Concerts I've seen

More rock and metal covers. Once again, Dan did a fine job, and Mel was outstanding. Guest vocals from Kai, making a decent fist of sounding like Brian Johnson and Tom Keifer, and from David Ryder Prangley doing some songs by The Cult.

Beast In Black had been OK the first time I'd seen them, but I'd been disappointed by the overuse of backing tracks - particularly for the vocals. That situation seemed to have improved when I saw them in Sweden over the summer, but sadly it was back again tonight. For me, it really detracted from the performance. They were OK, but not a band I'll be going out of my way to see again (despite liking their recorded output).

Nightwish had been a bit underwhelming for me at Wacken, but had been fantastic the following week at Bloodstock. This performance lay somewhere between the two. A retrospective tour looking back on their career should have been fantastic, but while I enjoyed it, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. For me their best material came from the "Wishmaster" and "Century child" albums, and I'd have expected them to be well represented. But while we got three from "Wishmaster", we didn't get the title track, probably their most iconic song, and we only saw one from "Century child". The show was good. Floor's voice was strong, and there were certainly highlights (for example, "Wish I had an angel", "Slaying the dreamer" and "Ghost love score"). But while I enjoyed the performance, I'd been hoping for more, and the choice of setlist was a large contributing factor in that.

A night of bands being put on for Ian's 60th birthday. I didn't arrive in time to catch St Fenton The Tainted, so my night started with Spectral Darkwave. They're a band that participated in the Hitchin M2TM rounds, and can perhaps best be described as playing doomy industrial metal. There's a clear steampunk visual element to their performance, but they didn't really stand out. I'd watch them again, but wouldn't go out of my way to do so.

The Mighty Wraith were the primary reason I'd made the trip. I'd seen them a few times before. As a power/trad metal band, they're always going to appeal to my tastes. Despite a relatively sparse crowd, the band managed to whip up support and had the crowd joining in at the relevant points. Once again, the highlights were "Dragonheart" and a cover of Maiden's "Number of the beast".

Following that were headliners Helgrind. They're a band I'd heard of by name, but knew nothing about. They were described to me beforehand as the UK's version of Slayer. In truth, they were better than that description might imply, playing very traditional thrash, straight out of the '80s. The guitar work was quite impressive in places, and with better vocals, they could be an interesting band. But ultimately, they fell a bit flat for me, and I left part way though their set in order to make it home at a reasonable hour.

COP UK were much like the last time I saw them. On paper, they should do well. They have most of the right ingredients in place. But somehow it just doesn't work, and they leave me cold with their brand of melodic metal. Admittedly, they weren't helped by a poor mix, but event allowing for that and even a set closing cover of Journey's "Separate ways", they failed to win me over.

Although the tour was nominally a co-headlining one, this show was billed as a Rage show, However, on the night, Rage followed the opener, leaving Firewind to end the night. The band were clearly not firing on all cylinders. Peavey had a fever and a cough and was struggling to sing. But he'd made the decision to play rather than cancel the show and I'm very glad he did. I suspect the running order was switched on the night because of concerns over Peavey's ability to make it through the whole set. That was helped somewhat by Marcos took over vocal duties for a few of the songs in order to give Peavey's voice a rest. In the end, the set was cut slightly short, but not by much. And it didn't matter. It's a measure of how good a live act they are these days that even with Peavey suffering, the band put on another very strong performance. Highlights for me were "Great old ones", and the obligatory "Higher than the sky" to close the set, featuring extended snippets of both Sabbath's "Heaven and hell" and Dio's "Holy diver", with Marcos once again doing a remarkable impersonation of the man himself.

Last year, Firewind had put on an outstanding show in the same venue, and I was optimistic of another good showing here. I was slightly concerned about whether they'd be able to follow Rage's fantastic performance, but I needn't have worried. Henning Basse is without doubt the best frontman the band have had, and he showed it again tonight. There was perhaps slightly more emphasis on Gus's guitar work than at previous Firewind shows, but as a fan of guitar wankery, that's a good thing in my book. Notable tracks here were "Head up high", "World on fire", "The fire and the fury" and ending the night with "Falling to pieces". At the end of the night, we'd been treated to two strong sets from two bands in their prime. A great night overall.