Sometimes you think that an event won’t be as exciting as it actually is. This weekend was one of those that performed better than expected. I debated whether or not to go and decided that I would attend, partly to catch up with a few people that I knew and also to watch a couple of bands that I knew would give reasonably good performances. The promoter, Alan from Retribution Alive puts on a great number of good quality metal events around London so that was also a draw for me.
Something that I have noticed in my own tastes is that I am not overly sold on nostalgia, unless bands are performing well rather than going through the motions. I hadn’t seen Tytan back in the day but a conversation with a friend piqued my interest. And I am glad that it did.
The evening built up through the three bands. New opener Reverent Son performed a straightforward heavy metal set, starting the warm up. They mix older 70s heavy metal with newer metal ideas. Their performance was added to by the appearance on stage of two characters, the Reverent Son and Cyclops, the former throwing Reverent Son banknotes into the crowd and also sharks towards the end of the set (Baby Shark?).
Next up were Forged in Black who provided a strong set, with a strong feel of the NWOBHM leavened by some metal. Their vocalist has a powerful voice, ideally suited to the heavy metal genre and is backed by the bass player who has a more metal sub-genre feel.
On to the headliners Tytan, a bunch of old blokes (my age). They could have been resting on their laurels or could have lost it like others of that era that I have seen. This wasn’t the case, they provided a strong set, professional and powerful. I’d had to have a bit of a mindshift back to my late teens and early twenties to get me into the style, with the support bands helping with that. I had seen Kevin Riddles perform back in the day with Angelwitch and had enjoyed what I heard of Tytan when he formed the group. It was an enjoyable end to the evening and I only had time for a brief chat with Kevin afterwards before I had to shoot off to get my train.