
Lamb Of God + Decapitated + Huntress @ Birmingham O2 Academy – 17th January 2014
Arriving at the O2 Academy Birmingham a couple of minutes after 7pm, I was surprised to hear Huntress already belting out (what I later figured out to be) their second number. As it ended, easy on the eye lead singer, Jill Janus shrieked at the already ample crowd how honoured she was to be playing in the birthplace of heavy metal before tearing into the title track of their 2012 album ‘Spell Eater’.
There’s no doubt that Janus can hold an audience’s attention; her piercing stare transfixing particularly the male members of the audience, however her vocal performance certainly didn’t seem to be to the taste of everyone in the crowd, some openly voicing their disapproval. Her clean vocals tonight were occasionally pitchy and offset with growls and screamed high notes that felt a little contrived rather than filled with the passion they should be. The rest of the band sounded pretty tight, serving up some well-executed riffs interspersed with some well-appreciated solos, but unfortunately as a whole it all just felt a little mundane.
Regardless off any slight musical misgivings, the majority of the crowd seemed to enjoy the set and cheered their support for the announcement that Huntress would be returning to Download this June.
After a fast stage turnaround (and a crowd pleasing sound check) the room darkened to announce the arrival of Polish death metallers Decapitated. Their intricate and technical yet brutally heavy sound immediately grabbing the crowd and filling pits. Their set included material from across their back catalogue, maybe the most appreciated being ‘Day 69’ from their 2009 Organic Hallucinosis album.
Decapitated have had a number of line-up changes since forming in 1996, some of those being enforced through tragic circumstances, though tonight you would have thought that they had all been playing together since the beginning; complex riffs and blistering drumming complementing each other brilliantly.
When not wind-milling his very impressive dreads lead singer, RafaÅ‚ ‘Rasta’ Piotrowski, prowled across the front of the stage, beckoning the crowd to give him more. Rasta’s vocal delivery was spot on, while not being as low and guttural as previous Decapitated front men, his range extends to include almost screams delivering lyrics with real venom.
Despite feeling a little short, their set did a great job in preparing the crowd for the evening’s headliners.
As the stage techs assembled what can only be described as a ‘wall of sound’ the crowd’s chants of “Lamb-of-God” began, as did the steady stream of those packing to the front of the venue, pre-empting the location of the inevitable pit. The palpable air of anticipation was broken as the room darkened before Chris Adler’s drool worthy double bass kit was lit in blue. The opening strobe lit drum solo that led into ‘Desolation’ set the scene for some of the best live drumming I’ve seen — tight doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. That’s not to say that the rest of band was upstaged in any way, including fill in guitarist Paul Waggoner (Between The Buried And Me). Lead singer Randy Blythe announced to the crowd that regular guitarist Mark Morton was absent due to having to stay home to be there for his family and that, for Lamb of God, family comes first “no questions asked”. Although Randy joked that Waggoner was sourced via the Internet as another guitarist that had long hair and a beard, the BTBAM guitarist certainly did more than that to earn his place, completely nailing the grooving riffs and shredding solos — no better example being ‘Set to Fail’.
The overall sound on the evening was immense, both in terms of volume and quality. Randy’s vocals were leveled perfectly to showcase his incredible diversity, blending growls and almost screams into his delivery while still remaining intelligible enough to do the edgy lyrical content justice. His voice was only outdone by the energy of his performance, other than occasionally soaking himself in bottled water he hardly stopping during the extended set.
Between songs Randy related that the first time Lamb of God played “Brum” was in a pub and that they were grateful to now be playing to a packed out O2 Academy. He again mentioned Birmingham as being the birthplace of Heavy Metal and home to bands such as Napalm Death and Judus Priest but, despite the discussion and debate that surrounds the topic, Randy informed us that there is only one true originator of heavy metal and that is Black Sabbath. So, he offered thanks to Tony Iommi for the factory accident where he chopped off the tips of his fingers, the subsequent down-tuning of his guitar and therefore for the creation of Randy Blythe’s job!
Other than a slight end of set miscue, addressing the Birmingham crowd as “people of the Black Country”, Lamb of God delivered an almost faultless set as part of a UK tour that hopefully heralds the start of a great year for them. A year that will include the release of their feature documentary film ‘As the Palaces Burn’.
Set list: Desolation, Ghost Walking, Walk with me in Hell, Hourglass, Set to Fail, Something to Die For, The Undertow, Omerta, Ruin, In Your Words, Vigil, Laid to Rest, Redneck, Black Label.
Review – Steve Kilmister
Photos – Steve Gerrard