Jagermeister Music Tour – Brixton

By Francisco Monteiro on Apr 1, 2013 in Exclusive Reports | 0 comments

On a normal Sunday evening most would be resting up at home in front of the television especially as it is near freezing outside when it should be a lot warmer at this time of year but no, London’s joint metal community has descended upon Brixton on this bitterly cold evening to see the spectacle that is this years Jagermeister tour.

Featuring 4 bands from very different ends of the metal world we start the evening off with the London Hardcore mob ‘Feed the Rhino’. We get in towards the end of their set but one thing that is clear is that these guys are lost on such a large stage. They still play as frantically as they would in a 100 capacity venue but this time around they seem to be unable to spend quite as much time in amongst the crowd, but with the number of fans increasingly entering the venue they still manage to end their set by attempting to destroy the instruments they have spent the last 30 minutes playing on which hopefully relieves some frustration. Next up we have another local act in the form of ‘The Defiled’ who’s nu-metal inspired theatrical nonsense seems to go down very well with the younger members of the audience but I somewhat feel that they should spend a little more time creating more variety to their songs and less time dressing up and having “dead” ballerinas dancing around on stage. One particular highlight for me during this set was their successful attempt of getting the crowd to jump up and down, and ‘Pogo’ like it was the 1990s.

1 2 ... 49 ►

This event has very much been about the 2 final bands and by the time ‘Gojira’ take the stage the room is packed full with fans. This band are massive sounding (I know very little about their material) and one thing I can say is that they have every single person screaming for more once they begin with their gargantuan technical riffs and industrial inspired metal. The drummer Mario Duplantier not only proves himself as one of the greatest metal drummers today but as a damn good singer too as he comes up front to do a song whilst his brother swaps to take place at the drums. They prove that they can easily play at a venue the size of Brixton with no problems at all!

Finally the moment (most) have been waiting for ‘GHOST’ take to the stage in a stream of smoke and lights. It is there amazing lighting show against the back drop of simple church windows that really lifts this show tonight and makes it something truly memorable. It is both scary and impressive all at the time and with plenty of time to play some new songs they really do prove that they can make it big in the UK. Most of the songs from the first album make an appearance with particular highlights being ‘Prime Mover’ , ‘Ritual’ and beautiful instrumental piece ‘Genesis’ this really is a strong contender for gig of the year.

All Photos by:  Falk-Hagen Bernshausen

Text by: Gareth Kelly