SOULFLY, Savage Messiah, Upon Descent @O2 Academy2, Birmingham

Local boys Upon Descent appear to be having the time of their lives, and well they might too. With a sound that owes much to tonight's headliners, they are evidently Soulfly fans given that they are moshing by the merch stand about two hours after they leave the stage. They make an equally positive impression while they are in the spotlight and they are fully deserving of the reception they are afforded. Tracks like "Shall We Begin" win them plenty of new fans, RTM included, and seeing them tonight is the equivalent of popping your head through a Bloodstock tent and enjoying a band you didn't expect to see for half an hour.

Savage Messiah, by contrast, have been one of favourites for quite a while. That said, we haven't had the best of experiences on the two other occasions we've seen them. Once was a rather ill-starred effort just up the road a couple of years ago when the there were almost literally more onstage than in the crowd, while the second, in the aforementioned Bloodstock tent, was ruined by a simply awful sound. 

If that leads you to suspect that Savage Messiah are, rather like contemporaries Evile, never going to quite translate their obvious talent into outright success, then Dave Silver and his newly merry men appear determined to change minds.  With album number three ready to drop in the next fortnight, these are important times for the band. They seem ready. Set closer "Insurrection Rising" - the fabulous title track of their debut record - is still perhaps the benchmark for the group, the new CD is most probably going to run it close.  On first listen new single "Hellblazer" and "Cross Of Babylon" take Messiah into more heavy than thrash metal, while "Hammered Down" is very much an Iron Maiden gallop. Tonight's brave show (nearly all of it comes from yet to be released "The Fateful Dark") shows not only the faith they have in their new work, but also it speaks of a band reborn. Very much a case of third time lucky when it comes to seeing them live, and you hope that is a neat metaphor for Savage Messiah's career.

That there's a Brazilian flag on the amp probably gives away the fact that Max Cavalera is here tonight, if that didn't tip you off then the rabid crowd might, and if you are still struggling, the first 30 seconds of opener "Bloodshed" will end all doubts.

Since he brought his band Sepultura out of Brazil in the late 80s, Cavalera has made exactly the sort of uncompromising music he wanted to, and really, the breakthrough records of "Arise" and "Roots" in the early-to-mid 90s were many people's first exposure to extreme metal, if you didn't like grunge it was a bleak musical time and it was Seps who as much as anyone, that offered something interesting and different.

Cavalera still does. When he left the band he formed with his brother, Igor, the effect was seismic. What didn't change, however, was his ability to write riff after riff and great song after great song. New album "Savages" is in that respect more of the same, the band - now featuring the next generation of Cavalera's, Max's son Zyon, on drums -  don't play much from it but what they do showcase is superb.

Onstage for 90 minutes, Soulfly offer the same effect as being bludgeoned repeatedly. Crushingly heavy, the four piece simply rattle off as many songs as they possibly can in as short a space of time as possible, this is fast, thrashy, Groove Metal of the absolute highest order, "Prophecy", casually tossed out near the start, is a showstopper, while "Babylon" and "Sacrifice" sound fantastic. 

There is, of course a smattering of Sepultura, with "Roots" still a veritable tour-de-force and "Refuse/Resist" dripping with menace. Less expected, perhaps is Cavelera playing "Wasting Away" a Nailbomb song, that amazingly is nearly twenty years old,

At the heart of everything is the frontman himself, a big man with a big presence and one who still appears born to be in a metal band, and he turns "No" with its lyrics criticising everything from Rednecks to Hootie And The Blowfish into real knockabout stuff, and returns for the encore with snippets of "War Pigs" and Napalm Death's "Scum".

After "Eye For An Eye" he yells "scream for me, Birmingham" and with that disappears, leaving the other three members to play us out with an instrumental version of "The Trooper". An unexpected end, perhaps, but one, which like the rest of the evening, had quality metal writ large all the way through it.

BLOODSTOCK DAY 2 11/8/12 @Catton Hall

RTM didn’t have any idea what cinematic metal was, but on the grounds that Benediction were on the main stage at the same time, we thought we would go and check out purveyors of the genre, Splintered Soul, in their early slot on the Sophie stage. On doing so we found that the Dartford band were a type of epic power combo, with a female singer and a violinist, but who still managed to be engagingly metal.

Next up were Savage Messiah who we know all about. Frustratingly they are served up the festival’s first poor sound, which rather takes away from what should have been a superb half an hour. Happily things get fixed before “Insurrection Rising” closes things, and you hope their time will come.

Poor sound is not something Londoner’s Dripback need to worry about. Producer Russ Russell is on the sound desk for their set and they get to showcase their peculiarly British brand of groove, death and thrash metal without concern. They are a brutal option, but show much better than they did when supporting Biohazard a few months ago.

Croatia’s Infernal Tenebra are on their first visit to the UK and clearly enjoying themselves, they have songs called “Bloodstained Chaos” and “Art Of Survival” and not the slightest hint of originality, a fact they acknowledge themselves by covering Kreator by the end of proceedings, but they were certainly entertaining.

Which is more than can be said for female fronted Rising Dream. Pretty good on record, they lose momentum when the drummer loses his pedal and never get it back.

Perhaps the least metal band on in the tent today, Brighton hard rock heroes Furyon kick off with “Disappear Again” which is not only the best song they have by miles, but also perhaps the best song of the day so far. The band have plugging their “Gravitas” album for a couple of years so it is relief that they air some new material in their set – and even better when the song, called “Nothing On Me” is a belter.

From here it is back to the main stage to see the reformed Sanctuary’s NWOBHM influenced set. They aren’t bad by any means and new song “The Mirror In Black” is an endearingly retro affair, but it is hard to see what all the fuss is about, and by the time their best known song “Battle Angels” is aired a lot of the buzz has gone.

Perhaps the crowd was instead waiting for Hatebreed to play their only UK show of 2012. If they were no-one was disappointed, as Jamey Jasta’s men delivered on a massive scale. The biggest circle pit of the weekend is soon greeting them “Born To Bleed” and “As Diehard As They Come” are hardcore/thrash masterpieces and it is such a stunning set that it will tough to follow.

Unless, of course, the band following are Testament. Perhaps the fifth of the big four thrash bands, if you will, the Bay Area veterans walk off not only with the honour of being band of the day, but perhaps of the entire weekend. Kicking off with “Rise Up” (one of four tracks they play from stunning new album, “Dark Roots Of The Earth” ) they show their skills in a frankly incredible way. Frontman Chuck Billy, air guitars his mic stand throughout a set that included classics like “Into The Pit,” “Practice What You Preach” as well as newer numbers like “More Than Meets The Eye.” Simply stunning – they made us miss Orange Goblin and we still didn’t care, they were that good.

Tonight, is according to Robb Flynn, the 20^th anniversary of Machine Head’s first gig. To celebrate this fact they are playing their only British date of the year in front of 12,000 of their closest friends. And playing five songs from debut album “Burn My Eyes” in the process. Lets be fair, at this point in their careers MH could do this type of thing standing on their heads, and they would have to mess up massively to make “A Thousand Lies,” “Death Church” and “Halo” sound bad. For RTM’s money, the songs from most recent record “Unto The Locust” don’t match up, but lets not quibble, as always things ended by letting “freedom ring with a shotgun blast,” and it was hard not to enjoy.

SAVAGE MESSIAH, Diamond Plate @Scruffy Murphys 19/3/12

Early portents are not good.

The gig has been moved from The Ballroom up the road to Scruffy Murphy’s – which is, shall we say, a little bit more on the snug side. It leads you to believe that the attendance for this isn’t going to be massive.

And, unfortunately those fears are right. As a paltry Monday night crowd greets up and coming Chicago Thrashers Diamond Plate, RTM saw them support Anthrax last week and this is world away from that.

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is the fact that the five-piece are superb.

They take their cue from the Big Four of thrash, of course they do – although more Metallica than Slayer and there are hints of the mighty Overkill – but then all thrash metal has its roots in the early 1980s scene. They also offer something to set them apart from a mere retro retread.

Kicking off with the title track from 2011’s “Generation Why” album they treat us to a rollicking half hour of heads-down-windmill-headbanging stuff, including “Tomb With A View” and current single “At The Mountains Of Madness” and riff-heavy set closer “Empire Tomorrow.” Ones to watch.

Savage Messiah were ones to watch a few years ago, and with this years tour-de-force that is “Plague of Conscience” they have truly delivered. So you can understand the disappointment in singer/guitarist Dave Silver’s voice when he looks out at the crowd and says “I was from here, we played some great gigs here a few years ago, then you desert us. It’s the birthplace of the genre….”

However Metal, not that you would know it looking out at fewer than 10 paying punters, is still alive and well in its home city, and will remain so as long as bands like Messiah are flying the flag.

“…Conscience” is a stunning record and most of tonight’s 45 minutes comes from it. The title track, “All Seeing I” and “Shadowbound” mix with “Insurrection Rising” from 2007’s album and you can only wish this fine group the best in the future.

The staggering thing is that both these bands have record deals, so quite what Earache Record’s PR Department is doing, who knows? Whatever it is, in terms of this gig, it isn’t enough.

Not a night that either band will relish, you suspect, but it really was superb.