McCaffrey’s incredible drumming provides bassist Jason England with virtually unlimited scope for a big old dollop of four-stringed awesomeness, and England is definitely not one to pass up such an opportunity.

The combined efforts of the pair now have the walls shaking like a cheap garden shed in a hurricane, and the bottles behind the bar are slowly rearranging themselves on the shelves.

As the floorboards peel back under the onslaught, Cook’s fantastically jagged guitar sound cuts chunks out of the plasterwork, and I’m kind of waiting for the water pipes to fracture.

His vicious vocals are every bit as lethal as his guitar sound, ripping at the faces of the head-banging faithful, who are bent over the wedges trying to shake their brains out of their eye sockets. It doesn’t seem like a very good way to cool yourself down and I’m watching the high-tide mark creeping up the backs of the battle jackets, as their wearers convert minutes of mosh into gallons of sweat.

Did I mention how hot it is in here?

Highly appropriate for the prevailing weather conditions, “Left to Burn” is a ferocious nine-minute slice of prog metal. This song comes out of the traps like a rabid, syncopated greyhound chasing a lump of raw meat over barbed-wire fences, then drops into a few minutes of suspiciously melodic, sweeping guitar arpeggios, before gradually returning to its initial fury over the last couple of minutes.
It’s okay, we’re all still here… just slightly crispier around the edges.
I’ve only touched on two songs from a thirty-minute, eight-song set here, but you can take my word for it, the other six are every bit as mind-blowing. There is even one cover on the list, so if I say, “Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward” … name that tune?

“Lethonomia” is up next, a song that pretty much forces you to bang your head, even if you’ve only ever been to an afternoon tea dance before. “Alcoholic Alchemy” then ensures that the crowd is adequately lubricated as it predictably turns into a drinking game halfway through. Every time the band shouts,“Drink!”, that’s exactly what the crowd has to do!

Now totally hammered, the crowd is treated to a cover of Megadeth’s “Tornado of Souls”, then “Nuclear Entombment” and finally “The Hammer” – a fantastic series of songs with which to close out the set.

Although opening for Atom Smasher on this particular occasion, those roles could just as easily be reversed. Mechanized are a headline band in every sense of the word; slick, polished and exciting to watch – basically everything a metalhead could ever wish for.

For me, this gig is a double-header.

Mechanized are appearing on the V.I.P. stage at this years Bloodstock Open Air.

Steve Moyle’s primary mission is to heat his bass strings up to ludicrous temperatures using a small piece of plastic, while the fingers of his left hand fly up and down the fretboard at motorway speeds.

I would think that playing a bass guitar this fast must surely exceed anything the manufacturer would ever include in their guarantee, but needs must when the “Bolt” drives. Even while his fingers are receiving a speeding ticket, Moyle still manages to provide backing vocals… if “vocals” are what he is actually backing. I’m sure there must be a lyrics sheet somewhere.