BOA

In a little place just north of Nottingham (The Intake Club, Mansfield) congregated a mass of metal fans for one special evening of heavy metal. This was more than just a metal night, this was the second heat of the “Metal 2 the Masses” in which 6 bands would compete for a place at the final on June the 30th at Rock City, and the overall winner from that will go on to play a set at this years ‘Bloodstock Open Air’ festival.

With Cacodaemonic kicking off the evening with their mass explosion of Technical Death Metal, blast beats and growls from frontman Patrick Macdonald this was possibly a little too much to bear for some of the nicer folk with sensitive ears. Next up were the unstoppable Airstryke with an unrelenting pounding of high octane music and vocals to keep the crowd on their toes. Onto our 3rd band for the evening Hellrazor took centre stage and stormed their way through with manic progressions, crowd pleasing anthems and moderate mayhem throughout. Our forth band gave us Methysis who took stage and near knocked people over with the fiece rumble of vocals, from screams to growls with the music just being as heavy as humanly possible. Next up, Aonia came blasting in with their female fronted operatic metal, great vocals from the wonderful Mellisa Adams combined with a great collection of instruments. Our final band for the evening were Plague of Angels who like many others before them left the crowd in an utter state of shock, with their combinations between Thrash and Death metal just blew people away.

Upon hearing one of the judges outside saying “This is one of the most difficult one’s to judge” says it all really. It really was an interesting show, mixed with some very talented musicians, a fantastic crowd and great prices on the beer (not forgetting that of course!).

And so, the judging, the final result of all the bands hard work and effort came down to this. The next 2 bands who will be joining the rest at the finals on June the 30th at Nottingham’s Rockcity for a place at BOA are:

Hellrazor
Airstryke

Congratulations to them, and commiserations to the other 4 bands who really put on a great show. I hope to see them back next year for another shot at this great event.

Below are some of the video’s from last nights performance and links to the bands music and fan sites. Check them out, they’re all great bands full of potential.
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