TYTAN / KEV RIDDLES’ BAPHOMET (Live)

at Trillians, Newcastle, U.K., February 14, 2025

It’s Valentine’s Day and while some share a candlelit dinner with wine and roses staring dreamily into each other’s eyes, a hardy few headed towards the depths of Trillians in Newcastle for an evening of bombastic, traditional no-nonsense British Metal in the presence of Kev Riddles’ Baphomet and Tytan.

Kev Riddles of course is a founder member of the legendary Angel Witch, whose debut album led the charge of NWOBHM through the early 80s before he left to form Tytan.

Tonight was a celebration of both bands kicking of first with Kev Riddles’ Baphomet who delivered an eight song set drawing heavily on that stone cold classic Angel Witch album with “Sweet Danger”, a brutally heavy “Gorgon” and a supremely classy “White Witch”.

With “Baphomet” from the Metal For Muthas compilation and a surprise of “They Wouldn’t Dare” from their 2004 EP kept those long term metalheads more than happy before the closing “Angel Witch” brought the short and sweet set to an anthemic sing-along close.

Following the departure of pretty much the whole band, Riddles spent some time reassembling both bands with current Overdrive lead singer, Mark Hale jumping on board along with lead guitarist Ian Nash formerly of Steve Grimmett’s Grim Reaper with Tyrant drummer Mark Walker filling the vacant drum stool. Together they make one formidable band. Except, they make two. Both Kev Riddles Baphomet and Tytan share the same band members save for the addition to Tytan of keyboardist Andy Thompson who adds swathes of colour to their metallic sound.

Tytan’s set was built around that classic debut release, Rough Justice kicking off with “Money For Love” replete with its seriously infectious chorus with a biting “Cold Bitch” snapping hard on its heels.

“Fight The Fight” was the sole contribution from Justice Served before returning to the first album for “Don’t Play Their Way”.

Next up was a serious treat for those in the crowd as Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist, Robb Weir, climbed up on stage for a romp through “Suzie Smiled” and a jam to “Tush” featuring some mean duelling between Weir and Nash while Riddles looked on enjoying the moment. Great stuff.

“Far Side Of Destiny” and “The Watcher” punched hard and low while Hale excelled on a majestic “Blind Men and Fools” before the NWOBHM pile driver of “The Ballad Of Edward Case” brought the show to an energetic close.

Author

Mick Burgess
Mick is a reviewer and photographer here at Metal Express Radio, based in the North-East of England. He first fell in love with music after hearing Jeff Wayne's spectacular The War of the Worlds in the cold winter of 1978. Then in the summer of '79 he discovered a copy of Kiss Alive II amongst his sister’s record collection, which literally blew him away! He then quickly found Van Halen I and Rainbow's Down To Earth, and he was well on the way to being rescued from Top 40 radio hell! Over the ensuing years, he's enjoyed the Classic Rock music of Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, and Deep Purple; the AOR of Journey and Foreigner; the Pomp of Styx and Kansas; the Progressive Metal of Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, and Symphony X; the Goth Metal of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Epica, and a whole host of other great bands that are too numerous to mention. When he's not listening to music, he watches Sunderland lose more football (soccer) matches than they win, and occasionally, if he has to, he goes to work as a property lawyer.
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