The Kerrang! Tour 2016, review: Two very diverse strands of rock meet

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes were raw but tight, while Sum 41 were perky pop-punk personified, says John Aizlewood

An emaciated fireball: Sum 41's Deryck Whibley

Burak Cingi/Redferns

John Aizlewood22 February 2016

If Kerrang! was once the bible of hardcore heavy metal, it’s now a magazine with a broader congregation and the 2016 version of its ever-popular tour paid homage to two very diverse strands of rock.

Led by an exceedingly sweary, possibly genuinely confrontational (“I’ll come down there and bash your face in”) tiny ball of ginger trouble, the fast, furious and frenetic Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes were raw but tight. Carter delivered their sole ballad, Beautiful Death, stood in the centre of the crowd but the purple-faced I Hate You was the real expression of their core values.

In contrast, Canadian headliners Sum 41 were perky pop-punk personified. Deryck Whibley (formerly Paris Hilton’s beau and Mr Avril Lavigne), whose alcohol addiction caused kidney and liver organ failure last year, was an emaciated fireball. He took gleeful potshots at Donald Trump but his band took no chances and, to the audience’s delight, plumped for a greatest hits set.

This was a celebration rather than an examination, but despite the irresistible Fat Lip and Handle This, the formula struggled to sustain a 100-minute set, while a cover of Queen’s We Will Rock You suggested ideas are not their strong point. When they pushed themselves and tinkered with the formula on the cascading Skumfuk and the gigantic We’re All To Blame, they were a more thrilling, less predictable proposition entirely.