Savage Messiah at Sound Control (Manchester)

The guys in Savage Messiah were back in town at Sound Control last night. Due to one reason or another both original support bands had to pull out the day before the gig. A last minute competition was held to find a replacement support band and the lucky winners were Manchester’s very own melodic metal band Driven Apart.

Kicking off at 8 o’clock on the dot the band went straight into their set and very quickly won the crowd over with their music, however, having 6 people in the band left very little (if any) room to move and frontman Mike Coyle spent a lot of time in the crowd area in front of the stage.

I was blown away how tight these were as a band, having 3 guitarists (just like Iron Maiden do) can’t be easy to keep in time, however, Driven Apart did it flawlessly. The songs very well composed and the solo’s were incredible. I spoke to the band after the show and was told that they hadn’t been able to practice properly for the best part of 2-3 weeks, this is something that wasn’t apparent. A true professional and tight knit band.

After Driven Apart had nicely warmed the crowd up it was time for Savage Messiah to hit the stage. Kicking off with Iconocaust from their upcoming album The Fateful Dark the band head straight into the set, frontman Dave Silver having the crowd in the palm of his hand from the start. As always with a Savage Messiah gig you know the band will be putting in a minimum of 110% to make sure the songs are played flawlessly as well as making sure the crowd have a good time. This was the first time they had played a headlining set in Manchester which made it even more of a special show to watch.

The songs from the upcoming album The Fateful Dark were very well received by the crowd (shameful plug time, if you haven’t done so already then check out my review of The Fateful Dark here) and all you could see was a mix of headbanging, devil horns and fist pumping which the band seemed to thrive on, thus showing that this new album is going to be a winner for Savage Messiah.

The set finished and the band was leaving the stage to chants of “More!” when Joff Bailey took to the mic and said something along the lines of “You want one more? You got it!” and they played us their cover version of Be Quick or Be Dead by Iron Maiden which is one of the bonus tracks on the new album – a song which the crowd loved and appeared to be a perfect closing song to a flawless gig. Every person had a smile on their faces.

After the show the band were approached by members of the crowd and you could tell they loved hearing the feedback and made time to speak to the fans – a big ‘hats off’ from me for that because it shows that Savage Messiah really do appreciate their fans and don’t take them for granted!

Overall the show was a resounding success – well done to Savage Messiah and Earache Records for finding a replacement band in such short notice – the competition was a 3 hour one and by all accounts quite a lot of bands entered which is a testament as to what support and respect Savage Messiah have earned themselves.

Score: 10 out of 10