SLIPKNOT, MACHINE HEAD, CHILDREN OF BODOM

The beer bottle that went flying towards CHILDREN OF BODOM”s frontman Alexi Laiho did not go down well with the group of us die-hard Hate Crew-ers clustered at the barrier, who'd queued in the blistering cold for an upwards of 8 hours to see them play their trademark Finnish brand of neo-classical metal. Apparently Laiho didn't take too lightly to it either, more concerned with the fact that someone had “wasted a perfectly good beer on an asshole like me!” Needless to say, they rocked out, as per, surging through old favourites like “In Your Face”, (despite the occasional boos from whom I can only assume were impatient Slipknot fans) with all the whiskey-fuelled energy we have come to expect from them after over 10 years worth of touring. The penultimate rendition of “Hate Crew Deathroll” came as a pleasant surprise, as Laiho strips the anthemic song bare, prompting a choral singalong with just him and his guitar switched to clean; a very odd experience to all involved. Altogether a balanced setlist, with only the title track from their most recent (and not particularly well-received) release, “Blooddrunk”.

MACHINE HEAD summon a certain presence before they've even arrived on stage, as their roadies assemble their iconic speaker stacks arranged in a diamond and painted with a metre-high 'MH', matching the designs on the tshirts of many people who have now squeezed themselves to the front. With a setlist comprising all the classics; “Davidian” provoking the familiar audience chants of “Let freedom ring with a shotgun blaaaaast!”, Robb Flynn's army of men didn't exactly take any risks or break any new ground here but they were very welcomed all the same. They knew exactly what the Hammersmith lot wanted, and why should they mess with what obviously works?

As SLIPKNOT's giant array of equipment was set up, the main curtain drawn down over the stage as if to contain the giant surprise, it spawned a thought that this would either be a seminal moment to define my gig-going years so far, or a load of old toss. I will not deny that the Iowa maggots put on a blinding show. The sheer energy coming from the nine masked men on stage was electrifying, and the money that had obviously been fed into this much-anticipated comeback tour was evident by Clown's rotating kit equipped with screens that rose at least five feet off the stage. At many points during the gig this kit had various members of the band hanging from it like chimpanzees; that was of course when they weren't charging around the stage or leaping into the appreciative crowd. The incredible visual feast aside, this of course doesn't amount to much when the sound was as atrocious as it was. I'd consider myself fairly familiar with the majority of Slipknot's work, as a bit of a fairweather fan, but when one of their most well known tracks “Before I Forget” is practically indistinguishable from the last song amongst the muddle of sludgy guitars…it's not good. At the back, the sound is somewhat clearer; it's much easier to tell when one song ends and another begins, but there's just not the same atmosphere that there is when you're crushed against the front barrier. I was grateful for the Stone Sour-esque new single “Dead Memories” – because it's not chock full of thick riffs and therefore not being chewed up and spat out by the sound system it was in fact very pleasant to listen to, a highlight of the night. Altogether not the worst thing to be doing on a cold Monday night, but SLIPKNOT didn't quite fulfil the expectations of most people in the Hammersmith Apollo.