Visigoth live @ Boston Music Room, Tuffnell Park, London

Words and Pictures : Kalli Isborne

A sold-out Boston Music room is the venue for tonight’s show. The first night of Visigoths European tour and it’s a warm one, and it clashes with the football. Luckily for us the Boston Music rooms smoking area has a big screen, so with one ear on the stage, an eye on the time and a beer in hand Belgium and Brazil were the unknowing opening act of the evening.

Dream Tröll

The official evening openers, Dream Tröll timed their set to perfection starting exactly at half time. The Leeds based Quintet brought their own version of NWOBHM to the very warm north London venue. Their energetic set kept everybody entertained until the end and gained more than a few new fans in the process.

Arkham Witch

After another brief hiatus for football it was Arkham Witch’s turn to entertain the eagerly amassed metal heads. Also hailing from West Yorkshire (something must be in the water up there) this quintet also rocked the place to its core. With support acts as good as these Visigoth have a lot to match up to.

Visigoth

And so, onto Visigoth. During their stage set up the backing tape was being played through the venue PA system, just as you would expect at any gig, however this evening something magical happened, the metal gods aligned the stars and planets and the final song before Visigoth were to play was the classic Iron Maiden track Hallowed Be Thy Name, and you cannot expect a full venue of ardent metal heads, many of whom have had a few ale’s (to quench their thirst from the hot summers weather) not to sing along. But sing along they did, every word, drum beat and guitar chord was vocalised, it was magical, and received a round of applause from the band themselves. Now the question is, are Visigoth going to be able to match not only their support acts, but also the mix tape and audience?

There was nothing to worry about, as it turns out. The Salt Lake City guys opened with a couple classic tracks from their debut album, Blood Sacrifice and Dungeon Master, and you just knew that this was going to be a good show. With more energy flowing from the stage than a primary school class fed with skittles and red bull, Visigoth put on a show to rival many bigger bands. Now the fans were most definitely warmed up it was time to play some tracks from their new album Conqueror’s Oath. Very rarely do you see a band play more than two songs in a row from their new album, but so confident in their new material Visigoth played six, yes six, tracks in a row from Conqueror’s Oath, and the audience loved it, these guys clearly have a dedicated group of fans that are loving what they do, and it’s refreshing to see, keeping in mind it’s the same audience that knew every word to Hallowed be Thy Name, that are also singing along to new material released this year. The final three songs of the evening hark back to earlier days of Visigoth, and with Final Spell, very early days being the title track of their 2012 EP.

This evening flew by in a haze of metal, beer and more metal, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I also have three new bands to add to my favourite music streaming site. If any of these bands are gigging near you, go! You won’t be disappointed.