Evil Scarecrow, King Kraken & Helldown, Sin City, Swansea, 10.11.24
I have been to a lot of gigs in my time, but my recent venture to Sin City (the venue in Swansea, not Las Vegas) might just be one of the best gigs I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness! A night of thrash metal epicness, hard rock grooviness and... some songs about robots, chickens and crabs??? Yes, that’s correct! For this night was the night that Evil Scarecrow came to town!
First up we had opening act Helldown (10), who kicked off the night with 6 ferocious tracks of pure epic thrash metal chaos! They walked out onto the stage to their ominous sounding intro track, Honoured Dead, before kicking things off in spectacular fashion with the first track Nepotism. A very fast and aggressive track with quite a groovy chorus and a nice fast and frantic guitar solo. They followed it up with another fast track, The Watchers, with some great backing vocals in the choruses and another epic guitar solo with a nice little bit of tapping.
Next up we had their newest single, Thrive In Violence. This track featured some great tribal drumming in the intro and the band got the crowd chanting along and raising the horns before the chaos resumed. Another great guitar solo with some very nice divebombs. There was a brief little break while the guitarists changed guitars and then came another intro with some ominous Gregorian chanting leading into the 4th track of the set, Beneath The Veil. I absolutely love the lead guitar riff in this track. They kept delivering the thrash with their last couple of songs, March Of The Damned and ending their set with War Is All. Fantastic set, these guys are amazing, they sound incredibly tight and they gave a very energetic performance.
Following on from that, we had King Kraken (9) up next. Some great old school heavy rock. A little bit more bluesy sounding but still quite heavy! I missed the first half of their first song but got back in time to catch a really great guitar solo with some dual guitar action. Their second track was faster and heavier with some nice groovy sections sprinkled throughout and a nice build-up to another fantastic guitar solo.
The third track was a bit more groovier with more clean vocals, more duel guitars and a great lead-up to the final chorus. Track 4 was nice and groovy, very Pantera sounding, with some epic screams before another gnarly guitar solo. Their 5th song had a really cool chorus and a nice part with mainly the bass and drums leading into the bridge section and the crowd got involved with a bit of chanting before the final chorus. Track 6 had a lovely bluesy guitar intro, a slower groovier section for the guitar solo before the intro riff comes back in to lead into the final chorus.
They ended their set with a track called Chainsaw Saviour. Which had a very groovy bassline and some more excellent guitar solos. Another great performance, the guitars sounded amazing, the bass was thick and fuzzy, the drums were loud and the vocals switched between clean singing and screams effortlessly.
Finally, we come to the headliners of the show, Evil Scarecrow (10). And they put on a hell of a good show for us! They walked out to an instrumental track which sounded like a cross between evil circus music and a song from a slasher horror movie. Their first track, Nuclear Fallout Machine Sentience, was a slow chuggy song which featured some great backing vocal harmonies and a nice guitar solo. The track picked up some speed before dropping back down in tempo to end the song. At this point it was starting to get a bit more crowded so I decided to get a bit closer to the action and moved forward for a better view of the stage. They followed it up with perhaps my favourite track of theirs, Robototron. They got the crowd dancing along like robots for the really catchy chuggy choruses which I gladly got involved with.
There was some great audience interaction while setting up for the next song, Master Of The Dojo. They had a big inflatable karate dude on stage and handed a giant pair of chopsticks to someone in the audience with the challenge to catch a giant fly during the song to win a free DVD. The crowd were also encouraged to sing along in the choruses with some stage hands holding up signs to instruct the crowd with what to chant. After that absolute banger of a track, we had another slow chuggy number, Morbid Witch, there was a nice little bass solo just before the guitar solo came in.
There was another little break to set up for the following track and the audience were introduced to the bands anti-gravity machine, operated by a NASA scientist, aka the real Dave Mustaine, aka their manager Jen. There was a great little tease of the main riff from Megadeth's Holy Wars and the singer did a little impression of Dave Mustaine singing Sweating Bullets. The crowd were encouraged to get involved with some Zero G moshing while the band played Space Dementia. There was also a giant robot on stage holding a big box and halfway through the song an alien was popping its head out from the box.
Song number 6 was Polterghost, a great track with some lovely guitar playing and the appearance of a very spooky ghost dancing on the stage with the band. Their 7th track started with some excellent lead guitar in the intro and had some really catchy choruses. They followed it up with a performance of their newest single, Release The Krakhen, which featured a giant chicken on stage along with some big inflatable tentacles. Very fun track! Just before their next track they invited the real Dave Mustaine (aka Jen) back on stage to wish her a very short Megadeth/death metal inspired happy birthday. After that was their “last” track of the set, Hurricanado. Where the vocalist asked what is created when 2 forces of nature collide and form something completely destructive? To which someone in the crowd quickly clapped back with “Your mother!” and also won himself a free DVD
After a brief break, the band were back for an encore of 2 tracks. The first of which being The Ballad Of Brother Pain. A great slow track with an amazing guitar solo at the end. Then there was the real last track of the set, Crabulon. Such a good song to end the set with. There was a giant crab on stage and the crowd were encouraged to shuffle from side to side like crabs during the choruses. It seems like the band were having a lot of fun and really didn’t want the show to end, and I can only speak for myself but I definitely felt the same way!
There was some nice solos, followed by introductions to the band members before the vocalist channelled his inner Freddie Mercury and got the crowd singing along with him, really dragging out the end of the song which I was absolutely fine with. But alas, the song and the show finally had to come to an end and so it did. They were fantastic, great performance, a lot of fun and they even stayed for a while before exiting the stage to interact with the crowd, shake hands and give away goodies. So good to see a band treat their fans like that!
So, I had a fantastic time, really enjoyed the show. All of the bands gave great performances, great line-up. Lots of fun and I really hope that Evil Scarecrow don’t leave us waiting too long to come back to Swansea! If you haven’t seen any of these bands, you really need to!
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