With a name like Gigantour you would expect an epic show, it conjures up images of long forgotten manga cartoons where giant robots battled the forces of evil with shonky computer animated graphics, except in this show you’d expect more live action and guitars, which there was. Gigantour is the brainchild of Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine, who was thrown out of Metallica in 1983, bitterly vowing to make a better band. Not only did he achieve that goal, he’s also created an extremely organized mainstream metal festival featuring a variety of styles.

The first act was UK group Bring Me The Horizon – they played very fast and screamed a lot. They have a youthful exuberance that gets the crowd up moshing. They were followed by Italian gothic metal greats Lacuna Coil (meaning Empty Spiral). Its strange that this band played so early, as they clearly had a huge following.Their set list was all from Comalies and Karmacode and they only played for 30-45 minutes, delivering a highly energetic set including Swamped, Heaven’s A Lie, Daylight Dancer, Our Truth, Enjoy The Silence and Fragile. Cristina Scabbia’s voice is astounding and the band were musically tight, producing a beautiful combination of melody and metal.

Devil Driver play impressive death metal, with some great tracks like Not All Who Wonder are Lost, they are a throwback to the days when metal bands had long hair and a flirtation with the occult. Naming the band after a tool used by witches, or maybe this style of music just drives lead singer Dez Fafara ’s demons out with one bellowing howl, either way it’s good.

Static X looked like a parody band with what appeared to be an octopus on drums as Nick Oshiro ’s dreadlocks flew wildly across the skins, it was very entertaining and lead vocalist Wayne Static appeared to have laryngitis as he gravelly announced to the crowd “Lets do some more shots”, before launching into some old school metal with I’m with Stupid. Their blend of 80’s electronica and industrial metal was well received.

Megadeth walks on stage to the chants of thousands of fans foaming at the mouths and pumping their fists in the air in almost military unison. They played an awesome blend of old and new, it was powerful eighties metal with synchronized guitars, head banging and flying hair. Dave Mustaine is so charismatic, usually very vocal and political with quotes like “Religion is for people who are afraid to go to hell, whereas spirituality is for people like me who have been there”, however tonight he was much more mellow, being the last concert of the tour he preferred to play guitar rather than talk, displaying a strong sense of melody, great hooks and intelligent lyrics, thus proving why he is one of the most prolific musicians in heavy metal history. The highlight of the set was A Tout Le Monde (Set Me Free), performed as a duet alongside Cristina Scabbia.