There were five bands on the bill tonight, two local bands, two national and a headliner. The first band (one of the locals) had already finished by the time I had got there and unfortunately, I can't even remember what they were called. So, the first band that I saw was the second of the locals and they were called Puppet. This was a five-piece unit that performed reasonably well, but I felt had borrowed a lot from the current clutch of metal bands. They had the now obligatory face paint and the music I found was reminiscent of Slipknot's sound and style, which came across as sadly, low impact and gave you the feeling of 'heard it all before'. It wasn't all negative, as they did actually give a worthy performance and shared their stage with two guest vocalists from other local bands during the set, which added a little variety..

Next up were NonPoint, who were a massive step up the league of professionalism and were the band that I enjoyed the most over the evening. A four-piece band that featured a black singer (Elias Soriano) who really added some originality to the group and music. They gave us an excellent, strong and tight set that contained some top class metal with melody and style (which on occasions reminded me of Staind). The singer was superb and quite often offered a slight funky, reggae, ragga feel to some of the vocals which mixed really well with their fast, hard edge, heavy guitars and pounding rhythms. They played songs including "Back Up", "Victim", "Endure" and "What A Day" which can all be found on their debut album called "Statement" on MCA Records (label no. 088 112 364-2). Both live and recorded, this band is most excellent! Definitely recommended.

The second of the national bands to appear were Factory 81, another four-piece band, this time from Michigan. These were also a powerfully heavy band but with a sound containing touches of Machine Head and Tool mixed in a heavy cocktail. The vocal style was very strange with the occasional raw and growl, but mainly an uncomfortable wailing and just a few raps. The vocalist came across as a bit of a tosser and made a massive mistake with the audience when he started taking the piss out of Ohio (was he insane or what, he turned the audience against them). The songs were made up of some very heavy riffs which tore large holes from both stage and crowd, and was performed musically tight. I managed to talk with Nate Wallace - Vocals, after the gig and he confirmed that Tool is a huge influence (and surprisingly, he was a really nice bloke). The band is well worth catching if you get the chance...

The headliners were MuDvAyNe. I had not seen them before, but had heard their album once or twice and read a little too. They came on in full-face paint (which I thought was a little, err, well corny) and they were very American with the huge hard sell on their album every couple of songs. There was loads of energy and power, with a full-on performance including the mad bass player, running around everywhere with the evil horns in his hair (very much like Glen from One Minute Silence actually!). They provided a solid, powerful and professional, but short set that had the crowd going crazy, with a decent size mosh pit. The gig was a good one and I think the majority of the people attending were pleased, MuDvAyNe had created quite a buzz... There was an overpowering feeling of confidence from this band that promises to take them far. We will see...

Rigsby.