In the midst of the blizzard of indie Splendour sideshows that hit Sydney this week, there was one shining light for metal fans everywhere. On a cold winter’s night at the Metro Theatre, a crowd of devoted metal fans, adorned in bands shirts, piercings and tattoos of every style imaginable lined up, waiting for a night of pure, deafening heavy metal.

For their patience, these dedicated fans that swelled in number to pack out the Metro Theatre were rewarded with a sensational show from one of the most under-appreciated metal bands around. Initially dwindling numbers and tough security set an ominous tone for the night, only for it to be decimated in a wall of sound that would make Nigel Tufnel proud.

As the locals started to become restless, with the constant drunken shouts of “Hellyeah”, Black Asylum took the stage for a frenzied set of hardcore infused thrash metal that felt like a mix between Slayer, Iron Maiden and Parkway Drive. The relatively unknown Central Coast band delivered an extremely impressive set from a group of technically proficient musicians and demonstrated a real talent for getting the crowd going.

This tends to be a real problem for most supporting acts, who struggle to even get a devils horns from the audience. However Black Asylum had most of the Metro headbanging, moshing and hungry for more within 60 seconds of their first track 25 to Life. After a brief twenty five minute set, they finished their set as quickly as they began and left a fired up mosh pit ready for the main act.

From the second Hellyeah took the stage, it was clear to the audience that this was going to be one hell of a set. Beginning with Hellyeah, the Southern metal outfit got straight down to business with crushing double kick’s courtesy of Vinnie Paul, who throughout the night, kept a vicious groove with a thunderous wall of sound.

Chad Grey rounded out the song with a surprisingly monstrous scream worthy of the heaviest metalcore bands around. Throughout the night Grey gave a superb vocal performance that can only be done justice on a live stage. Hellyeah are truly a live band and no recording can capture the brutality, melody and brilliance that is experienced at one of their gigs.

Hellyeah continued their set with a variety of both new and old material, creating an excellent contrast which was most prevalent with their softer material. One of the highlights came with A Cowboy’s Way which was executed masterfully with a technical solo that put the recorded solo to shame.

This was a frequent occurrence throughout the night with Tom Maxwell and Greg Tribbet performing a number of spectacular wah filled solos which all cut through the mix bar the solo in Nausea, in which the bizarre work with the wah led to a solo that sounded more like space invaders than anything else.

Hell of a Time provided an opportunity for the band to jump all over the stage, with Gray diving off the drum kit and monitors, who in a brief interlude told the fans how “we don’t give a fuck about what anyone says about our hair, clothes or music, we do whatever the fuck we want”.

Whilst it may come across as somewhat arrogant, Gray actually genuinely appeared to be one of the most relaxed and honest front men in his field. Later on in a brief interlude he went on to make a heart filled tribute to “All of those we lost along the way” and to the brutally murdered Dimebag Darrel.

This led into one of the most impressive songs of the night. Thank You demonstrated a stark contrast with most of the material so far in the night and provided an extremely emotional song with a slow melodic solo in a rare moment for the band.

Afterwards as the set began to wear on, Hellyeah began to pull out it’s most well known material, beginning with the Debt That All Pay featuring a brutal extended drum intro from Vinnie Paul with a rare bass solo from Bob Zilla who took the spotlight brought the audience straight back into the realm of metal.

This was followed by You Wouldn’t Know with Grey managing to get a massive sing along going and once again turned the mosh into a complete frenzy before diving straight into their title track of their new album – Stampede, which served to provide another fast paced chugging filled track with a crazy solo of shredding from Tribbet.

Before heading into the final track, Grey began by chatting to the audience about his experiences at concerts and thanking everyone from the fans, to the security, to the cameraman who Tribbet decided to repeatedly poke in the crotch with his guitar, for coming out to experience some real metal.

He then began to talk about how there was always something else on the side for him at concerts – alcohol, which was the cue for the final track for the night – Alcohaulin Ass, which became one of the highlights of the night.

Lighters came out, clapping began and the mosh chanted hypnotically along with the soft vocal line throughout, before another wah filled solo from Maxwell and a sudden pause in the music, in which Grey encouraged applause. After raising the roof, Hellyeah finished the outro of the song, concluding a short set of just over an hour.

Hellyeah’s short set was undoubtedly one of the most potent and brutal yet melodic and emotional gig’s to hit the Metro, or any venue in Sydney for that matter. It was truly an underestimated set of true metal from a band which has to be experienced live to be fully appreciated.

Check out the photos from the gig