When I was a child growing up, my mother would constantly sing an Elvis track from his 'GI Blues' film called 'Didja' Ever'. As a result that song has pretty much engrained itself into my psyche and has stuck with me through the years, but if ever there was a tune that's lyrics perfectly summed up events leading up to this show, then that song just about fucking nails it. At one stage I was even contemplating writing this review up as my own 'Gig From Hell', but that would have been detrimental to the music on offer here, and not really have illustrated the levels of true incompetence I had exuded this time around in organising my latest Johnny H tour itinerary.

Six months, that's the length of time I had had to get myself sorted for tonight, I mean the gig had been rescheduled TWICE due to Slayer's Tom Araya's much published back problems, yet tonight I still managed to end up at the wrong venue.... right city (thank fuck), just the wrong venue. I mean how could I be wrong? I'd seen The Dwarves, Turbonegro (twice), The Chelsea Smiles and The Sex Pistols to name but a few in this very venue, and tonight I'd turned up extra early just to see The Haunted, but what I'd rather stupidly not realised was the small fact that the venue had in fact upped sticks and moved, yes.... moved, and it was not like it was just around the corner either. Nah the new venue was about three or four miles across the city to a place I'd actually driven past on my way in. Suddenly, that Elvis song was echoing in the back of my mind, loudly. However by the large numbers of people also milling around the old venue I got the self-gratifying feeling I wasn't the only thick fucker in Birmingham tonight.

Leaving my car behind, along with my trusty jacket, I hopped into a taxi with two young lads from Liverpool, and duly careered through the streets of the second city (and the UK's first city of Metal) hell bent on not missing a note of the finest metal band to come out of Gothenburg in a long time. So, it wasn't long at all before I was standing in a snaking queue discussing the merits of Di'anno over Dickinson with my inquisitive fellow journeymen. With the time fast approaching thirty minutes after the original doors time the second chorus of Elvis erupted in my brain as it suddenly started to piss down with rain, could events really get any worse?

By the time I finally made it into Birmingham's newish 'state of the art' (for that read cold and corporate) concert venue I was astonished to find that The Haunted had not yet taken to the stage...So it was with somewhat moist sounds of joy that I greeted Peter Dolving and his team of crack metal troops having between them been responsible for one of my favourite albums of 2008, in the shape of their awesome 'Versus' platter.  However with all that had gone before, I was starting to think it would require a truly remarkable performance from the lads from Sweden to get anything remotely like a smile on my constantly scowling face. And it was the arrival of the anthemic 'Moronic Colossus' mid set (which tonight they should have dedicated to yours truly) that did at least get a sly smirk out of me alongside my first horns of the night. Any other night I think this would have been something a cracking support slot, but tonight I was only just starting to warm up.

Thank fuck then that after the two previous cancellations Slayer were (excuse the pun) 'hotter than hell', helped in no small part by one of the most vocal crowds I've seen in a long time. The inevitable pre gig chant of "Slayer, Slayer, Slayer" being loud enough to drag me from under my doom cloud and into the outer reaches of a ferocious pit. 'World Painted Blood' opened things up in true Slayer style, no bullshit just humongous riffs played fast us fuck with the usual hate filled vocal stylings of the aforementioned Mr Araya. But hold on a minute, what's this? Tom is smiling, yup that's.... smiling, and sort of stooping into his bass in a sort of Thrash Metal Juan Croucier type patented movement, where previously he would have been a ball of flailing hair and fury, that must have been one serious operation he's had.

Lo and behold a few songs in we got to see the scars from said operation, and suddenly you totally understand the frontman's newfound temperance to the sport of headbanging. There is however something totally infectious about watching Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman stood either side of the stage pounding away like demented head knockers on tracks like 'Expendable Youth' and 'Payback' and when you look around and see everyone in the crowd reciprocating, it's at that point you truly get to understand the primal call of the wild that Slayer's music somehow manages to draw out of everyone.

It was great to see older classics like 'Hell Awaits' and 'Chemical Warfare' both dusted off and slotted in neatly alongside newer tracks like 'Beauty Through Order, 'Cult' and 'Jihad'. This refreshing of the set worked particularly well when you added in fan favourites like 'War Ensemble', 'Seasons In The Abyss' and 'Raining Blood', the latter sending the crowd into waves of crowd surfing, even if it was strictly banned.

Encore time and it was left to the old guard of 'South Of Heaven', 'Silent Scream' and 'Angel Of Death' to drain what energy was left out of the crowd. To see Slayer once again in such relatively intimate surroundings as the O2 Academy was truly fantastic as they were nothing short of astounding in such close proximity to their audience, and from the collective smiles on the band members' faces at one stage or another during the evening, you could tell they were also enjoying themselves. The only slight downside to all of this being the stark realisation that Tom Araya must now be a musician on borrowed time due to his injury, and that of course could ultimately mean the premature end of our mighty Slayer. Until that day then let's just enjoy their beautiful noise while it lasts.

Now what was that song again? "Didja' ever", "didja' ever get", "didja' ever get one", "didja' ever get one of them.... daaaaaaaays?"  Fuck yeah