Day two of Heavy Scotland began with an almost compulsory beer and burrito as soon as the bar was open for business, while waiting for Battle of the Bands winner Lucifers Corpus [6.5/10] to take the stage. Though their sludgy, hard-hitting brand of metal is generally not my kind of thing, the Edinburgh locals delivered a pretty crushing set that had more than a few heads banging.
Edinburgh-based thrashers Disposable [7.5/10] blistered through a brilliant set of up-tempo thrashing madness, with a slight crossover tinge. Their guitarist ended the set by smashing his guitar up in a display of classic rock n roll arrogance, but other than that every moment of Disposable’s set screamed professionalism and oozed with brilliant musicianship. Shiraz Lane [7/10] felt somewhat out of place in a lineup that focused mainly on the heavier side of metal’s spectrum, but their bluesy brand of hard rock went down surprisingly well, with even the most grizzled, brutality loving metalheads grinning and banging their heads in spite of themselves.
Evil Invaders [5/10], unfortunately, failed to continue the momentum. Though their stage presence was entertaining, musically the trio felt a touch boring, opting for mindless speed over substance. With the biggest surprise of the weekend, Blaze Bayley [8/10] provided an absolutely monstrous set of his brilliant solo work, and a couple of Iron Maiden covers that were met by a sea of horns and grinning faces. Although Blaze oozed confidence on stage, he repeatedly said how happy and honored he was to be playing Heavy Scotland, and he certainly seemed to truly mean it. Manchester’s Ingested [6/10] have always been a cut above the majority of slam bands, but while their set was certainly heavy, their brand of chuggy, blasting slam got very boring very quickly.
Taking the place as Sunday’s best band, Destruction [9.5/10] were only a little short of perfect live. The Teutonic trio blasted through an excellent set of classic material and new favourites – seeing “Nailed to the Cross” performed so flawlessly was truly brilliant. After demanding a beer from one of the roadies, man-mountain frontman Schmier gave a supportive speech about the Scottish metal scene, how great it is for their to finally be a Scottish metal festival, and how honoured Destruction are to be a part of it. Finishing their set with a brutal rendition of “Bestial Invasion” even forced this grumpy old journalist to put down my beer and dive into the pit for a quick mosh.
Though I’m not really into Finntroll [8/10] on record, saying they are fun live is an understatement. They managed to turn the Corn Exchange into a mass of raised beer classes and dancing metalheads. Unfortunately, due to transport issues, I had to leave after a few songs of Arch Enemy [9/10], but what I saw of them was a super-tight lesson in how melodic death metal can be both commercially appealing and utterly devastating live.
I think that though behind the scenes there was more than a few rocky moments, the Heavy Scotland team delivered a first edition that they should above all be extremely proud of. Making this an annual festival would be the best thing for Scottish metal that has happened in a very long time, and if Heavy Scotland 2018 happens, you can bet Metal Wani will be raising our horns in support.