PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Brutai kicked things off tonight. I last saw them opening the Dogtooth stage at Download festival earlier this year and their set there was good enough that I was looking forward to seeing them again. Their music is nice and heavy but still has plenty of melody. It’s great progressive metal and they really do put in an excellent performance tonight. My only criticism is that the keyboards get swamped by the bass and guitar so you rarely hear them. A band well worth seeing if you get the chance.
Next up was Kobra and the lotus on yet another UK tour. This Canadian band works incredibly hard and tours non-stop with plenty of trips to the UK and Europe. Tonight they’re using rented amps after they found yesterday that their gear that was in storage in the UK had been badly looked after and was found covered in mud and water – whoever they use to store gear needs a serious kick up the arse. Happily the drums were ok and the rest of the instruments travel with them, so they were able to do this tour.
Tonight’s set kicks off with the first song on the new album, Prevail I (the second part, Prevail II is due for release sometime around April next year). That’s the first of a massive eight songs from the new album to be in tonight’s set. It’s always a gamble playing so much new material but since the album has been out a couple of months now then they obviously hoped fans would know the material, and judging by how well they went down I think a fair few people there knew the songs already. It is a great album and the songs sound fantastic live. As well as the songs from the new album we also get 4 from “High Priestess” and some from their self titled album, with only their first album, “Out of the pit” not represented in the set.
Adding extra guitar to the live band is Arthemis guitarist Andrea Martongelli who is a fantastic player and really fits in well into Kobra and the Lotus. All the band members play extremely well and just as important, all look to be having a great time on stage – there’s nothing worse than watching a band who clearly arent enjoying themselves.
It’s a great set and the crowd certainly looked to enjoy themselves too, and after the show ended there were plenty of fans visiting the merch stand and getting stuff signed by the band. A great night.
Setlist:
Gotham
Triggerpulse
Specimen X
Hold on
War horse
Light me up
Soldier
Forever one
Drum solo
Immigrant song
I am I am
You don’t know
Hell on earth
Energy ball
Victim
Prevail
Heartbeat
Lost in the shadows
50 shades of evil
