Black Crusade Tour

[MetalBlade]

Just booked tickets to The Black Crusade show in London on Saturday November 24th.
Is anyone else planning to make the trip?

The show consists of headliners Machine Head, along with Dragonforce, Trivium, Arch Enemy and just announced Shadows Fall.

I love Machine Head a great deal, and have seen them three times already, so once more won't hurt, will it?

And I've seen Dragonforce before so I know how exhilerating their live show can be. Their twin guitarists are stupidly fast.
They sound like they should be from Germany or Finland, and not from right here in the UK.

Not so fussed about Shadows Fall. I think they are pretty good musically, but their singer lets them down badly. His voice is too weak and he seems to try too hard.
They would do well to sack him and get in somebody who sings with a bit more of a ballsy attitude.

Trivium I can appreciate why they are so popular, but I can also appreciate why so many people dismiss them as a glorified Metallica tribute act.
I caught the end of their set with Iron Maiden last year, but they played Anthem, which is a solid metal song with a great middle bit and solo.
In all, I can take them or leave them, but I think it's more to do with the baggage that comes with them rather than being a poor band musically. I should like them more than I do.

Arch Enemy I saw last year at Wacken and are very good technically, although I believe they are bigger than they ought to be thanks to having a pretty unique female vocalist in Angela Gossow.
They are probably one of the stronger bands on the bill, so I am hoping they are higher up on the bill than I think they will be.

I've never been to Brixton Academy before, believe it or not, so I'm quite looking forward to it being a 4,000-odd sellout.
This is a pretty hefty tour to bring to the UK, and could do a great deal of good in getting metal out of the underground and to the masses.

[dittohead]

Went to the Birmingham date - drank during Shadows Fall & Arch Enemy's sets because a) they only had shitty 25 min sets, b) Shadows Fall's last album is v.dissapointing & I knew most of their set would be geared towards pushing it.

That said, Dragonforce were as fun & over the top as usual, they just need some variety in their songwriting - its hard to tell one song from the next.

Trivium were tight but nothing extraordinary.

Machine Head - for the 1st (& most of the 2nd) song, Demmels guitar was not on the mix to the point he left the stage to (i guess) sort it with his tech. Even with this Machine Head proved why they had top billing on this tour & didn't do co-headlining rotating slots with Trivium - MH are one of the top metal acts to see live - here's hoping that they return to UK shores in 2008 with only 2 support acts (at most) so they can play a 2 hour setlist.

[MetalBlade]

Yeah, I don't get these four and five band bills.
It means an early start time and short sets, which is only a bad thing.

Having said that, the London show last weekend was pretty fucking sweet.
We got there on time, and had to queue all the way round Brixton Academy for almost an hour, meaning we missed Shadows Fall, which I did not mind as I think they are rather shit.
I think their singer's voice is far too weak and their songwriting is mediocre to bad.

We got in about two minutes before Arch Enemy hit the stage.
They played pretty flawlessly for half an hour or so, and whipped the crowd up very well, getting a quite respectable pit going.

Then came Dragonforce. I agree with the fact their stuff is a bit samey samey, but no less enjoyable for it.
I was surprised they played above AE though. But I guess a British band deserves that.
I tried an experiment during Dragonforce. I wore earplugs for the first time ever.
Somebody once told me it made the sound a lot clearer, but I can tell you all it does is muffle it.
So no more earplugs for me.

Trivium were greeted with a host of boos and chants of "Machine Fucking Head".
I never really understood why, because if Trivium came about 15 years ago, we would have embraced them with open arms. People are fickle.
I don't all myself a Trivium fan, and think they are a bit generic, but there's not much wrong with what they do. I just think maybe they try to hard to fit in, instead of doing their own thing and seeing what happens.
They were pretty fucking awesome to be honest.

Machine Head came on and proved why they are so popular. They RULED!
I reckon they are at their creative peak right now, with Ashes Of Empires being in my opinion their best album to date, surpassing even the mighty Burn My Eyes.
And new album The Blackening becoming a real grower.
It's kinda how I felt about Metallica's peak of Master and Justice.

I got pretty wasted towards the end of their set and bowed out early. I was babysitting my buddy Wayne as well.
Really top night though, with few if no technical hitches.

Here are my ratings out of ten for each band...
Shadows Fall - N/A (missed them, thankfully)
Arch Enemy - 6 (would have been 7 if they had a longer slot)
Dragonforce - 7 (would have been 8 if I hadn't taken bad earplug advice)
Trivium - 7 (would have been higher if I knew any of their material)
Machine Head - 8 (would have been a 9 or higher if I'd stayed to the end)