'Bloodied Angels Fast Descending'

I had a delightfully Spinal-Tapian evening last night, as my sister Helen, her son Chris, and my friends Claus and Tom joined me in an evening out for some heavy metal music at the John Labatt Centre in London. This was to be Chris' first concert (not counting Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears or Hilary Duff or any other teeny-bopper concerts he may have seen in the days when he would not be held accountable for any lack of judgement in taste).

First to offer their wares were f'ing Down, a black metal act, featuring former members of f'ing Pantera, as the f'ing lead singer mentioned in between calling the audience f'ing pussies or calling out songs like "This one's for the f'ing bikers". I actually could not quite tell when they changed songs. About the only thing Chris and Helen agreed on at the concert was that Down f'ing sucked. I actually found them quite amusing, as they only played for 30 minutes, and they accomplished the goal of making the next act look good in comparison.

Megadeth (a speed metal group) played a short, taut set, only 45 minutes long, with little talking, and many guitar solos (I think i counted seven of them in "Hangar 18" alone!) Our seats were a bit far away to get a good look at Dave Mustaine's guitar playing. I didn't know their new stuff, and Chris didn't know their old stuff, so we had few comparison points. Memo to Helen - Chris needs to grow his hair long before the next heavy metal concert so he can headbang more effectively.

Sabbath played almost two hours, and most of their songs were interesting. They had an excellent stage set (no 18-inch high stonehenges here) which I wished I could find a picture of and download. The music was slow and very heavy (as opposed to Megadeth's fast and very heavy). I think Chris could take or leave Sabbath (not enough energy!) but I think they put on an excellent show. Helen and I are Dio fans, and he still has the voice at 57 years of age - quite impressive, and Sabbath were nice and heavy.

I'm not sure if I would go again (concert tickets are expensive), but I'm glad I checked them out.

PS - There was a drum solo!