With blistering return-to-form album "Through the Ashes of Empires" in the stores, and live credentials which were never in doubt, tonight promised to be an evening to remember. And so it was that on this Sunday night in Brixton, the line stretched from the doors of the Academy, around the corner and several hundred metres down the street. First point to note here is that judging from the diverse sea af black T-Shirts, Machine Head have managed to keep their feet in a few heavy music camps, with nu fans, metalcore fans, thrash fans and even death fans present, which is interesting given that across town on this same night, Samael were ripping it up at the Scala.

Opening the show were Caliban, who I missed due to the fact that I was not keen to stand in the aforementioned line. Next on the bill were G-d Forbid, who served up a set of solid, if unspectacular metalcore. For those unfamiliar with their sound, they hail from the USA and fit snugly in with bands such as Killswitch Engage, Atreyu and other bands of the metalcore-melodic ilk. G-d Forbid certainly delivered a tight set which was well appreciated by those familiar with the material. It was a particularly cliched moment however when frontman Byron Davis inspired the entire Academy to shout "Fuck George Bush" in unison. Sure we all know he's a dumbass, but really, it's just SO unoriginal, particularly in the world of rock to hate him. I had a moment of short-lived excitement when during a speech about racial tolerance Davis declared "We all bleed red", raising my hopes for an SOD cover. Unfortunately it was not to be. And why did fucking Byron fucking Davis fucking feel the fucking need to fucking say fuck so many fucking times between fucking songs?

Amid chants of "Machine fucking Head" (see, rock musicians ARE a bad influence) the mighty lads from Oakland finally took the stage, and may I say they wasted no time getting to business. Opening with "Imperium", straight away the internsity inside the venue was taken up a few notches. The guitars were fat and heavy, and the tunes delivered with a suitbale amount of precise aggression. Machine Head ripped their way through classics such as "Old" (awesome to hear several thousand people yelling "Jesus wept"!), "Ten Tonne Hammer", "The Blood The Sweat The Tears", "Take My Scars" and "The Burning Red" as well as newer treats such as "Buldozer" (one of the few standouts on Supercharger) and "Days Turn Blue to Grey" and the timeless classic "Davidian" before leaving to more chants of "Machine fucking Head". They were not finished though, in fact far from it, returning for a massvie encore consisting of "Descend the Shades of Night" and a fantastic covers medley, beginning with the mighty Sepultura's "Territory", moving on to Pantera's "Walk", then the Metallica standard "Seek and Destroy" before the real icing on the cake, "The Trooper" by the great Iron Maiden. After this feast of metal no one was left disappointed. Machine Head were filming for a DVD tonight, I can't wait until it comes out so I relive the magic!

Gaw

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