After yet another laborious week of winter weather, and the thought of yet more snow driving you to despair, what better way to shed those winter blues and woolly hats than with a night of top quality Heavy Metal courtesy of Evile, Warbringer and The Fading in what must just be the first great tour of 2010.

First to grace the crypt-like stage of the Barfly were Israel's The Fading, shaking the foundations with their own mix of melodic Death Metal.

As vocalist Ilia Badrov proudly announced, this tour is the band's first gigs away from their homeland and the band looked as though they have been rehearsing for this moment all of their lives. In reality you can bet you shirt on that fact as they delivered an outstanding thirty minutes of head crushing metal, let's just hope that this will be the first of many visits to these shores.

For anybody in the venue over the ripe old age of thirty then it's California's Warbringer that steals the show tonight with their take on Eighties old school Thrash Metal. For everybody else that wasn't present during the grand ole heydays of Thrash (myself included here as back then I would be more likely found at a Cinderella or Motley Crue gig than a Virus or Celtic Frost show) then what followed was a thirty-minute history lesson in brutality as Warbringer set about totally destroying the place with songs from their latest opus 'Walking Into Nightmares' along with selected numbers from their highly acclaimed debut album 'War Without End'.

Particular praise has to be given to their charismatic frontman John Kevill who, along with his mighty vocals, also has an infectious smile to match, pulling some mighty fine jibs as he leads his band (who incidentally featured The Fading's bassist Elad Manor filling in for absent regular four stringer Andy Laux, and doing a grand job in the process) through a nuclear musical assault.

There is only one band in the UK right now that could follow the awesome intensity of Warbringer and that band is Huddersfield's finest sons, namely Evile.

As vocalist Matt Drake took to the stage, he was greeted by chants of "Evile, Evile" that would continue through the remainder of the evening. And after a few poignant words in honour of their late bass player Mike Alexander and a quick introduction to the new guy Joel Graham, they leapt headfirst into the title track of their latest album 'Infected Nation' proving why Evile are currently the front-runners in the New Wave Of British Thrash.

After tearing through 'Genocide', 'Devoid Of Thought' and 'Schizophrenia' you are left in no doubt that the band's decision to continue without Mike is the only one the band had.  Proving that his memory will always stay alive through the band's music. Matt Drake tonight seemed genuinely touched by the fan's devotion to the band as he continually thanked the audience members for attending tonight's opening night gig.

A quick burst through the Eighties inspired 'Bathe In Blood' and 'First Blood' followed and then the night had sadly come to an end, but not before one final burst through the fans' favourite, the title track of Evile's superb debut album 'Enter The Grave' bringing my first great gig of 2010 to a close.

Look, let's forget all the talk of the big four touring in the summer, why bother forking out the big bucks for some bands mostly well past their sell by dates when for a fraction of the ticket price you can see three Thrashtastic bands on one credit crunch busting bill. This Tour is coming to a town near you soon...don't miss it.

Evile new line up picture courtesy of http://www.tombarnesphoto.com/

If you would like to make a donation to the family of Mike Alexander then you can still do so at the following website http://www.mikealexander.co.uk/