CarpWell there were no worries about this one being empty and there was already a queue at the doors well before they opened and the few remaining tickets were quickly snapped up. For once the first support band were playing to an already packed venue and Eastern Front seemed to relish it as they flung out their war torn anthems in a destructive rage. After an austere orchestral intro they unleash their hellish overtures and those at the front quickly get into the battle fury behind them as the venue literally seethes, something it doesn’t stop doing for the whole of tonight’s show. The drum battery is fearsome and Nagent’s screams bristle with hate. The show seems a bit brighter than normal although the lighting is kept down on the whole adding to the grim atmosphere as the leather clad band look like they have crawled out of the rubble after a shelling. There is more than a hint of pathos about songs such as Motherland, this is not a band revelling in the glory of war but one who convey the doomed futility of it all in their songs. This comes across amidst speedy bursts of black barbed violence and razor wire guitars and high pitched yells and gruffer barks from the singer. Things seem particularly potent tonight and although I have seen the band many times through various line-up changes this was probably the busiest show I have caught them at and no doubt this added to the intensity. They only had half an hour building up to the inevitable finale of Blood On Snow and it seemed to fly past in a short sharp fiery sermon of death. Hopefully 2014 should see the unveiling of some new material.

Onto the self-proclaimed punk filling in the black metal sandwich and it’s up to The Rotted to show they are no corpse-painted badger metal band’s bitches and even if they lose a few grimmer than thou members of the audience there are plenty to take their places as everything quickly kicks off  as they blast into ‘Surrounded By Skulls.’ Having only played a handful of shows (5) this year it felt like they were really letting off steam after having been somewhat pent up especially as they have not played their home town in some time. Singer Ben is certainly in a chirpy mood leading the anarchogram terrorists into a spot of quick fire comedy between songs and mentioning the bands previous origins and saluting the hugely missed London scene that revolved around the Devil’s Church all those years ago. Still they find time to crack heads and bruise us with songs like The Howling and Non Serviam from 2011 album (can we have a new one please) Ad Nauseum. These are as violent as one would expect and the singer charges around the stage making me want to see him in a stand off between Dick Lucas and Barney Greenway to see who is the fastest (Ben probably has age on his side here). He’s kind of like a bull being shot repeatedly with tranquillisers and enjoying it! If he doesn’t slow down though he’s going to forget what songs next, oops! New single Rotted Fucking Earth is a stormer and the band marry Discharge and Motorhead together with crusty finesse, standing back there’s even a bit of the old Sex Pistols sound in there. We get a brand new song which I wasn’t expecting at all called No One Is Innocent. Apparently they played it last night at Eindhoven Metal Meet after following on from In Solitude who apparently left the stage with the singer in tears! Well nothing emo about this at all and it’s a storming, sledgehammer, battering ram of a number, which really gives drummer Nate a chance to have a right old work out. Apathy In The UK has great grind style vocals and full on chugging beats and things bomb along until Nothin’ But A Nosebleed finishes off a blistering and dizzying set. The Rotted knobs did good. Can I fall over now please?

I guess any of those grim “no fun in black metal” notions have to be wiped off your face when it comes to Carpathian Forest. They are a hoot you cannot deny that even when they are singing about the gloomiest of subjects possible. Tonight even though they have for various reasons not graced us for some time (2005 looking at my past live reviews) it’s like they never went away and the crowd is well up for reacting off them and carnage ensues straight away. The band have completely gone to town on the corpse-paint but all eyes are naturally drawn to Nattefrost who is wearing a monks habit (and it’s best not to ask what he was wearing under it) and waving around an inverted cross with runic designs on it like a demented madman. Musically from the opening foul sermon things were suitably Frostbitten and did not stand still for a second.  I had a pre-gig crash course of reacquainting myself with several albums prior to the show castigating myself for how long since I had played them and was pleased to hear that out of what I wanted them to play ‘Suicide Song’  was quick to be unsheathed. No chance of anyone topping themselves during this but getting beaten to death down the front was a possibility.

The gloomy sax and depressive strains of some of the songs on the albums were not something the band do live, they just go for the throat and punish with their fastest examples of Norske Svart punk. After suffering plenty of bruises it was best to go and witness things from the side of the stage as they were all lined up Blood Pervertor closest and Vrangsinn over the other side of the stage as people tried to clamber on it and dive before being unceremoniously taken round the back for a ticking off. Morbid Fascination Of Death had the gnarly punk laden tumult at its grimiest and foulest. The band seemed to be bombing through things with little in the way of pauses. Again hopefully there is some new material in the works but tonight it was all about the old stuff from the short sharp stabbing in the face of ‘Knokkelmann’ to the charmingly entitled Shut Up There Is No Excuse To Live’ and their self-titled early number going right back to 1992. There was even a burst of harmonica somewhere amidst it all but the whole set was flying by in a blur.

One respite came in the form of the theme from the Omen (would have loved Nekromantik) before we were whipped off into an encore of Black Shining Leather and the excellent ‘He’s Turning Blue.’ It was a riotous performance in more ways than one and it really was a case of staggering out into the air and falling over. For some strange reason though a load of her madge’s officers of law and order seemed to have other ideas about the party continuing in the street and were paying the venue lots of attention. Any hopes of church burning seemed off the menu and before getting told “You’re all the same the lot of you, with your long hair and faggot clothes. Drugs, sex, every sort of filth,” it seemed more than wise to slink off and catch the bus out of town sharpish.

(Review and photos © Pete Woods)