LONDON, Ontario - No metal mercy was expected from Lamb of God last night.

None was needed as the U.S. metal band blitzed the RBC Theatre at the John Labatt Centre with about 2,000 fans thrashing and shouting from the start.

"For those of you who do not know, we are Lamb of God from . . . Richmond, Virginia," giant-sized and hurricane-voiced frontman D. Randall Blythe announced in a brief pause in the early metal mayhem.

The fans chanted "Lamb of God, Lamb of God" as the arena darkened before their heroes hit the stage. They chanted it about 80 minutes later as the band went off before the encore. The fans knew it was LOG up there.

The band and the fans had plenty of energy for Laid to Rest, a huge singalong, the punkish Contractor and finally for the encore finale, Black Label.

"Do you like fast music?" Blythe asked late in the night. Almost everything was fast or faster as each precise metal blitz built on the previous song's thrash and speedburn.

LOG's flock was running along with every precise riff.

LOG's 2009 album Wrath provided much of the set list. Early on, though, LOG reached back for Walk with Me in Hell from 2006's Sacrament.

Lamb of God and its fans are one flock. Nobody would call Blythe a shepherd, but he has the wildman prophet stance ready -- arms uplifted, voice thundering up to the gods -- for the times he needs to loom over a riser or monitor.

Blythe also cares about LOG's fans. He gave shout-outs to London metal band Thine Eyes Bleed and saluted a young man in a wheelchair who had been part of the crazy "wall of death" action on the main floor.

He also connected the dots with last night's openers, Antarctica-based GWAR.

About 10 years ago, LOG had just changed its name from Burn the Priest. Only "big brothers" GWAR gave LOG a shot. "They took a chance on us. They took us out on the road," Blythe said.

Last night, GWAR's reward was an extra-long set of spoof metal. GWAR frontman Oderus Urungus and costumed crew are extreme satire metal clowns and provided plenty of stupid, disgusting fun. One repeated gag -- the right word, surely -- had GWAR's on-stage costumed victims spurting pinkish gushers of "blood." Slasher spoofs, anybody? The fans near the stage were drenched in GWAR's drip.

Surely, GWAR must know Alice Cooper only needed one guillotine.

band will never be masters of the metal universe. Not enough good riffs, even after 25 years.

But. GWAR's crazed members are masters of extreme metal satire. Abortion. Violence. Logos. They're all somewhere in GWAR's line of fire.

The main set thundered along with such GWAR hits as Saddam A Go-Go from the 1990s and 2009's Where is Zog?

After closing the main set with the title track of their new offering, Lust in Space, our heroes returned for more mayhem.

There was more pink liquid to spray on the fans. Much of it emanated from a faux representation of a decapitated U.S. President Barack Obama. The man was just trying to give GWAR a medal for saving the planet and Oderus rips his head off.

In the political fair play department, it should be noted that former president George W. Bush was the target of many an act playing the downtown London arena. Whenever you hear Hail to the Chief, a mock is in the offing.

Off-stage, Oderus aka Dave Brockie has a part-time job as the only sign of intelligent life on U.S. cable network Fox News' Red Eye. The faux Obama attack plays well there, even if whoever was playing the president showed an ability to stage on his feet long after his head was removed.

On-stage, there is a member of the crew who has the worst job in rock. This poor soul wears little more than a mask and a thong/jockstrap. He spends a lot of time with his back to the audience, bending over to pick up the spoils of GWAR.

Without making too many excuses for GWAR's outrageous brand of metal mirth, there is a stage prop stuck on Oderus that all the way back to that ancient Greek metal comedy act,Aristophanes.

The giant faux phallus attached to the frontman's costume is a joke device that has old, old ancestors.

Spewing faux whatever on the audience from the device is a disgusting GWAR innovation. "We killed . . . literally killed," as the band likes to say.

One warning. GWAR isn't built for life in the 75-minute set trenches as a gag reflex machine. There is a reason sitcoms last 22 minutes.

Lamb of God has also been sharing the stage with Metallica, something it's happy to talk about with the U.S. media.

"Metallica tour on a week on-week off scenario. That setup provides us the opportunity to fill in our schedule with our own dates," LOF bassist John Campbell sayst told a U.S. newspaper.

"This experience of touring with Metallica has been nothing short of amazing. Every night, we are being given the opportunity to play huge arenas that are slammed full of people. We are getting exposed to all kinds of people that wouldn't have known us otherwise.

"We looked up to Metallica a long time ago when we started. They were a huge influence upon us and now we are getting to travel the world with them."

The 2004 album Ashes of the Wake debuted at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. Sacrament doubled the sales of that and reached No. 8 on the same chart during its first week of release in 2006. Wrath reached No. 2 during its first week.