When Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody asks for mobile phones to go in the air before his band plays "The Bleeding" as the last song of their set, it's hard to know whether he actually means his claim that we were the "best crowd of the tour." By the time the arena has responded in their thousands, if he wasn't humbled previously, he probably is now.
In truth all of FFDPs set had been rapturously received, not least because Judas Priest legend Rob Halford appeared in "Lift Me Up". And yet, prior to this evening they had been a band that rather passed us by.
RTM had heard of them of course, but aside from the odd song here and there nothing much had grabbed us. Stone Sour lite we assumed. We were wrong.
Yes there are elements of Corey's band here, but they are much more than that. "Burn MF" is massive, dumb fun and their entire set is built on big riffs and bigger choruses. Plus any band that a) covers Bad Company's eponymous theme song b) plays "House of the Rising Sun" as they exit and c) can fetch Rob Halford out as a guest is alright by us.
Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss these new breed of big selling American arena rock acts. We've done it before. The bands name was Avenged Sevenfold.
When they were announced as main support to Maiden at Twickenham our reaction was one of disdain. When we watched them our reaction was "wow." Then we saw them blow Stone Sour offstage three years ago just up the road at the NIA and we had to admit that Avenged were a proper metal band. One that had Mike Portnoy no less, banging its kit after the tragic loss of their original sticks man Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan - to whom the band dedicate "Fiction" tonight as frontman M Shadows speaks movingly about his childhood friend.
Portnoy too, is no longer in the band, but AX7 have a number one album in the bag in "Hail To The King" and are embarking on their biggest ever tour of the UK.
And by god they know to play an Arena rock show, in the best, old-style meaning of that phrase.
Right from the beginning - a crushing "Shepherd Of Fire" - flames, pyrotechnics and enormous bangs are the order of the day.
The songs too, are huge. That is what sets the band apart from their peers, as does a jam session that would put Rush to shame. Not many groups attempt a track with as many twists and turns as the brilliant "Buried Alive," even fewer have one as good as "Nightmare."
The huge crowd lap it up, and well they might as there is much to enjoy. What Avenged have done, essentially, is meld together Guns n Roses and Metallica, add in a dash of Iron Maiden and yet still sound exactly like Avenged Sevenfold. No mean feat.
The main set ends with a storming "Bat Country" before the encore of two older songs climaxes with "Unholy Confessions" and a show that surpasses expectations is over.
They are a band that has the confidence of knowing they are just about at their creative peak and that they can play places this size in their sleep. People can snipe all they like at what appears to be a stylised rock group, complete with perfect bad boy tattoos - we used to as well - but AX7 are the real deal, even in Classic Rock this month. Next time around even stadiums may not hold them.
Mainstream metal at its absolute brilliant best.
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