SKINDRED, Soil, Viza @Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton

When Los Angeles six piece Viza shamble out onto the stage, you initially wonder how on earth they know each other. This eclectic nature is reflected in their music. Singer K'noup Tomopoulos takes control of half an hour that by turns is a metal take on Greek music - you almost expect plates to smash at one point - and a metal take on the Middle Easten sound. Always interesting no matter what style they adopt,"Trans Siberian Stand-off" is perhaps the most immediate track here. 

It comes as something of a surprise that they have been releasing music since 2001, but there is no shock at all in finding out they are signed to Serj Tankian's record label. His fingerprints had to be on metal this left field. Worth checking out immediately. 

It doesn't matter how many times you see Soil, you end up just waiting for them to sing "Halo". Right at the start of RTM we saw the band play on their first tour back reunited with original singer Ryan McCoombs. It was a tetchy affair, and we speculated that the return wouldn't last long. We were - as on so many other things - wrong. 

They have toured here a few times since and McCoombs is still in situ. Where we are spot on, though (for our money), is the merits of the bands set. Soil are a group with a load of good songs ...and one phenomenal one. 

It seems as though their entire 50 minutes is building up to the glorious explosion of a conclusion, when they again want to "stone you, stone you, wrap my arms around you". That is not to say that the rest had been bad at all. The singer is in much better form - and mood - than he had been the last time, cracking jokes and looking like he was pleased with his lot. 

Since that night in 2011, Soil have released the "Whole" album from which they play "Shine On" and "The Hate Song" - the latter not quite as crass as it might be - they even chuck in a ramped up cover of "Black Betty" before the obvious conclusion. McCoombs sings it from the floor amongst the adoring fans. Having a song that is a copper bottomed classic, one of the finest of the early 2000s no less, is a problem most bands would love, Soil, rightly are going to milk it for all it's worth.

After a selection of some of the best songs ever put on wax between bands (seriously "Welcome to the Jungle" is followed by "From Out Of Nowhere" before "I'm Broken" at one point) it's time for the finest Welsh band there is.

RTM bumped bumped into a mate at the Lamb of God concert last week. Asking him whether he was coming tonight, he replied that rock and dance music should not mix. Really, we had assumed that metallers were past this. Right from the moment in 1986 when Run DMC and Aerosmith gave "Walk This Way" a fresh sheen, before Kerry King supplied riffs for the Beastie Boys, to the time when Anthrax and Public Enemy brought the noise, such collaborations have met with opposition, blimey we are old enough to recall the furore that accompanied The Prodigy's first appearance in Kerrang. 

It's these attitudes that Benjii Webbe has been battling for neary two decades. From the ashes of ragga metal pioneers Dub War, the singer formed  Skindred, who did the same type of thing, but chucked even more of the kitchen sink at it. Luckily for them most people understand there are just two sorts of music: good and bad, and the sold-out signs have been up at the Wulfrun for a while. 

This is possibly because although Skindred are good on record, they are supposed to be fantastic live. This is our first time with them and happily the stories are true.

After AC/DCs "Thunderstruck" gives way to something or other from Star Wars (not a film buff, think yourselves lucky I knew it was Star Wars...), all holy hell breaks lose. From the off this is like one of those concerts that often get filmed on DVD and you think, nothing I go to is like that. This is. And then some.

"Rat Race" kicks us off and the second thing you notice, after the near hysteria in the crowd, is how monumentally heavy the band are, the riffs that are on show courtesy of lead man Mikey Demus are huge. 

After an early selection including "Doom Riff" from previous album "Union Black" (the record that provided our entry into the world of Skindred) the first new one of the evening is played. This tour is to coincide with the release of the "Kill The Power" album, which is out on Monday. Playing unfamiliar material can kill the vibe at a gig, not this one though. "Ninja" is a good first choice, because a) it's been available on YouTube for a while and b) its ace.

Evidence that we are a different type of rock show comes around halfway through when drummer Ayra Goggin and DJ Dan Sturgess take centre stage and rattle off a solo cum DJ set which includes snippets of House of Pain and Queen.

Normal service soon resumes and other highlights include the title track of the new album and "Saturday" which is an ode to having fun that could have come straight off the Grand Theft Audio album that RTM loved so much about 10 years ago. 

For the encore the band plays another new track "We Live" a ballad dedicated to unity, which is their current single and "Warning" wherein Webbe succeeds in getting hundreds of people to wave their shirts around their heads, while his joined on vocals by Ryan McCoombs.

It is a suitably joyous conclusion to a joyful evening, and one which is made possible by Webbe himself, a strutting showman, he is a quite brilliant, sparkly suited, hat wearing, focal point, by turns funny, aggressive and always full of energy, and able to turn his voice to singing in more different styles in one song than most need to in a career.

The stories you have heard and read are true, Skindred live are not just a band, they are a veritable force of nature. Go and see them, they are quite, quite stunning.

SNAKECHARMER, Fahran @Robin 2, Bilston 24/1/14

It was a question that barely needs an answer. Nonetheless Fahran frontman Matt Black feels the need to ask: "Are there are any old rockers in tonight?" Given the personnel on show later in the evening, perhaps he felt like shooting some fish in a barrel.

Age, however is certainly on Fahran's side. The young five piece are cut down to four tonight, as guitarist Jake has a hernia problem, resourcefully they replace him with a mop. This seems to be typical of the good humour they find themselves in as they take so break from recording album number two.

Slightly older than The Treatment, they do however occupy the same space in terms of sound. "Take This City Alive", "Stay Alive" and set closer "Ashes" are perky melodic rock numbers with a hard edge. Black - who also fronts a very successful tribute band - says they have some heavier material but have picked the mid-paced ones tonight. They chose well and theirs is an impressive, confident set, with Fahran another one of the new breed of up and coming rockers to watch.

The reason there are so many old rockers in Bilston tonight (seriously the place is heaving) becomes clear when you look at the ensemble onstage. Former Whitesnake men Mickey Moody and Neil Murray are joined by ex Wishbone Ash guitarist Laurie Wisefield, Ozzy Osborne keyboard player Adam Wakeman (son of Rick), Thunder drummer Harry James and Heartland vocalist Chris Ousey. With a cast like that, you have every right to expect good things.

Snakecharmer are essentially to Whitesnake what the Black Star Riders are to Thin Lizzy. That is to say there are a couple of prominent former members and they are going to play some hits, but they are a band in their own right too, as last year Snakecharmer tossed out a rather fine record in the shape of their sef-titled debut, choc full of melodic rock in a similar vein to FM, it is a record that means they can be here on their own terms, rather than being forced to do a tribute show.

Indeed they launch into "Guilty As Charged," one of the album's stand-out cuts, straight away, and follow up with another in the shape of "A Little Rock n Roll," before Ousey says: "I think you'll know this one" and off we go with "Ready An' Willin'" and the pattern is duly set. From here on in it is roughly half and half between original and covers, although Moody does get a mid-set solo slide guitar romp entitled "Moody's Blues" (do you see whist they did there?) but crucially whichever band it is who's tracks they are playing, it is uniformly excellent.

The entire gig is superbly played as you would expect, with Moody and Wisefield trading off each other well, James showing his class being the kit and Wakeman holding the thing together, particularly with his fine Hammond Organ. Murray by contrast is content to stand in the shadows letting his more extrovert colleagues take the limelight. 

Three songs sum up Snakecharmer's hour and a half with us. First their single, "Accident Prone"- a favourite of Planet Rock - is as good you will come across in this area, then perhaps the best two of the Whitesnake songs, "Here I Go Again" and encore "Fool For Your Lovin'" it's difficult to get the latter two wrong, David Coverdale, however has managed to make a dogs dinner of them the last twice we've seen Whitesnake. Here tonight, in the hands of Snakecharmer they sounded superb.

An unexpectedly good evening, and if Magnum and FM haven't quite got rivals for the British melodic rock crown, Snakecharmer, if they can do with album number two what number one achieved, might just run them pretty damn close.

LAMB OF GOD, Decapitated, Huntress

When Huntress appeared on the scene with the release of 2012 album "Spell Eater" they garnered rather more column inches than the usual new band.

Most of this coverage seemed to fixate on singer Jill Janus. Watching them onstage tonight it is easy to see why. The band seem largely content to let Ms. Janus do her thing - and to be fair to her she does a grand job. Musically it is a straight ahead twin guitar metal assault, lifted ahead of the norm by the frontwoman. The title track of their album is perhaps the pick given that it moves things into a real over the top power metal type area, while "I Want To F**k You To Death", written by Lemmy, is better than it you think it might be, which neatly is a metaphor for the band itself.

Polish Death Metallers Decapitated are a welcome addition to the bill, not only are they are tighter than Donald Duck's backside, but they have overcome tremendous, heartbreaking tragedy to be here. In 2007 a bus crash left their drummer dead and singer in a coma. Most bands would call it a day.

These boys are made of sterner stuff, though, and in 2011 leader Wacław Kiełtyka put a new version of the outfit and they released a new album "Carnival Is Forever." They play four songs from that tonight and whilst death metal will never quite be our thing at RTM, Decapitated are good at what they do and musically superb - achieving bonus points for playing a superb version of Pantera's "Walk" as a soundcheck, which they do themselves with no roadies.

RTM saw Lamb of God twice in four days back in August. Once was a faltering display at Bloodstock, where everything that could have gone wrong did so, while the second was a stellar effort at the Wulfrun. 

Those were their only UK shows of 2013, now, though, they are back for a full tour, indeed one of the type that American groups used to do back in the day.

They are not, however, at full strength right now. Guitarist Mark Morton has stayed at home to sort some unspecified "family issues." He has been ably replaced, however, with LOG frontman D Randy Blythe explaining "we went on the internet and looked for a dude with long hair and a beard." They got one too, Paul Waggoner from RTM faves the experimentalists Between The Buried And Me, who slots in seamlessly. 

The setlist he plays is the same as last years, with a crushing "Desolation" kicking things off and taking in 75 minutes of monstrously heavy, yet accessible material before it concludes.

So we get "Walk With Me In Hell" and "Set To Fail" mixing with "Omertà" and "Black Label" to add up to a thrilling mix. All the while the crowd does, as per Blythe's instructions - invitation if you will - lose their minds. With "Redneck" every inch their anthem.

What makes the band so good live - awful Bloodstock effort apart - is Blythe himself. Whether he is just glad to be onstage after his legal troubles, or making up for lost time for his band is hard to tell, but he bounces, headbangs and runs his way through the set like a man on a serious mission - pausing only to thank Black Sabbath for inventing the music that created his job.

It's this sheer hard work that, rather like Pantera before them, people connect with and with a collection of songs this good, Lamb Of God can surely continue to grow.

This was a gig that, considering Blythe could have been in a Czech prison, and the awful things Decapitated had to cope with, might never have happened. You can only be glad it did.

Just one thing, though, Randy. Birmingham isn't in the Black Country. It is probably best to forgive this mistake, as it's the only one made tonight.

ICED EARTH, Warbringer @Birmingham O2 Academy 12/1/14

As RTM has been otherwise engaged this afternoon, we arrive too late to see the Trad Metal stylings of Australia's Elm Street. Instead it falls to California's Warbringer to be the first band we see live in 2014.

Trad themselves, but in a different way, the five piece first emerged in the UK a few years ago as part of the thrash revival. That movement - such as it was - has long since petered out, with the only truly great thrash bands the same ones they always were. Warbringer are a case in point. 

They appear to be angry but they don't seem to have a clear idea of what they are vexed about. Musically they are a foot-on-the- monitor twin guitar attack, but they are, let's be honest about it, entirely derivative.

Songs like "Demonic Ecstasy" and newbie "Iron City" could have come off any thrash record of the last 30 years, while closer "Hunter Killer" is all froth and no substance. In between they try and get a moshpit going for "In A Whirlwind" and when it fails singer John Keevil rather sarcastically says, "well I see you have perfected the art of moshing while standing still, it ain't like back home." Lack of pit notwithstanding they do get a decent reception, and whilst they aren't bad by any means, anyone looking for the next Exodus or Anthrax can continue their search.

A couple of years ago RTM sat in this very spot and watched Iced Earth storm through a set, during which they sneered about being on early due to a "disco". No such issues tonight, they take the opportunity to play a full hour and three quarters of heavy-cum- power metal that has won an army of fans - RTM included - around the globe. 

Since that brilliant, but aborted, attempt we have seen them storm through a set at Bloodstock in support of the magnificent "Dystopia" record. They have toured the world too, and while they were at it, they have nabbed the bass player from Fury UK, Luke Appleton (apparently after he impressed while opening on the aforementioned 2011 tour) and support Volbeat next door just a couple of months ago.

Now they are back - with new album "Plagues Of Babylon" just out. During the Volbeat set, Earth took the opportunity to play a couple of new songs, and excellent they were too. Which makes tonight something of a surprise, because, for the first time Iced Earth proved they were actually fallible.

What stopped this gig being the absolute earth shattering triumph we expected is hard to fathom. Perhaps it was a setlist that included seven new songs from an album that we have heard just once, perhaps it was the lack of spectacle (the band choose to play most songs in shadow bathed in lighting effects and dry ice) or maybe it was a sound that was muddy at best and downright bad at worst. Most likely it was a combination of all three.

It's not that new songs aren't good- they are - more it is difficult to get an audience enthused for a bunch of songs that have only been out six days, especially when the whole thing is as flat as this became - a fact the band have noticed, despite telling us how amazing we are.

Musically the poor sound - Appleton's bass is way too high in the mix - robs them of their legendary power and main man Jon Schaffer's guitar is somewhat lost, as are Stu Block's usually tremendous vocals.

The encore of "Dystopia's" title track, the superb ballad "Someone To Watch Over Me" and the ubiquitous eponymous song that gives the band their name, at least ends things on a high, but you suspect the band will shrug and move on. As Schaffer himself observed during the course of the show "it's not rocket science."

Not a band, despite outward appearances of being totally earnest, to take themselves too seriously (one of the enormous array of shirts on sale tonight contains the legend "poop, even hot chicks do it") instead they do exactly what they want all around the world. Justifiably they could lay claim to being one of, if not the, biggest cult metal band in the world right now. They are Iced Earth and unquestionably they will have better nights than this. Tonight they were mere metal mortals, not metal gods