With their multi-patched battle jackets and colourful t-shirts, the thrashers who’ve assembled around Brixton Academy have certainly brightened up a grey March day in south London. A line-up that’s stacked with legendary names means there’s an air of excitement crackling the air, and it increases exponentially when opening act Nails appear. Opening a bill featuring Kreator, Carcass and Exodus (any of which could potentially headline this venue) could phase many bands, but if Nails are feeling the pressure then it doesn’t show because they hit the ground running with ‘Suffering Soul’ and rarely look back over thirty minutes. With no time to waste, they cram thirteen songs into their short set, a selection of tracks that mix grindcore, powerviolence, crust punk and death metal into a cauldron that bubbles with fury. (Hard as) Nails.

Using Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ as an intro tape might sound a strange choice for a full on thrash band such as Exodus, yet it works rather well and certainly gets the crowd in the right groove as they sing and chant in unison. It means that when the band finally appear and launch into ‘3111’, the opening track from their latest album Goliath (reviewed here), the crowd are amped up and ready for the “Exodus Attack”. For some bands, a shift in personnel can be a death knell, yet for Exodus it appears to have a restorative effect and tonight they are bang on point from the very first note. With vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza recently departing after his third tenure, and current singer Rob Dukes retuning for a second spell, there’s a freshness surrounding the band and that’s transferred to the stage and ‘Bonded By Blood’ (the title track from their 1984 debut) smokes like today’s kill. As you’d expect, songs such as ‘A Lesson In Violence’ and ‘The Toxic Waltz’ cause all kinds of chaos, but it wouldn’t be an Exodus show if they didn’t. It makes Exodus a hard act to follow.

If there is one band who could follow Exodus’ insanely energetic show, then it’s surely UK’s pioneers Carcass. Formed in 1985 and pivotal in the formation of various forms of extreme metal (goregrind, grindcore, death), their humility would render them adverse to the word “legendary”, but when it comes to Carcass, it is the only word that will suffice. As a teenage metalhead obsessed with all things horror and gore, Carcass were manna from heaven (hell?) and tonight’s set finds them delivering plenty of blood and guts, all served up on a (surgical) silver platter. It’s ‘Unfit For Human Consumption’ which kicks things off and finds the band in ruddy health, with Jeff Walker’s vocals being suitably gruff (and his bass guitar even gruffer) and Bill Steer’s riffs slicing through the air like a surgeon’s scalpel. Carcass aren’t the kind of band who turn their backs on their past and tonight’s set stops at all points along their discography with ‘Genital Grinder’ from their debut album (Reek Of Putrefaction) and ‘Dance Of Ixtab’ from their latest (Torn Arteries). The ode to medical negligence, ‘Corporal Jigsaw Quandary’ sets the flesh and bone flying as waves of crowd surfers crash over the barrier and ensure the security guards earn their fee, before ‘Heartwork’ brings down the curtain in style.

I remember the first time I saw Kreator, ’twas on the Torture Over Europe Tour ‘90, a co-headline run with Death (who were sadly without Chuck Schuldiner). It was a gig at a leisure centre in Milton Keynes, you could say that Kreator were at a commercial ebb (but musically they were on the ball), yet as a prime example of how the worm can turn, here they are, 35 years later and headlining the 5,000 capacity Brixton Academy. Hot on the heels of their latest album Krushers Of The World (reviewed here), Kreator are at the peak of their powers, so it is with a degree of anticipation that a sell-out crowd await their appearance. However, we must wait a little longer for the band’s arrival as two introduction tapes are used, firstly Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills and then the P.F. Sloan-penned ‘Eve Of Destruction’. It means that when the band arrive with opening shot ‘Seven Serpents’, it feels as if floodgates have opened and a sense of relief flows through the venue. With the stage flanked by two huge inflatable monsters, Kreator make an arresting spectacle, and they sound like one too, as ‘Hail To The Hordes’ and ‘Enemy Of The Gods’ follow in quick succession. Kreator’s set is jam-packed with classics and reads like a “greatest hits”, and while it’s understandably weighed towards their latest release with four cuts, the band take us on a tour de force of their discography with tracks culled from eleven other releases. It means that no one can feel disappointed, especially when the band pull the likes of ‘Betrayer’ and ‘Violent Revolution’ out the bag. It is with ‘Pleasure To Kill’ that their set comes to a cataclysmic conclusion, a tsunami of crowd surfers becomes the ultimate sign of affirmation and proves why Kreator were, and still are, so highly regarded in the thrash world…and beyond. 

Kreator Set List:

1. Seven Serpents

2. Hail To The Hordes

3. Enemy Of God

4. Satanic Anarchy

5. Hate Über Alles

6. People Of The Lie

7. Betrayer

8. Krushers Of The World

9. Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite)

10. Satan Is Real

11. Loyal To The Grave

12. Phantom Antichrist

13. Endless Pain

14. 666 – World Divided

15. Violent Revolution

16. Pleasure To Kill

Carcass Set List:

1. Unfit For Human Consumption

2. Buried Dreams

3. Incarnated Solvent Abuse

4. No Love Lost

5. Death Certificate

6. Dance Of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance No. 1 In B)

7. Genital Grinder

8. Exhume To Consume

9. Corporal Jigsaw Quandary

10. Heartwork

Exodus Set List:

1. 3111

2. Bonded By Blood

3. Deathamphetamine

4. Blacklist

5. Goliath

6. A Lesson In Violence

7. The Toxic Waltz

8. Strike Of The Beast

Nails Set List:

1. Suffering Soul

2. Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy

3. Conform

4. Scum Will Rise

5. Violence Is Forever

6. God’s Cold Hands

7. Wide Open Wound

8. Made To Make You Fail

9. I Can’t Turn It Off

10. I Will Not Follow

11. Endless Resistance

12. You Will Never Be One Of Us

13. Unsilent Death