Live Review: Lamb Of God w/Kreator and Sylosis at Wembley Arena!

Three years, a Global Pandemic and a venue change later and tonight we’re on our way to Wembley Arena to witness Richmond Virginia heavyweights Lamb Of God take to the stage alongside Kreator and Sylosis in what has to be the hottest ticket in town. Branded the State Of Unrest European tour trek, it seems hard to believe that this run was originally scheduled for 2020 with Power Trip on the bill (Rest in peace Riley Gale), let alone having to be switched from Brixton Academy for obvious reasons but the fans are out in force in our fair capital as the bands have done the right thing and continued to reschedule rather than pull the plug and let the ticket sellers take their cut for nothing.

Sylosis [8/10] have taken the place of Municipal Waste for this show and tonight sound absolutely huge. The rumbling bass of Conjurer low end overlord Conor Marshall and the jack hammer footwork of Bleed From Within drummer Ali Richardson during “I Sever” and “Calcified” early on is defening but new song “Deadwood” which is just five days old at this point is an absolute belter. Unlike other bands Sylosis don’t have a second microphone on stage for backing vocals so when the main one fails mid set, a tech has to swap it out real quick. As the band are on a limited set time rather than stop, they simply keep playing and the crowd enjoy a largely instrumental rendition of a classic from the bands ancient history in “Teras“. Fortunately the microphone is working again for final offering “Heavy Is The Crown” with which comes the promise of seeing more of the band real soon from Josh Middleton, no doubt an indication that the band will be on Festival stages once more this summer…

German Thrash masters Kreator [9/10] annihilate the senses with a blistering array of cuts including “Enemy Of God” and “Phobia” while having a few stage tricks up their sleeves. Backdrop flag changes unveil a selection of otherworldly beasts while dry ice jets into the sky as a quartet of fake hung corpses drop from the ceiling. While those tricks are good fun if a little cheesy the band borrow a moment from Iron Maiden with a flag being waved ahead of a crushing rendition of “Flag Of Hate” and while there will no doubt be a few naysayers, it has to be said that it works at arena sized shows. The band then whip out “Pleasure to Kill” a song which sung in the wrong place at the wrong time could have you locked in a frozen prison hell, awaiting trial for a crime you didn’t commit, but remains devilishly brilliant none the less. The band may have been there, done that and got the t-shirt to prove it but they never let their high standards slip even for a second, tonight confirming themselves as Kings of the hill.

Despite this being the last night of the tour, tonights headliners Lamb Of God [10/10] are electric from the very start of their set “Memento Mori” finding frontman Randy Blythe leaping off everything possible while the band bring the trademark groove. “Walk With Me In Hell” is an early sing-a-long anthem with pyrotechnics going off left, right and centre, to the point that Blythe doesn’t need a microphone, which is a real special moment. The same can be said of “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For” which is greeted by a thousands of swaying sweaty bodies with cups of really expensive beer being thrown in the air like confetti as steam gets let off in the state of unrest. It’s funny to think that when the tour was originally booked it was around the bands self titled album and like a number of other bands we’ve witnessed recently they have released a whole other album since in “Omens“. The title track is an obvious shoe in for the set with the crowd baying for blood during the chorus before “11th hour” threatens to reduce the venue to rubble with everyone off their feet. Randy Blythe is a true gentleman, humble at being on the stage in front of a sizable audience even if the show isn’t sold out due to the last minute venue upgrade. He apologizes for it taking three years to get here even though none of that is the bands fault while thanking not only Sylosis and Kreator but also Municipal Waste and Power Trip for having been a part of it. a colossal three song encore gives us the natural conclusion to a career spanning set with “Redneck” a moment to treature. It may have been three years but the best things come to those who wait…