Wolf / Cauldron / Elimination

Camden Underworld, London

9 Oct 2009
 

Opening the proceedings for the night was the local thrash act Elimination.  After a slew of uninteresting and lame opening acts at some of the gigs I have attended I was pleasantly surprised by this quintet.  Their songwriting was a little on the generic side but they played with intensity, had a great stage presence and you can tell they are just on the verge of putting it all together.  Their thrash was somewhat typical but the worked some traditional heavy metal melodies in there and I found myself banging my head and singing along despite not knowing any of their material. 

Up next was possibly my vote for live performance of the year, Canada's Cauldron.  I mean it, these guys KILLED.  Their take on traditional heavy metal is a throwback to the glory days of yesteryear and their on stage antics were great.  Lots of interaction with the audience and movement across the stage making sure no one felt left out.  The ran through the highlights of their short existence with a setlist that included The Striker Strikes, Into the Cauldron, Chained up In Chains, Conjure the Masses, Torture's Too Kind, Young and Hungry as well as finishing the night going all the way back to their Goat Horn days.  They even included a Tyrant (Ger) cover of Makin' Noise and Drinkin' Beer.  Jason Decay has incredible stage presence and Ian Chains was a wizard on the guitar. 

Though Cauldron was a hard act to follow, Sweden's Wolf was certainly up to the task.  Once again, these guys were pure professionals with a genuine love of metal and the live environment.  Loads of audience participation was called for with having everyone chanting "wolf" to having everyone howling at the moon in honor of Mike Alexander (bass) of Evile.  Their set list was about half from their latest disk, Ravenous as they opened with Speed On and sprinkled throughout the set songs such as Voodoo, All Hail Cesar (lots of sing-alongs here), Curse You Salem.  Also classics such as Electric Raga, Genocide, The Bite, and I will Kill Again!  Wolf was nearly as amazing live as Cauldron and all together this might be the "concert of the year" for me.