The Defenders of the Faith juggernaut rolls into Brixton Academy. For those that bang your head, we salute you!

Never ones to do things by halves, we at the ‘Hammer really had to step up to the plate for Defenders Of The Faith II after last year’s Defenders show saw Opeth amaze and astound and Devildriver (who named their new album on Friday) establish themselves as one of the brightest lights in modern metal. That’ll be why we brought you a show including a band with a swelling reputation Stateside dipping their toes in UK water for the first time, the riff masters of metalcore, the most theatrical stage show in our universe and the hottest metal band in the world – all in one night, no less. Yeah, just buy us a beer next time you see us.

First up, Five Finger Death Punch. To open a bill at 6.45 isn’t the easiest of tasks but by god, ‘Death Punch kick things off in style. Have to say, the band’s album is a hit and miss affair but live these boys are pretty formidable. Unprompted circle pits within ten minutes of hitting the stage? You’ve got to be impressed by that and you really should check this show out next time it rolls through your town.

Unearth are on fire, the surprise package of the night if yLamou will. That they come super close to stealing the night with some of the finest bands in metal on after them tells you all you need to know. They have riffs in abundance and more energy than 50 cans of Relentless. We make a bet on how many times Trevor will bellow “OH!” before going into one of the band’s grooving beatdowns. I say more than ten, he manages eight and I lose but still forgive him on account of his band being freakin’ awesome tonight!

Dimmu Borgir suffer from a case of the sound gremlins but still overcome such problems. Literally every song is greeted with a fucking huge roar from the throng and the light show is insane. Their dark and dense live show brings a whole different (and very welcome) vibe to the evening and even coming after Unearth’s power-punching set, Dimmu emerge triumphant. You wouldn’t expect anything less.

If you’ve been following the Metal Hammer Twitter on the road with Defenders Of The Faith, you’ll know Lamb Of God have been renamed Lamb Of Oh-my-fucking-God. It’s really, REALLY easy to say why. When you can launch out this many outrageously good tunes (Hourglass, Laid To Rest & Walk With Me In Hell as an opening three songs kind of makes the point) with the level of sheer power that LOG do, it’s truly jaw-dropping. The in-form band in world metal inside Brixton Academy and laying to waste to all who stand before them is the best feeling in the world. No band can get close to touching LOG right now and that’s the facts, Jack.

The group of metal-heads in front of us summarise the night perfectly during a ferocious sprint through ‘Contractor’. Absolutely plastered, the group (going absolutely fucking mental) all scream “guaran-fucking-teed!” straight into each others faces and follow it up by creasing up laughing and a round of high-fives. It’s for reasons like this that metal rules and that we’re delighted to put on a show as fookin’ stunning as tonight has been for everyone in attendance.

We salute you all for Defending The Faith and we’ll see you all again next year!