 | | Slayer (pic: Andy Stubbs) |
The cohort of bands assembled to cut a swathe through the Arena were a fearsome bunch indeed. Technical wizards’ Children of Bodom’s pre-gig tipple involves crushing up a Fisherman’s Friend in a bottle of vodka, which might go some way to explaining the manic metal they machine-gunned at the audience. The frenzied Finns are on fire at moment and whipped up a maelstrom of mosh pits. Lamb of God were brutal but somewhat predictable with incitements to “sing along until you rip your throat out of your goddamn body!” - not really enough to set the pulse racing. However, In Flames’ singalong melodic grind prompted an outbreak of non-stop crowd surfing. But all this was just skirmishing around the edges of the main battleground that Slayer stormed, all guns blazing. With accusations of Satanism, Nazi sympathies, and extreme acts of alcohol abuse littering their notorious past, Slayer are still setting nerves a-jangling among Conservative America where they recently notched up a ban on adverts for their latest album Christ Illusion. The anti-religious theme loomed large at the MEN in the shape of a huge inverted cross made up of 13 Marshall stacks. Menacing images of the Holocaust and demons flashed up as the original line-up pulverised their way through the huge legendary riffs of songs like Mandatory Suicide and Postmortem. New song Cult was chanted back word perfect by the fans as the onslaught gathered momentum. Frontman Tom Araya is still recovering from major surgery but there wasn’t the slightest hint that the beast had been cowed. It was a slick, tight, relentless, performance that left no-one in any doubt that the grandfathers of thrash are in no danger of being deposed any time soon. | 
