Nine months ago Havoc Events returned from a decade long break with a night of heavy metal at The Fermain Tavern. Now, after a few other shows, they are back with another night of the heavy stuff featuring Byzanthian Neckbeard, Granite Wolf, Burning At Both Ends and From Darkness.

After a storming set rounding of the Chaos festival in June From Darkness came out of the gates with meaning once again with a more focussed sound and approached combining

elements of classic thrash with modern American metal and even a few hints of the heavier end of nu-metal.

Being early in the night the audience weren’t really going for it but were certainly attentive throughout and by the end a few attempted to get a pit started while the band did their best to push the energy up.

While not quite up to the level of their performance at Chaos and maybe lacking a little in sonic diversity, From Darkness once again showed they they have the potential to be a great modern metal act.

By their own admission Burning At Both Ends were something of an odd one out on the line up with a far lighter sound than the other bands but it was clear as they began that they had added a metallic edge to their take on pop punk for the evening.

Despite the switch of sounds they kept a good number of From Darkness’ audience engaged while bringing in some of their own fans and the edgier version of their sound, along with some new songs, led to one of the best sets I’ve seen from them in some time.

A few of the newer songs certainly caught the attention, highlighted by Our Own (TMD) and set closer One Way Traffic, while FAD Island and Leave These Thoughts from Hail Apathy were stand outs of the more well known tracks.

Granite Wolf have always been a band you can rely upon to deliver a fun and energetic performance packed with some choice riffs and once they delivered on that with frontman Tom ‘Shinfo’ Domaille leading the charge.

Tonight though they added something more with a selection of new songs added to their set that came on like an absolute onslaught highlighted by one called Entitlement that packed in everything that has always made them so enjoyable and cranked it up even further.

Booze Hound was a more well known highlight and, while they got a good reaction, it left me wanting to be able to listen to it again so I hope they find the time and funds to get some of these tracks recorded.

Much like From Darkness, Byzanthian Neckbeard were another band who made quite an impression at Chaos and they looked to do the same here sounding huge despite, as only a three piece, being the smallest band of the night.

Again playing through a raft of new material they gave us a taste of what to expect from their much anticipated new album, and that is slow, heavy, no frills doom metal drawing on hints of thrash, black and groove to create a tremendous, ungodly, cacophony.

While maybe not quite as smooth as some of their performances it was still tighter than most bands could hope for and in this environment the slightly more relaxed feel was spot on and, with Doppleganger from their debut album From The Clutches Of Oblivion, they closed another Havoc Events night on a crushingly heavy high.

You can see more of my photos of the show on the BBC Music Introducing In The Channel Islands Facebook page by clicking here and below is a highlight video by the Havoc Events team…