Abhijeet Ahluwalia
16 Dec 2009 saw London’s Relentless Garage host metal festivities with Savage Messiah, Anterior, Ted Maul and headliners Sylosis.
Savage Messiah (7/10) got things off to a flying start with their supercharged thrash-metal. The genre is going through a revival that has already seen more than its fair share of bandwagon-jumpers but Savage Messiah set themselves apart from the rest of the pack with a tight set of excellent songs, rather than a bunch of shreds thrown together for shredding’s sake.Vocalist/guitarist Dave Silver had issues with his gear all through the set, but no one cares.
Savage Messiah
Anterior (8/10) have clearly worked hard on their craft, and their set tonight has everyone jumping along. Vocalist Luke Davies is almost reminiscent of Chuck Billy at his best – his ferocious growl shakes the Garage down to its very foundation. The interplay between axemen Steven Nixon and Leon Kemp is breathtaking at times, and with crystal clear sound they’re putting on as perfect a show as they ever will.
Anterior vocalist Luke Davies
Anterior
Ted Maul (4/10) are an almighty disappointment after such a spectacular opening. Their wall-of-sound-metal-meets-dubstep might work better on other nights, with a different lineup but they’re easily the weakest link tonight. Of course it doesn’t help their cause that the sound is so loud that EVERY note sounds distorted beyond belief. A huge downer every which way.
Sylosis (9/10), on the other hand, are on top form. Pulling out all the old favourites, and even playing The Fate Of Vultures live for the first time ever, it doesn’t take the Reading boys long to whip the crowd into a frenzy. The wall of death at the end is monumental, as are the pits that greet thrasher-anthem Stained Humanity. An amazing performance all around.
Sylosis vocalist Jamie Graham gets in the groove
Sylosis
Sylosis
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