Slayer still rule !!

• I have just got back from a brief trip up to London – what on earth is wrong with our trains ? We got diverted at Exeter on the way up, because of “flooding on the line”, and then at Reading the train was cancelled !! Get out and find another one to London they said. Come on, seriously, is this possible ? I got to my meeting about half an hour late, but luckily it was all ok. It would have been easier to drive up.

• The main thing though is that Slayer still rule, big time. Few metal bands out there can rip a place to pieces like the mighty Slayer, and they did it in style last night. What an awesome gig. Many bands have tried, but no thrash metal band shreds like Slayer (and I include the once mighty Metallica in that statement - yes, they were once an awesome band, go and listen to Master of Puppets and you will see what I mean).

• Amon Amarth were first on, and I was really excited to see them live – they were majestic, and blasted through a good number of tracks. I like it when a band looks like they are having a blast, and these guys were up for it. Classic, rousing metal designed to rip you a new face. This band is going places.

• Mastodon are a good band, but sadly the intricacies of their music was drowned out in a terrible sound mix last night. I don’t know why Amon Amarth sounded so good and then Mastodon just sounded terrible. The drums were far too high in the mix and this completely killed what was going on. Sadly the same happened with Trivium, another band I like. Their latest album "Shogun" I reckon is really good, but they were actually too loud last night – if there can be such a thing !! Good songs somewhat ruined by another sound mix where the drums were just too loud and this meant you lost a lot of the guitars. A real shame as I have been looking forward to seeing these guys for a while now. Perhaps it is the acoustics in the Hammersmith Apollo ?

• But then Slayer took the stage – to be fair to the other bands, who on earth wants to come on before this lot ? Most of the crowd seemed to be there mainly for Slayer, and they were awesome. A far better sound mix, a classic selection of tracks (War Ensemble, South of Heaven, Chemical Warfare, Seasons in the Abyss etc.), and then they did what I hoped they would do – played the entire “Reign in Blood” album from start to finish !!!! I was "emotional" because it was so incredible – the first track “Angel of Death” seemed to jump off the stage and throttle you with the sheer intensity of it, and to be able to close a gig out with a monumental song like “Raining Blood” is off the scale powerful. Slayer still rule. Slayer are still the undisputed gods of proper thrash metal. Metallica, where on earth are you ? Slayer is a blueprint of how a thrash metal band should be and I love them for it. Worship at the church of Slayer !!

• Anyway, I had better check out what the weather is doing and see if there is any chance of getting out for a bit of bassing over the next few days. I have a lure that is new to me here and I am hearing that over in Jersey it has been catching some nice fish. Sounds like it might do the trick, so if I can get out and give it a go I will let you know how it does here.