It was trip number two of the week over the bridge to Bristol for a packed out show at The Fleece for an evening of Swedish heavy metal. With two bands playing who both worship at the altar of old school heavy metal there was a nice mix of age groups from the elder metalheads to the younger generations.
With no local support it was straight to business with Wolf (7) who played a solid set of what they termed British heavy metal. Wolf were one of the first bands to play a traditional style of heavy metal when it was deemed deeply uncool by the rock press of the time. A middle finger to bullshit fashions and trends have ensured that Wolf have endured and even though only Niklas “Viper” Stålvind (vocals and guitars) remains from the early days fellow band members Simon Johansson (guitars), Pontus Egberg (bass) and Johan Koleberg (drums) are seasoned pros within the Swedish metal scene having served in bands such as Memory Garden, Soilwork, King Diamond, HammerFall and Therion amongst them. With new album Feeding The Machine due in a weeks time we were treated to the first ever plays of some of their new songs including Shoot To Kill, Midnight Hour, The Raven and Feeding The Machine. It took a little while for the audience to warm to Wolf though when the band hit their stride with material such as Shark Attack, Skull Crusher, Voodoo and Speed On the audience were won over. Not even technical issues involving an urgent need for gaffer tape by Viper derailed the set. A solid show of heavy fucking metal.
Grand Magus (9) are a band I have never seen a lacklustre performance from. Every time they hit that stage they give it their all and make one hell of a racket for a three piece. The atmosphere was absolutely electric as the power trio of JB Christoffersson (vocals and guitars), Fox Skinner (bass and vocals) and Ludwig Witt (drums) hit the stage and delivered an absolute masterclass in fairly simplistic and straightforward but utterly epic heavy metal. Despite this being the tour for the Wolf God album only three songs were played from said album with the rest of the set being made up of crowd pleasers. Wolf God and Untamed kicked things off and from there on in it was banger after absolute banger - Kingslayer, Iron Will, Steel Versus Steel, Ravens Guide Our Way, On Hooves Of Gold, The Shadow Knows and Like The Oar Strikes The Water amongst others.
With this heavy metal feast being delivered on a plate to the crowd, they fully reciprocated and banged their heads and sang along in glorious unison with the band. There was a three song encore of the crushing I, The Jury, Dawn Of Fire and the anthemic Hammer Of The North which had the audience singing so loudly it sounded like you were at an arena show. Grand Magus were clearly humbled by this outpouring of love but when a band play heavy metal this damn good it is nigh on impossible to contain your passion and love for this music. As always Grand Magus absolutely delivered the goods. An absolutely smashing evening.
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