A co-headlining tour from two US heavy/power/thrash metal bands that have existed for some 30 years. I wasn’t all that familiar with either band really but since they seem to be classic I checked them out nonetheless. And the mp3s I heard didn’t sound bad either. Turned out, the average age on stage and in the audience was way above 30. I guess the bands alternate on the tour to play last, as they switched the order here shortly before the gig.

The first band though was another really old band, Dutch, and had reformed a while back: Martyr. I wasn’t familiar with them and I can’t say they left a very lasting impression. The music is okay, but generally lacks punch and the vocals so-so – the tough vocals aren’t all that tough and the high vocals aren’t all that high and off-key. At the end of the gig the imbecile bassplayer through his bass guitar into the audience, scraping my head.

Next was Helstar – presumably with some session players (drums and bass) as they didn’t look like the photo’s I saw and they seemed quite young. Anyway, this is mostly mid-paced thrashy metal with some speed/power influences. Not at all bad with a lot interesting lead guitar work and the somewhat odd vocals of James Rivera. They got about 75 minutes to fill and a huge catalogue to chose from, so there is a bit from everything, not in the least from their latest album.

Vicious Rumors has a very similar style to Helstar, maybe less thrash there and very different – high-pitched vocals which were quite good. The drums aren’t all that impressive, mostly rather basic really. But the same can be said about Helstar. The music contains a lot of great lead guitar work – some of which is played by 2 guitars simultaneously. And the set here too was comprised of old and new material, where they omitted any of their groove metal era. At the end the singer of Martyr pushed half the audience on stage and all (much like what happened during Martyr too). So all in all an evening well spent. Maybe I ought to check both bands out a little more on CD.