Approaching the venue (and walking past Lamb Of God bassist John Campbell chilling and catching up with fans), it appeared that most of the near sold out crowd were still waiting to get in, but some nodding, winking and secret handshaking got us into the venue extremely easily. It was cold outside, and it was cold inside the venue as well, but not for long…

First on stage were Between The Buried And Me, hailing from North Carolina, USA. Named after a line from a Counting Crows song, they really couldn’t be any different - Progressive Metal - which to me sounded like a melting pot of Slayer and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, or a Death Metal version of Mr. Bungle. Their setlist was made up of one song, “Swim To The Moon”, taken from last years “The Great Misdirect” album. This song was 16 minutes long, and took the crowd on a journey through shouty death metal, technical jazz fusion, straight metal and a lullaby-esque guitar solo section.

Unfortunately for the band, the venue was only about a third full when they came on, but the dance floor was filled when they left the stage. They didn’t seem to go down too well with the crowd, but I’d put this down to their short set and how different their style is from anything the crowd had probably ever heard.

Next up were August Burns Red, hailing from Pennsylvania, USA. This is a band that the crowd had heard of, and seemed to quite enjoy, judging by the fact that they started to bang their collective heads and mosh as soon as they hit the stage. Their style of music falls into the Metalcore category, with typical quick / slow / quick passages and a shouty vocalist that you can kind of understand.

The punters had had enough time to get into the venue, buy a beer and a shirt, and midway through the set the circle pits started and pretty much continued throughout the night. The most surprising thing that I’ve since found out is that they are a Christian band. I’m only surprised as I expect Christian bands to preach about “the word of The Lord” but heard none of this at the show.

The last of the support bands were Glendale, Arizona’s Job For A Cowboy. Playing pure and simple death metal, they didn’t seem to be a big hit with the punters, but that wasn’t going to stop them. The band were, as you’d expect, tight and held together by drummer Jon “The Charn” Rice, who was amazing. Precise and quick are a couple of attributes required to be able to drum death metal well, and “The Charn” didn’t disappoint. J4AC drew their set from their two full length albums and debut EP, including the tracks “Constitutional Masturbation”, “Bearing The Serpent’s Lamb” and “Knee Deep”. Unfortunately for me, after hearing the previous two sets, and having seen Lamb Of God on their previous visit to Birmingham, J4AC just didn’t do anything for me - I’ve never been a fan of “bog standard” death metal, but quite enjoy when bands decide to do something different with it. I admit that they did have a few great guitar riffs, but that was all that piqued my interest.

As soon as J4AC left the stage, the “LAMB. OF. GOD” chanting began - and pretty much continued throughout the changeover, until the lights finally went out on stage.

Richmond, Virginia’s Lamb Of God was the band that everyone had paid their £20 to see, and they came on stage to last years album opener “The Passing”, to massive applause and devil horns. The intro segued into their first track “In Your Words”, also from last years album “Wrath”. And the crowd went, quite predictably, mental…

Lamb Of God are vocalist Randy Blythe (currently in his “long hair” configuration), lead guitarist Mark Morton, rhythm guitarist Willie Adler, bassist John Campbell and drummer (and Willie’s older brother) Chris Adler. This line-up has been together since 1998, and 12 years of playing together has molded them into the well-oiled groove metal machine that they were and as far as I could tell, there was not one dropped note or fluffed chord-change all night. This was their first gig since 18th December last year, but you’d never know that they hadn’t gigged for about 7 weeks. Blythe explained that they wanted to start the year in Birmingham, as it was the home of metal, and went on to name check Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Napalm Death and Godflesh, all of which drew cheers and applause from the audience.

The set continued with tracks from all five Lamb Of God albums making up the setlist. “Ruin” was dedicated to Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi and “Contractor”, the punkiest track from “Wrath”, was dedicated to former member of local crust punk band Doom and current Kerrang! Radio DJ Johnny Doom.

The main set finishing meant that it was time for the crowd to start their chanting again, until the band walked on and started the encore with “Reclamation” before going into “Redneck” - the evening’s crowd pleaser.

Lamb Of God were undeniably the highlight of the evening for me, followed by Between The Buried And Me, whilst Job For A Cowboy were maybe a little “too much” for my liking.

Lamb Of God setlist:
Intro / The Passing (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
In Your Words (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Set To Fail (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Walk With Me In Hell (from 2006’s “Sacrament”)
Now You’ve Got Something To Die For (from 2004’s “Ashes Of The Wake”)
Ruin (from 2003’s “As The Palaces Burn”)
Hourglass (from 2004’s “Ashes Of The Wake”)
Dead Seeds (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Omertà (from 2004’s “Ashes Of The Wake”)
Guitar Solo / Grace (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Broken Hands (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Laid To Rest (from 2004’s “Ashes Of The Wake”)
Contractor (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Encore:
Reclamation (from 2009’s “Wrath”)
Redneck (from 2006’s “Sacrament”)
Black Label (from 2000’s “New American Gospel”)

Review Tony Hackett
Photos Steve Gerrard