Event:	Destruction: UK & Ireland Tour
Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	16.11.2007
Galleries:	Destruction, Onslaught - Nottingham, England, 14th November 2007 by Baz Anderson (22)

The 14th of November and this was supposed to be the sixth day into the Destruction and Onslaught U.K. and Ireland tour, just, the tour was originally never supposed to reach Nottingham soil at all. The Old Angel Inn, Nottingham, a small friendly pub with a tiny venue upstairs for small, local bands was never supposed to be a destination for the English and German thrash veterans on this night, but sometimes things have a funny way of working out.



During the night I was approached by a certain, very neighbourly Sy Keeler, of course singer for the English thrash war horse Onslaught, and I was told of just how many setbacks, and how unfortunate this tour had been so far. The original opening band Rasta had to pull out of the tour as their manager was involved in the recent Decapitated bus crash, there were also false statements made declaring the Manchester and Leeds dates to be cancelled which was untrue. Someone important to the tour, I can't remember exactly who he said, apparently disappeared and left the tour hanging, and also a few days prior to this certain date the Liverpool show was actually cancelled. A phone call was made and at very, very short notice the Destruction and Onslaught tour was set to make its bestial invasion of Nottinghamshire grounds.

This show was not advertised as it was organised at such short notice, some regular punters from the bar may also have been absent due to the popular band the Foo Fighters also playing in Nottingham the same night. At the time of talking to Sy, just before Onslaught took to the stage, there were apparently just 17 paying customers at the show, the bands and crew outnumbered the paying audience. However during the course of the night numbers did seem to rise, and because of the nature of the show, this made sure that the only people at the show were the true heavy metal fans of Nottingham, with the exception of myself and my friend who found about the date the day before and travelled over an hour for this truly unique experience.

After sitting, relaxed in the bar for quite a while we eventually decided to travel up the stairs to see if the show had started yet. After paying our £6 to get in for these three bands we found ourselves standing in the relatively empty venue room with English metallers, and opening band Amenti half way through their performance. They play metal with strong thrash metal influences, but although having a few moments when things picked up a bit the set was rather bland and uninteresting.

A while later, and after the short chat with Sy where he also disclosed he has this very website, Metal Storm, in his favourites on his computer, Onslaught were set up and ready to take the stage. The room was inhabited by roughly 25 or 30 audience members but the set never seemed to have any quiet moments at all. The people that were in there were true, real metallers, some that seemingly knew every word of the Onslaught songs, all of us in there were passionate about metal and we were not going to let the lack of a large audience put a dampener of the show one bit.



If we were not shouting along to the classic "Metal Forces" or joining in of the "burn! burn! burn!" of a new song "Burn" us right in front of the stage were letting the hair fly all over the place to the 100% fast, pounding thrash metal that was in front of us. The size of the stage, the size of the room all made it feel although this was a show in our home's front room, this was the definition of an intimate metal show. Both new and old songs found their way into the set, "Killing Peace" and the Exodus-like cutting edge of "Twisted Jesus" from the new album and of course the great "Onslaught (Power From Hell)" to close the set left us all having witnessed a truly fantastic thrash attack.



Setlist:



Eventually it was cracked brain o' clock and after the addition of some stage lights and a smoke machine it was time for the German thrash gods Destruction to take to the little rising of the floor, also known as the stage. Straight into "Curse The Gods" and we knew they meant business. At most there was probably 50 onlookers in this small room, but there was no mistaking that we were all there for thrash metal quality that was on the menu for the night, Destruction inparticular. each individual of the small audience all played their part in the show - I doubt anyone in the room was not screaming "nailed to the fucking cross!" which got the adrenaline pumping higher than before in the night.



Like Onslaught did, Destruction thanked us all for coming out at such short notice, inbetween songs Schmier would talk to us as if we were all known friends from his home town the way we had raised the roof of this venue with so little amount of people there. He continued and told us that it didn't matter if they were playing in front of just a few people or a thousand people as long as everyone was having a good time and they were too. He told us that they were having a great time, and from what Sy had told me about the rather muted show in Leeds the previous day, I got the impression that this small show was the highlight of the tour so far.



The show was played almost to perfection, both newer and older material sounding as fresh as ever. The main reason for me going was the amazing performance they put on at Wacken a few months back, and that has a setlist comprised of fan's requests - and this setlist did not deviate much from that! "The Butcher", "Death Trap", "Total Desaster" (sic), "The Butcher Strikes Back" and of course the intense "first hit they had back in '85" - "Bestial Invasion" to top things off. The audience were lacking in size but again we never let there be a quiet moment during the set. A few of us people standing just behind the monitors in front of the stage were again letting the hair get its extreme air mileage and behind us a number of people had a moshpit going on. There was nothing to complain about from the show at all.



It all sounded great, maybe the bass drums could have been a little higher but there was nothing to turn your nose up at, at all. The audience and band both had an amazing night at a very unique show, a show with bands that could have easily sold as many tickets as they did this night multiple times over and still more, all in a tiny room for an almost exclusive show. Schmier also stated Destruction wanted to play at Bloodstock 2008, and so it would seem plans are in the works as at the end of the show he told us he would see us all at Bloodstock.
All in all tonight we witnessed a pure, unadulterated live thrash metal experience that surely no one else has experienced before regarding venue and audience size, an intimate night in with Destruction and Onslaught that I will not forget for a long time and I am sure the bands won't either.

Setlist:



Thanks go to Destruction and Onslaught for deciding to play this small venue after the Liverpool show was cancelled, and sorry to Sy of Onslaught who I didn't get to have another chat with in the bus after the show - you were right, it was cutting it a bit fine with the taxi, but there is always next time!
Written, and photos by Barry Anderson