Artists: Avenged Sevenfold/Stone Sour

Venue: Leeds Academy

Review by: Nick Lavigueur

AMERICAN metal bands Avenged Sevenfold, inset, and Stone Sour set out on a joint world tour last summer with the same bitter taste of tragedy in their mouths.

Just a few months after A7X lost their drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan, Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor was also grieving the death of a close friend, his Slipknot bandmate Paul Gray.

The effects of those tragedies were on display for all to see as the tour rolled into Leeds on Wednesday.

A7X tapped into their collective grief and laid down their best album to date, the aptly titled Nightmare.

Bursting on stage to the title track frontman M Shadows cuts a confident figure powering out the vocals and feeding energy to the crowd.

But behind him, except for new drummer Mike Portnoy, the other founder members have that vacant look in their eyes like something is missing from their lives.

Not that the music suffered. Synster Gates still has his lead guitar wailing at all the right times and Portnoy’s flamboyant drumming style is something to behold.

In what must now be a nightly speech M Shadows says his piece about The Rev before launching into melancholy tribute So Far Away.

Concentrating on Nightmare and their previous self titled album, the band rip through their one hour set of catchy sing-a-long metal and with the end of the performance in sight the rest of the band finally seem to be enjoying themselves – perhaps betraying their relief that the set is coming to an end.

In contrast, Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor arrives on stage with such aggression and energy you’d think he was on top of the world. Launching into the set with his customary commitment Taylor proves once again you don’t need long hair to headbang for all you’re worth.

Ever the cheeky character, he banters with the crowd and says he wants to try his sexy 1970s radio voice, which not everyone gets.

After blasting through favourites including Get Inside and Made of Scars he returns alone for stripped down solo piece Bother.

But after pumping up the crowd and himself to near euphoric levels, Taylor appears to begin to struggle with his emotions, taking several long pauses to pull himself together as he fights the urge to break down.

After encouraging cheers from the crowd he makes it to the end of the track but can clearly be seen wiping away tears as the lights fade away.

As a man who always wears his heart on his sleeve you actually believe Taylor when he says the UK tour is his best ever.

And as he throws himself into closing track 30/30-150 the energy on display is so intense you’d think it was his last performance ever – all in all one of the best gigs I’ve seen.