Live Review: Crowbar w/Legions Of Doom and Silverburn at Camden Electric Ballroom!

The penultimate show of a United Kingdom and Ireland tour that finds New Orleans Louisiana Sludge Metal pioneers Crowbar dragging Silverburn and Legions Of Doom kicking and screaming across our green and pleasant lands is tonight’s destination, promising riffs fit for worship and songs that stir the soul. The venue is of course Camden Electric Ballroom, which is not only sold out but has a queue a mile long for merch. As if that wasn’t enough to get excited about, there’s a familiar face back stage too because as it happens, this run was put together by none other than Ben Ward of Orange Goblin…

Tonight’s openers are Silverburn [8/10] a powerhouse trio who call their sound Post-Sludge and have a drummer who wears his heart on his sleeves in the form of a Pig Destroyer t-shirt. We’ve had the pleasure of witnessing them once before, opening for Crowbar at The Dome and three years on from album “Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation” a sophomore record is on the horizon. Tonight they give us nine blistering songs accompanied by filthy mosh pit action including new cut “Bathe In Fire“. The rhythmic bludgeoning and merciless riffs are a headbangers delight with hints of anarchy and perhaps even the influence of The Dillinger Escape Plan creeping in with some Mathcore inspired moments, “Particulate” and “The Unrelenting Will of Boundless” both being incredible tonight.

Chicago Illinois Doom meets Traditional Heavy Metal five piece Legions Of Doom [8/10] are a super-group featuring members of The Skull and Saint Vitus, who gave us their debut album “The Skull 3” a couple of years back to honour late vocalist Eric Wagner. As you might expect the seasoned veterans perform the majority of that record here tonight and look like they are loving every second of their time on stage. They have plenty of weighty riffs in their arsenal and deliver us to evil with cuts like “Beyond the Shadow of Doubt“, “Between Darkness and Dawn” and “Send Judas Down” during a set packed with anthemic abrasions and sing-a-long moments. Much like bands like Spirit Adrift there is something wonderfully nostalgic about them, the difference with Legions Of Doom being that they pack more of a sonic punch. Mid set they wheel out a bit of “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy while smiling at each other like it’s some kind of inside joke.

This year marks thirty six years of Crowbar [10/10] and fittingly they’ve sold out the bigger venue of the tour. The four piece are welcomed to the stage like returning heroes by a crowd baying for blood and New Orleans Louisiana Sludge Metal pioneers respond with a career spanning set that absolutely crushes. There are too many classics to mention them all but after a pummelling rendition of “And Suffer as One” opens the set, personal favourite “The Lasting Dose” is utterly majestic with Kirk Windstein’s powerful voice never having sounded better. “Chemical Godz” then proves that they still have it in them to write new material that does them justice and sits well alongside there older cuts, even if a couple of albums don’t contribute anything to the setlist tonight. Could you have a Crowbar show without “Planets Collide“? Such a thing would surely not be entertained and tonights rendition is as soul stirring as ever, “All I Had (I Gave)” bringing the curtain down on a night which no one wanted to end. We just hope that we get another opportunity to witness Kirk Windstein’s force of nature one more time before he inevitably announces his retirement because as a band they sound just as good today as they did three decades ago, if not better.