RATING: 9 out of 10.
VERDICT: Patton and company take scalps in London.

Dalek are a hip-hop outfit from Newark, New Jersey. If you have ever seen any hip-hop outfit live, you know exactly what it sounded like. If you haven’t heard live hip-hop, count yourself lucky. Two blokes at the back spin records and push buttons that trigger pre-recorded sounds while a third bloke stands at the front shouting monotonously. The bar fills up.

What is it with Mike Patton and uniforms? The last time he was here he was dressed as a member of the LAPD. Tonight he is again dressed as some law enforcement officer or other, complete with nightstick. Only this time the rest of the band have joined him, with guitarist Duane Denison going one better than the others by accessorising his ensemble with shorts and socks pulled up to his knees. He looks like a cross between a Scout Leader and the world’s most dangerous paedophile (Er?). It is a truly unsettling sight. Patton adds to the terror by singing the set’s opener "God Loves A Coward" through a voice-distorting gas mask, looking like an even more demented version of Blue Velvet’s Frank Booth.

Live, Tomahawk sound exactly how you would expect a band featuring former members of Faith No More, The Jesus Lizard, Helmet and the Melvins to sound. The death knell of nu metal is soundly rung as Patton and his latest bunch of accomplices run through a set that makes the likes of Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Lostprophets, Alien Ant Farm et al sound like the boy bands of rock that they are. Patton has once again raised the bar. Of all the current metal acts having any kind of commercial success, only System Of A Down come close to touching the hem of Tomahawk’s musical garment (Dodgy metaphors? We got ’em.) The sound is a cinematic mix of avant-garde death metal, jazz and swamp-rock. While most of tonight’s songs are taken from the band’s incredible debut album, additional highlights include an unbelievable cover of Roxy Music’s "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" and an equally stunning take on Chet Baker’s timeless "Angel Eyes".

As if the music wasn’t thrilling enough, additional tension is added to the set by Patton continuously berating and goading the Astoria’s notorious security staff throughout the show. The question "Did anybody have any trouble getting in to the show tonight?" is greeted with appreciative cheers and applause before Patton explains his own difficulties in gaining access to the venue. Halfway through the set he leans in to the pit and lightly slaps several of the bouncers around the head with what can only be described as a "spanker", before inviting one of them on stage for some more humiliating punishment: "Hey, teabag. Don’t you eyeball me, boy. Get up here and take it like a man." The guard sensibly declines but gets his ass slapped anyway. Things come to a head during the encore. The band finally let the press photographers into the pit for the first time. The aforementioned "Angel Eyes" is swiftly followed by "Laredo", at which point Patton appears to whip his dick out of his pants and proceeds to piss all over the bouncers and photographers. It is at once both the funniest and scariest moment in rock. The fact that such a remarkable incident fails to overshadow the music that precedes it tells you all you need to know about Tomahawk.