ONE of Salisbury’s most adventurous bands came back to life when Mad Cow Disease joined Heavy Metal heroes Tokyo Blade to play a rather special gig at the Chapel nightclub on Friday.

MCD who had ‘single of the week’ in Kerrang! magazine and were played on the John Peel show back in the day, were performing with their original line up for the first time since their demise in the late 90s. The Agit-Industrial mayhem merchants proved they were still up to creating a nice bit of semi controlled chaos.

The band took off like a lumbering juggernaut laying down a wall of sound with unrelenting guitars, throbbing bass, thunderous drums and appropriate sampling for Jon Maple to embroider with his Beefheartian growl. Sound check problems left Jon flying blind for a while but that sort of added to the in-the-moment abstraction of the whole shuddering entity.

By the time we reached their ‘hit’ Jesus Wants Me For A Vegetable Maple was in the groove, spitting out the lyrics like a proper costermonger. Decomposition found the band really hitting their stride, dense and claustrophobic, with the deeply troubled song sounding almost jolly at times. It was worth them coming out of retirement for that alone. We wait to see if more gigs follow, could be a lot of fun.

Tokyo Blade have come and gone a few times over the years since being formed in Salisbury in the early 80s but they remain an enduring presence in the world of Heavy Metal. Plenty of strong riffs, dynamic guitar solos, emotive hard rock vocals and a few anthems to boot.

A quick mention for Dorset grown up punks Hate Bomb who laid the bedrock for the evening by reminding us of the ills and injustices of society in no uncertain terms. Kanye West eat your heart out.

Roger Elliott