Review: Unholy Alliance Tour @ Glasgow Secc

Slipknot/Slayer - Glasgow SECC - Oct 2nd.

Angel of Death, (Sic), Final Prayer, Postmortem, I Will Be Heard, Spit It Out... Not since the second glorious day of this year's Download Festival has such an aural orgasm been so readily available.

For one night only, Scottish fans were treated to the same metal feast their English counterparts enjoyed over the summer, as the Unholy Alliance crashed into the cavernous halls of the SECC. Slipknot just don't head up shit bills do they? In America they jaunt around with the likes of System of a Down, Rammstein and Mudvayne while the last time they plied there trade in Glasgow, One Minute Silence, In Flames and American Head Charge were in tow. So it would make sense not to get stuck in traffic on route to the venue, miss the doors opening and the first band - the much hyped, Mastodon, wouldn't it?

Anyway... Hatebreed.

Playing beneath Slayer must be a boxer-filling thought for any band. Bigger names than Hatebreed have weakly plundered through their sets to a defiant chorus of 'Slayer! Slayer!' facing them. However, Jamey Jasta and co. look as though they'd savage pack of rabid dogs without breaking sweat and their confident display is brutal, winning over the crowd with ease. A scene of total pandemonium for closer I Will Be Heard rounds of a triumphant debut Scottish show. Despite all the gripes from Slayer fans about the billing (one twat even stages a feeble protest by facing the back wall during Slipknot's set) the thrash legends are never treated as a support act. With an impressive stage set-up, a 14 song set list and an encore they could easily have been mistaken as headliners. The fact remains though, if Slipknot weren't the topping the show, the Barrowlands would have been all Slayer could have hoped for. Ripping into their astounding set with Disciple, Tom Araya let's us know God hates us all, and for the next hour or so, we hate him right back; devil worship has never been so much fun. Warzone, Season In The Abyss, Mandatory Suicide and Angel of Death are all pummelled out with such ferocity the metal masses can only pretend to keep up with their Kerry King signed air guitars and drum kits. And just when it looks like another legendary Slayer show has to be committed to memory they reappear with a blistering encore of Ditto Head and Raining Blood... People have cried tears of joy for much less. Only three albums into their, sometimes precariously balanced, masked careers and Slipknot have finally ditched the carnival fayre style live show.

Pyrotechnics, flame cannons, snow machines and rotating drum kits have all been packed up, stamped and posted to the Limp Bizkit boys, making way for the real reason we all (twat excluded, of course) love them. With such an awesome back catalogue supporting new material from 'Volume 3:
The Subliminal Verses' the likes of Liberate and the watered-down Left Behind are discarded.
At their glorious best, and sounding more determined than ever, Corey Taylor orchestrates Slipknot through Pulse Of The Maggots, Heretic Anthem and Wait and Bleed.
But it's the insane Surfacing that closes a truly unbelievable night of music.
Hardcore, thrash and nu-metal; an Unholy Alliance not to be broken.

Words by Gavin McInally