Winter came to Birmingham this weekend but fortunately, so did a modern-day, multi-national Viking band of rockers, consisting of Corrosion Of Conformity and Orange Goblin, ably assisted by Fireball Ministry and Black Moth. With no intention of moping about, in the words of Orange Goblin lead singer Ben Ward, they came to “get drunk and get wild”, and that is exactly what happened.
Neither Corrosion Of Conformity nor Orange Goblin are spring chickens, having been around since 1982 and 1995 respectively, but that didn’t affect their stride in any way, with both bands pumping out an energy that is rare in bands that are half their ages. Londoners Orange Goblin strode onto the stage with a knowing smirk to the sounds of AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n’Roll)” and burst straight into “Sons of Salem”, the exuberant lead tune from their recent The Wolf Bites Back album. Biker rock riffs aplenty followed with clouds of dry ice and man mountain Ward handing out bottles of beer to the lively crowd, as he spread more good will and party atmosphere than even the legendary Andrew WK would be able to manage.
Orange Goblin’s tribute to the much missed Lemmy, “Renegade” saw the audience lapping up the relentless riffage with plenty of raised fists and flashing of the devil’s horns, while “They Come Back” saw the mosh pit go ape. With four bands on the bill there was no time for encores but Orange Goblin's final tune, the barn-storming “Red Tide Rising”, tore the roof off the place and left Corrosion Of Conformity with quite an act to follow.
Atlanta’s Corrosion Of Conformity were in the UK earlier in the year for the Download Festival, but headlining their own gig led to no dialing down of their stoner rock riffing. Opening the show with “Seven Days” and its refrain of “Believe in me because I damn sure don’t believe in you” saw the four-piece dropping sonic ordnance from the off, with Woody Weatherman shredding his guitar like his life depended on it.
Playing a set that largely consisted of tunes from 1994’s breakthrough album Deliverance and this year’s No Cross No Crown in a swamp of smoke, Corrosion Of Conformity laid down a selection of thunderous grooves. With “13 Angels”, they slowed things down a bit between the muscular guitars of “Who’s Got the Fire” and the evergreen, fire-spitting “Vote with a Bullet”, which was introduced by Pepper Keenan as being written when the band were “crazy-ass punk kids”. As they pulled metal shapes with Southern and stoner rock flavours, the crowd seriously dug what Corrosion Of Conformity had to offer.
As things headed for the finale, Keenan acknowledged Birmingham’s historic place in the history of metal and heavy rock, proclaiming that “If this city didn’t exist, we wouldn’t even be here” before the band laid down an epic “Clean my Wounds”. Mike Dean and Reed Mullin’s almost funky rhythm section provided the groove and Birmingham went bonkers. It was a fine end to an evening of wild rock’n’roll with more than enough spirit to keep out the cold northerly winds.
