Tonight answers the question: “How much metal can you cram into a small venue” as two acts made almost entirely of pure steel were poured down the stairwell into Glasgow’s Slay.
All For Metal had the venue very busy by the time they came on and it’s no surprise that they already have an impressive fan base. They are forged of Italian and Germanic stock. Now if you look on a map you’ll see that in between Germany and Italy lies Switzerland. Switzerland is famous for (amongst other things) cheese. And All For Metal are cheesy. All the right sorts of cheesy. Big cheesy metal riffs and beats, cheesy poses, cheesy grins… if there’s metallic cheese then we were served forty minutes of it tonight and it was delicious.
Like all the best bands with a sense of humour, though, All For Metal are actually good. Ursula and Jasmin are great guitarists, and Florian provides comic relief as well as banging out the bass riffage. He reminds me somewhat of Rammstein’s Christian Lorenz or Powerwolf’s Falk Maria Schlegel. Or Tragedy’s Lance. The bumbling character who desperately wants to be the centre of attention and then revels in it when he gets his two minutes. Leif Jensen was shoved off to the side a bit in his drumkit due to the stage layout but was still very much included especially in the into to “Hear The Drum”. Because obviously.
Front and centre, though, are the Little and Large of the metal world: Titanic Tim Schmidt and the more operatic Antonio Calanna. Schmidt dominate the stage in more ways that one, and I’m as much interested in his exercise regime as I am in his part in the band. His lower-end vocals and performance are a large focal point of the set, while Calanna hits high notes that no man should be able to manage without very tight trousers. The sound in the venue lets him down a little for the first half of the set which is a shame, but bloody hell can than man sing.
An All For Metal show is pure pantomime. It’s silly and makes use of all the tropes we know and love, but the band don’t overplay them. Splitting the crowd in two to see who’s loudest? We’ve seen it all before, and it’s fun, but they don’t labour it. Enough to get a smile, followed by a cheesy line from Calanna (“We’re all winners here!”) and into the next song. Guitarist in the crowd? Pabst is there, posing for selfies in the middle of the dance floor while not missing a single note of her rhythms and solos. Weaponry? Big Thor hammer and a sword (for the second time in the venue recently (Warbringer a few weeks ago), and I’m still amazed that nobody has been decapitated). And why not have one of your singers carry other members of the band around as if they were puny action figures?
With a deserved decent set length for such a damn good support act, it was also a joy to see the band hanging around the merch area after their set and again after the full show. This is the attitude that gets you fans. That and the great performance. And the tunes. They help, too.
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So, how do you follow such an enjoyably opening salvo? That was the job left to Canada’s Unleash the Archers as they took to the stage, opening with “Abyss”. More straight-laced than their touring companions, they are no less talented and their songs are similarly straight out of the traditional heavy metal playbook.
The venue was packed by the time they came on, suitably warmed up but I don’t think anyone’s voice was going to compete with Brittney Hayes/Slayes’. What a set of pipes! Her range is good, especially those high notes, and she’s able backed at the lower end by Andrew Saunders and Grant Truesdell, both of whom are also strumming strings.
There wasn’t so much in the way of theatrics with their set, just a dozen songs of quality heavy metal including a couple of oldies due to be remastered and re-released shortly on a new version of Time Stands Still. Happy tenth birthday!
Every song went down well, especially with a couple of guys near me who were literally trying to jump to every drumbeat for some of them. “Tonight We Ride” and “Gods in Decay” were top tracks, but the singalong encore “Northwest Passage” was definitely the highlight of the night despite being a cover. It certainly had more people singing! Despite its folk roots it translates very well into the power metal arena, especially when treated with respect as by Unleash The Archers.
Two great bands, each putting their all into their performances and an audience leaving happy and drained. I mean, how else would you want to spend a Tuesday night?
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Photos by Skull Lens Photography
