ALICE IN CHAINS, Ghost, Walking Papers @Birmingham Academy 13/11/13

Late replacements on this bill – the opening duties were originally slated to be performed by Joey Jordison’s Scar The Martyr – Walking Papers are due on at an early start time. Happily most of the crowd are in place to see the start – and what a show it is!

When they emerged last year, most of the interest in the band centred  around two of their members – Duff McKagan and Barrett Martin – having illustrious pasts, then people heard the album and realised that this was not some novelty side project, but an excellent band in their own right. In truth, McKagan and Barrett are the least visible on stage, with singer/guitarist Jeff Angell and Keyboard player Ben Anderson providing most of the sound interest, with Anderson’s swirling organ playing a prominent role. The band are much heavier live, with “Two Tickets And A Room” sounding formidable. During set closer “Red Letter” Angell marches into the crowd, and the atmosphere is uproarious. As opening acts go. It really does not get much better than this.

A couple of years ago you couldn’t pick up a metal magazine without seeing a story about Ghost. The masked monks of Sweden, who were they, who was in the band, was it James Hetfield? Was it Dregen, or assorted death metal glitterati? We now know that the singer used to be in glam chancers Crashdiet and it is the belief of RTM that strip all the myth and nonsense away and they ain’t that good. “Ritual” rocks and rolls in all the right places but “Stand By Him” sounds exactly like ZZ Top. The problem is that where once there was spectacle and mysticism there is a group singalong of “Monstrance Clock” and with this new conventional attitude Ghost are just another daft rock band, without great songs.

RTM has seen Alice In Chains before. There was a tremendous sense of excitement when we went to Manchester a few years ago to watch them on the comeback tour. Whether it was a case of fevered anticipation not quite meeting what happened in reality, who knows, but it wasn’t that great a night.

Oddly, the “Black Gives Way To Blue” album which they were touring was a triumph, but the new record “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” is not a huge favourite, so tonight was just another gig. That is until Alice In Chains started, because tonight they were everything we wanted four years ago. They were quite spectacular from the minute that “Again” kicks things off, giving way to an incredible “Check My Brain”.

There are lighting issues, with the big screen not working throughout, but this just means that AIC are relying on their songs. Luckily they have some incredible ones - not least of which are “We Die Young” and a crushing “Man In A Box”.  In fairness too, the “...Dinosaurs” album songs sound better than they do on the record, as “Hollow” perhaps the pick.

William DuVall has slotted into Layne Stayley’s shoes superbly, and without trying to copy his predecessor’s unique sound, it is still unmistakably AIC, largely this is down, you suspect to Jerry Cantrell, who sounds invigorated here as do the rhythm section of Sean Kinney and a lively Mike Inez.

The encore includes “Would?” before “Rooster” ends things, its soaring chorus giving the gig an ending it deserved. This was a night to remember that grunge never really existed - all it ever was a collection of great rock bands, some good ones and some rubbish, just like any other metal scene.  Tonight Alice In Chains proved that they were very much in the former category.

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. 

TRIVIUM, In Flames, Ghost, Rise To Remain, Insense @Wolves Civic Hall 2/12/11

Five bands. Twenty quid. Metal Hammer putting their name to it. It’s going to be packed out tonight in the Civic for Defenders of the Faith 2011 isn’t it?

Actually no. It’s about two thirds full even at its peak; the balcony isn’t even fully open. Indeed when openers Insense hit the stage the attendance is best described as sparse. In fairness the ridiculously early start time of 6-15 makes it impossible for many to check them out (RTM itself is stuck by the fact work is 20 odd miles from Wolverhampton and we don’t finish until 5) And it’s a shame, because the two songs we do hear make this band definitely worth checking out. Packing a decent punch and a nice line in Lamb of God type sound, they are definitely one to investigate.

Rise to Remain are comparative veterans despite only just releasing their debut album a matter of months ago. Simply put if you haven’t seen this band supporting the great and the good of metal you don’t go to many gigs. As such, despite their tender years, they are a tight live act. Austin Dickinson has borrowed his Dads stage mannerisms if not the Maiden sound and the likes of album title track “City of Vultures” and the always crushing “Nothing Left” make them already one of the best metalcore bands around.

So what do you call six blokes, five dressed as monks and one dressed as a cross between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Arthur Brown? These men also sing songs about Satan and rock like Black bloody Sabbath? You call them Ghost, that’s what - and they are unbelievable.

Ghost don’t need such trivial things as names so “Ghoul one” sings songs like “Ritual” and “Death Knell” and leaves about half the crowd bemused. They are apparently massive black metal stars in disguise. To be honest, who cares? They are the band of the night by miles and miles.

Perennial second on the bill boys In Flames are up next. Whenever these packages come round you can bet they’ll be there, just behind the headliners. They are more what the crowd wants than the mighty band they preceded, and there’s an impressive moshpit from the kick off of new track “Sounds of Playground Fading.”

There’s nothing actually wrong with In Flames, and although they do a get a bit samey, no one does Industrial Thrash better than the Swedes though and “Take This Life” is a fabulous song, as is “Only for the Weak” and they have the best beards of the night!

Which leaves just Trivium. Things have gone slightly awry in recent years for Matt Heafy and the boys. They were supposed to be the face of metal for the 21^st Century, but they have rather been left behind in the arena-filling stakes, and there is appreciably less people here tonight than there was the last time they played this venue a couple of years ago.

That doesn’t however stop the Florida band putting on a fine show. Opening with the title track of new album “In Waves,” they seem more relaxed and at ease than ever before. The career spanning set it an unexpected joy, the largely unheralded “Ignition” in particular sounding surprisingly good. The faithful go seven kinds of mental all night and this time round there is a palpable increase in bond between band and fans. Of course “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” remains their trump card but the set is much stronger than RTM recalled their back catalogue being.

The maturing band could yet enjoy some sort of Machine Head type renaissance if they can come up with their version of “The Blackening.”

A fine night all round but everything else looks a trifle weak compared to Ghost.