. At turns he is both a favourite uncle and looks he would punch you in the face, but still finds time to ask about the Rotunda, tell us he is only touring to get out of the house, argue with the lighting man about the set up and tell us that he has Top Gear recording on his Sky Box.

Back to the songs, “Love To Love” becomes the epic centerpiece and, whilst we can argue about the merits of finishing with a guitar solo, the encore of “Doctor Doctor” (naturally) and “Shoot Shoot” cannot be trifled with.

UFO were truly out of this world tonight, but we should leave the last word to Mogg. “I was determined to have fun tonight,” he tells us. “And luckily you didn’t spoil it too much…” 

GRAND MAGUS, Primitai @Wolves Slade Rooms 28/2/13

Here at RTM we like Primitai a lot. In fact, our glowing praise of the band from last years I Am I show is still on their website. This is the fourth time we have seen the group since  a couple of years ago when they opened – in this very room – for White Wizard.

Happily on each occasion they have improved and tonight is no exception. “Sin City” and “Nocturnal Hordes” from last album “In The Line Of Fire” still sound thrilling, but that album has been around since 2010 and the group need some new stuff if they are to move forward.

Good news then that they air a couple of new songs, “Pound For Pound” packs an immediate punch, while “Scream When You See Us” has a driving riff and is slightly more sprawling. Both, however, hint that album number three, when it hits, might be a bit good. And any band that performs a Manowar-esque human pyramid onstage is alright with us.

As are Grand Magus. The three piece are a band who is superb on record, but really excels in the live arena. If their set in support of Amon Amarth last year was good, then their mid-afternoon slot at Bloodstock last year was a phenomenal affair, so hopes are high for this headliner.

And – boy, they don’t disappoint. For 75 minutes tonight, we watched metal at its most thrilling. Last year’s fine “The Hunt” album – which more or less is a continuation of the previous “Hammer of the North” record – is well represented, with four songs played. These include the majestic pair of “Sword of the Ocean” and “Starlight Slaughter,” while if there is a more majestic slice of power metal than “The Oar Strikes The Water” from 2008s “Iron Will” could someone please send it to us?

Here is a band for whom headlining the Black Country, evidently holds a special place. Singer, JB tells us he “can feel it in the walls” and it says much for how blasé we are about our heritage that someone shouts back “that will be the damp, pal….”

No matter, though, as Magus do understand their history. Their songs, rather like the aforementioned Amarth, rely heavily on, and draw heavily from, the Norse mythology, with “Valhalla Rising” sounding suitably epic.

Unlike other bands who sing about this type of thing, though, Magus eschew the death metal sound in favour of something that sounds not unlike Sabaton playing a Judas Priest track. With Fox’s expert bass and Ludwig’s pounding drums complimenting JB’s guitar, Magus are superb. “Hammer of the North” which is played as an encore, turns into a sing-a-long to end a very special set.

Throughout history there have been some exceptional three piece bands, from Rush to Motorhead, to Hendrix the triumvirate just seems to work. To that list, lets add Grand Magus. Their website says they are “Scandinavian Riff Lords” and that description will do for us too.