Abu Dhabi Meets Derby
Fresh from a night with Slash’s wailing solos in London, I end up at the Assembly Rooms in Derby late enough to walk in as Illuminatus are playing. The main stage is still quite empty and the crowd are only packed in to the first few rows. Whilst the bar may seem more crowded, the people there are going to miss out on an ear-searing, aural assault of true, penetrating, heavy metal.
Nowadays, metal seems to have lost its soul, its energy and its passion. In ten years we’ve gone from two-minute guitar solos to solo-less two minute songs. Introducing Illuminatus, formed in 1996 in the Middle Eastern city of Abu Dhabi. With their influences ranging from Nine Inch Nails to Marilyn Manson – they produce a sound that manage to raise a middle finger to modern, mainstream metal and remind you how it should be done.
Whilst most people outside the room have never even heard of Illuminatus – it doesn’t matter. With their awesome, axe work that leaves a frenzied crowd stunned as their set ends you realise that if your Friday afternoon was filled with this every day, your weekends would start on a much better note.