Perhaps it’s the war injuries that explain the subdued mood in the Slipknot camp tonight. Far from the madness and mayhem that’s seemingly followed them around in the past, today is a more mature Slipknot, most of the band happy keeping to themselves and maintain a dignified, mellow vibe before show time.

So we go and check out Children Of Bodom, who are clearly relishing the opportunity to play on home soil. But it’s enough to get 8,000 fists punching the air in unison, particularly impressive considering there was hardly anyone in the venue minutes before they took to the stage, but shouldn’t really be a surprise having seen the kings of shred scoring column inches in the national broadsheets. We have no idea what frontman Alexi Laiho is saying between songs, but it doesn’t take a master of linguistics to figure they’re happy to be home. They are notable by their absence in the backstage area throughout the night, possibly due to the sheer number of friends and family paying them a rare visit.

But fuck that. We’ve been told the Finnish tradition is to attempt to make your liver explode through booze intake on a regular basis, and we’re determined to fit in with the locals, so we pop into Machine Head’s dressing room because we know they won’t let the team down. We’re handed the setlist as we knock on the door. Shit, we’ve seen this tracklisting before. As awesome as it is we can’t help but feel cheated that we haven’t had a full two-hour headlining set yet. You’ve released your best album in years, Robb! What the fuck?!

“This is our first support slot since 1994 with Slayer,” he protests. “It’s cool, we love headlining but what’s also great is the challenge of playing to new people, winning fans over and introducing yourselves to new metal heads who for whatever reason might not have been into it before.”

Isn’t it a little demeaning to play support to a band you’re at least on an equal footing with in terms of successors to the metal crown?

“I know a ton of our fans have come to these shows and they haven’t necessarily been into Slipknot but have stayed to watch them and have been like, ‘Holy fuck, dude! They’re fucking killer!’ not realising how heavy they are. They’re like fucking death metal, man! You get that crossover and it benefits both bands. So with this album it’s been cool that people actually want to take us out with them for the first time in 10 years. And we’re main support to Metallica for six months. When I tell people that it just sounds like some sort of joke we would have made up five years ago!”

But you’ve still got a year to go on The Blackening campaign. What after that?

Find out in our next part!