HEADBANGERS BALLS, The Rainbow Warehouse, Birmingham 17/8/13

A quite fantastic cause this – and a brilliant idea. Unfortunately, though some background may be required before continuing as the mainstream media appear to have given it paltry coverage.

A few years ago Reign of Fury frontman Bison Steed was diagnosed with testicular cancer, this is his fifth year clear of the disease and to celebrate he decided to do something about it. What the band did was team up with promoter Andy Pilkington and the people at Intune PR and set up a 12 date tour across the UK with a frankly incredible cast of underground metal bands.

This Birmingham date is the finale of the whole thing and saw an all-day festival type thing take place. Hands up, here, RTM wasn’t able to make all of it, but we got here as soon as we could, as we weren’t going to miss this for all sorts of reasons.

We get there in time to see Bull Riff Stampede. The local group has been making a few waves recently – not least of which was their appearance at Bloodstock last week and they evidently have the drive, ambition to get themselves heard. They have the songs too, “Advance And Conquer” and “The Pit March” posses everything a thrash band needs to succeed. They are about to record a new album, so this bull is one to watch.

Another local band, Hanging Doll is next up, and their female lead singer, allied to male guttural vocal approach is an interesting alternative to the previous group. “Cradle To The Grave” is arguably their best track, but they too are worth keeping an eye on.

Reign of Fury are next – introduced by Krusher, who RTM hadn’t seen for years before his Bloodstock appearance, but now appears to be following us about…..We had last seen Worcestershire’s finest at Bloodstock a year ago in the New Blood Tent – originally intending to leave after half their set to watch Evile, however, they were so good we stayed. If they were good then, they are even better tonight. RoF play a brand of metal that deserves to be aired in front of far bigger crowds than this. The aforementioned Steed has a presence and their twin guitar metal/thrash songs – of which “Psycho Intentions” is the pick, are excellent.

As we have said before, at RTM we want to like I Am I, but haven’t quite been won over. We were at their first ever show last May, then we saw them support Skid Row in March. On both occasions we have found singer ZP Theart a little too overpowering. Tonight, though, he tones down all the antics and concentrates on being a singer – and no one has ever doubted he can do sing. Not quite as power metal as you might expect given Theart’s past, instead “Cross The Line” and “Kiss Of Judas” could sit on a mid-1980s rock album pretty comfortably. First single “Silent Genocide” remains perhaps their best song, but this is a band that is making vast improvements.

Beholder’s Simon Hall never cuts the air of a bloke who is at peace with the world. Tonight, though, he gives as angry and incendiary a performance as we have seen from him. He is upset with Metal Hammer for not covering this tour, he is irked by the beer prices in the Rainbow and he is downright cheesed off with cancer itself.  It all makes for a fantastic Beholder show, though. The band showed at Bloodstock that they are in fine form right now and it continues tonight. Afforded a slightly longer set than last week, they use it to play “Never Take Us Down” the song they wrote for the Sophie Lancaster Charity, but its defiance is oddly in tune with tonight’s vibe too. By the time they have raced through the rant of “Liar” and the closing “Footprints” which has the central point that we are all flesh and blood, it is absolutely clear that you are watching one of the finest underground metal bands in the UK right now.

A superb evening all to raise money and awareness for the Teenage Cancer Trust, the final word should go to Hall. “Thank you for doing the right thing,” he says. “Cancer is the biggest bastard out there. It took friends of mine and it took my hero Ronnie James Dio. Anything we can do to stop it must be done. Fuck you cancer.”

Well Simon, the picture of my mother in the living room of my house instead of her being there attests to the fact that it robbed my family too, so RTM agrees. And shame on any magazine that didn’t cover this event – but the unsigned scene will get by without support anyway, it always does. Just as someday, we will beat cancer. 

A tremendous and strangely life affirming evening.

BLOODSTOCK DAY 3 12/8/12 @Catton Hall

Given the indignity of a ridiculously early start time you could perhaps forgive Corrosion Of Conformity for being a little bit cheesed off and going through the motions a bit. Not a bit of it! Instead, the now three-piece deliver a set of rare intensity and riffing.  Without former member Pepper Keenan, COC don’t play anything from their mid-period, instead opting for a large number of new songs from their new album – “Psychic Vampire” sounding particularly special - and a smattering of songs from their first couple of records. They delivered a quite outstanding 40 minutes.

Not being death metal aficionados RTM takes its leave during Nile, ancient Egyptian themed brutality, opting instead for the New Blood Tent. Hakin’s frontman Brian sports a Fred Durst style red cap but there the similarities end. The Welsh band are billed as being, like Nile, from the death end of things, but to RTM it sounds like they have as much to do with Conan-esque doom as anything else.

Dreamcatcher are a much different proposition. The six piece fuse prog and melodic metal and come up with something not to dissimilar from the likes of Neonfly. They only manage a short set, but it is a thrilling one, closer “Take Hold” and “Never Look Back” particularly enthralling.

Its tough to do thrash metal well these days, even tougher when ridiculous scheduling sees the end of a young thrash bands set clash with the start of Evile’s on the main stage, but Reign Of Fury take it in their strides “we’ll race through it” jokes front man Bison Steed. They have no need, because, although they don’t, as yet have a new take on things, they are a band to look out for. “Envy The Dead” has a confidence and the twin guitar work on “Born To Die” was stunning.

Which brings us to the aforementioned Evile. Now relatively experienced campaigners, the Huddersfield band have overcome adversity to be a tremendous propostion. No British group has come up with thrash songs as good as “Cult” and “The Thrasher” in years, and they even find time to give “Centurion” its live debut during in a set that not even the rain can spoil.

Not content with two thrash bands in a row, it’s off to the Sophie Tent for the hat-trick and Slovenia’s Nocteferia emerge as the day’s surprise packets. “Slave To None,” “Democracy” and “Murder” are all, quite frankly, brilliant and the band can look back on their first trip to the UK with immense pride.

Over on the main stage, we catch the end of Anvil, and as always the suspicion with the Canadian triers is that they have never quite made it not through any bad luck, but actually because they aren’t all that good. “Metal on Metal” sounds excellent, of course, but you have to wade through a lot of mediocre stuff to get there.

Of all the bands that you would expect to make the sun come out, Paradise Lost are fairly low down on that list. But nonetheless, that’s the rather incongruous sight that greets them. Frontman Nick Holmes is a little disgruntled at this and dispatches a roadie to get sunglasses. Holmes is also barefoot, although this, he informs us is because the stage is slippy and not because he “wants to look like that c**t from the Black Crowes.” PL then set about showing just why they are the best band of their type out there. Just like their headline tour in April PL play a lot of the stunning “Tragic Idol” opus, which they mix with oldies like “Forever Failure” and “As I Die” before they finish up with a magnificent “Say Just Words” which induces much fist-in-the-air action.

French metal is often neglected, but Headcharger are looking to follow Gojira into our thoughts. Their sound is more Pantera based groove metal than their compatriots and in truth there is nothing especially memorable to their set in the Sophie Tent, although “The End Starts Here” – title track to their new album – is a diversion and they have a decent stab at “Communication Breakdown.”

Dimmu Borgir in the light is an odd thing! On their tour last year they were bathed in dark light throughout, now clad in leather and corpse paint they look entirely different. Thankfully they sound just as good though, and put on a sublime performance. “Ritualist” remains perhaps black metal’s most accessible moment, and “Mourning Palace” is grandiosely brilliant, over the course of an hour they show exactly why they are modern black metals finest band. Although the ever modest frontman Shagrath sees it differently, “I suppose you are all ready for Alice Cooper now,” he says.

And so it is 50 minutes later that the original shock-rocker brings his circus to Derbyshire. He does so with a show that is an exact replica of that which he played last October, which while nowhere near as good as the previous Theatre of Death trek in 09 is still a superb gig. The first part sees Alice racing through some classics and “I’m Eighteen,” “No More Mr Nice Guy” and “Hey Stoopid” are exactly that, before things lose a touch of momentum with a succession of solos and newbie “Ill Bite Your Face Off.” He’s soon back playing “Poison” and “Cold Ethyl” as well as creating monsters and getting killed. Of course it ends with “Schools Out” and a giant party, which really is all you need from Mr. Furnier.

This was three days to celebrate the magnificence and diversity of Heavy Metal, and as events go it was perhaps the best of the 2012, and with Anthrax already slated for 2013, who knows, next year may be better still.