DRAGONFORCE, Alestorm, The Defiled, Cavorts @Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 30/9/2012

Perhaps the best value – and most eclectic for that matter – metal bill of the autumn so far sees Barnsley’s Cavorts opening things up. Their sound is tough to quantify, sort of like a classic rock take on metalcore. According to the group themselves, they create loud, heavy noise rock – that seems to cover things. They have just put out their first EP and are very much worth checking out.

The Defiled are not new. For a few years they have been bothering British stages looking much like a kind of UK Black Veil Brides. In truth, though, they have very little in common with the terrible US make up wearing brigade. Tonight they here for a party, keyboard man The AvD enters the stage swigging from a bottle of Jager and they play a sort of modern brand of Nine Inch Nails with aplomb.

“Call To Arms” appropriately kicks things off, and they end as always with the massive chorus of “The Resurectionists.” In between they play a new song entitled “As I Drown” which shows that album number two promises more of the same. These boys are still destined for bigger things, you feel.

There really is no one quite like Scotland’s Alestorm. Their ethos is summed up thus by singer/keyboardist (ok one of those weird keyboards that looks like a guitar) Christopher Bowes: “Do you like Pirates? Do you like songs? Do you like songs about pirates?” Enough said.

The genre might be restrictive, but the boys are on album number three and are just about the most fun metal can be. Stick Steel Panther, their godawful pastiches, up your arse. Who needs them when you have Alestorm playing “Shipwrecked, “Keel-hauled” and “Captain Morgan’s Revenge”?

They might be dogged by technical issues which sees Bowes’ keyboard guitar thing give up, but he plays a toy axe that someone has in the crowd. It was that sort of evening.

And it was an evening that just needed Dragonforce to be on form. There were no disappointments.

If the set begins somewhat strangely with no intro tape, the lights go up to reveal new singer Marc Hudson (on his first proper UK tour with the band) adopting what Soundgarden might have called the “Jesus Christ Pose” with the spotlight on him – what better way to usher in the new and help us forget about the loss of ZP Theart?

Hudson is a fine singer and has grown into his frontman role with aplomb – he looks and sounds far more confident than when RTM saw the band play a warm up show in April. Appropriately the 70 minute set begins with “Holding On” the lead track from new album “The Power Within” before taking in songs from each one of the group’s five albums.

“…Within” songs “Die By The Sword,” “Heroes” and “Cry Thunder” are so good they sound they have been played for years, while the songs that have – like “Soldiers Of The Wasteland” – sound just as good as ever. Plus, if you can get past just how much like “Hotel California” “Through The Fire And The Flames” sounds that remains the band’s anthem.

Here is a band that has been through some rocky moments and come through in style. Producing tonight, one of the gigs of the year.