MayhemA load of rancid food stalls and hippy head shops got slightly singed a couple of days before this date was due to hit town and the gig was moved from Camden to the Garage down the road. A lot of people seemed to think that this was because of the fire but that’s a bit unlikely. It did mean that it was going to be rammed tonight in a much smaller venue, well that’s unless loads of people were turning up to the wrong place.

It did not look like that though as Stahlsarg set up to play their debut English show, not bad for a bunch of Brits supporting the mighty Mayhem on their first UK outing! Not that they are all completely new to the scene though and they have certainly not come out of nowhere. As anyone in the know realises, this troop of inglorious bastards forged new allegiances after escaping the Eastern Front and there’s quite a bit of expectation on how they would match up to former glories after changing sides. Luckily it’s quickly evident that their first assault here is going to be a formidable one. Aesthetically it is all suitably grim with dry ice billowing like fog, cold blue lights and stark white spotlights. They very much live up to the name of their first number ‘Frostbitten Division’ and as far as arms are concerned the lethal spikes singer Metzger has clad on his have me backing up a bit not wanting to lose an eye or be impaled on them. Energy and might combine with warlike fervour, heads bounce in time to the music and the sound is thick and punishing. It’s apparent that quite a lot of people made sure to get here in time to see this lot and they have plenty of support, those down the front showing their appreciation and spurring the band on into ‘Black Valhalla.’ It’s slightly difficult getting to grips with brand new songs on a first listen live, but this stormy blitzkrieg is instantly compelling and leaves me hungering for more than the mere half hour the band have. All too quickly we are at last number ‘Damocles XII’ rumbling in with a solid groove and crunching on mid-paced and hellish with some slow doom like guitar riffs before flinging us into full on trench warfare, madness to the very death. The album can’t come quickly enough!

It’s a great result that the headliners are bringing the fine French mob that is Merrimack with them on this tour. I simply cannot remember if I have caught this lot abroad before and can’t remember if they have played on British soil but think not. One thing that does strike pretty much straight away is that frontman Vestal looks somewhat deranged or as I wrote (a complete and utter header) as he charged on to the stage and the band fired up their grim orthodox machinery. I really liked the last couple of albums and fell into the spell of ‘When The Stars Align’ quickly as the sinister angular guitars slithered out and the drums pummelled away without a shred of mercy. Atmospherically cold with the lighting changed to blood red this sucked the life out through a hate-filled vortex and the haranguing incessant vocals snarl and bite away. Getting away from the front with a cold pint I could witness the carnage and the crowd’s reaction to it. They seemed to be enjoying things and some seemed to know the band’s songs. ‘Arousing Wombs In Nine Angles Pleroma’ a mouthful of a title from latest album ‘The Acusal Mass’ sounds grimly foreboding and takes us on a nihilistic descent into the underworld, which is glorious to embrace especially when the song goes into meltdown at full speed. The band have things well practiced at moving mood and pace fluidly from an inferno of blazing heat and speed to doomed filled troughs and then biting back in with feral intensity. Perfect! It was a very welcome and quite a memorable performance and one again that ended too soon for me but with the ‘Gospel Of The Void’ calling it was time to make way for the headliners.

This is advertised as the only UK show for Mayhem in 2014, which is a bit of a bummer really as there are some festivals later this year that would be great to have them added to. Unless you live under a rock you will be well aware of the impending arrival of fifth studio album ‘Esoteric Warfare’ and it’s a belter but the band are not going to be delivering all new material tonight as the set list unveils just the one track from it. One never knows what to expect from the band, let’s be honest some shows in the past have been a complete shambles but thankfully tonight is not one of them, in fact it’s completely the opposite. The drums of Silvester Anfang roll out and everyone is keen to see what frontman Attila Csihar is going to be wearing. As they all take to the stage and go deep into the past we get acclimatised to just what is going on in front of us as Pagan Fears and Deathcrush are resurrected. Atilla is in tattered looking cape, gauntlet studded gloves and macabre face paint and looks completely macabre likes some sort of deconsecrated priest, hell he sounds just like one too croaking and rasping away. Necrobutcher is to his stage right, digging in on bass and on second guitar to his right C Alexander Hedger powerfully firing out riffs. Also on guitar is Teloch stage left, well we assume it is he as his face is hidden beneath a mask and how he sees what he is doing or even breaths is beyond me. Naturally Hellhammer is buried behind his kit, hidden but making up for lack of sight with thundering sound.

It is now packed and the crowd feels like it is seething behind me, the old anthems are too much for some to resist and bodies start tumbling over the barrier during ‘Buried By Time And Dust.’ Thrust back into gen pop it’s time for beer or fighting at the front, the beer seems more sensible at first and as I stand waiting the glorious craggy worship salute of ‘My Death’ sounds totally grim and gnarly with the vocals squeezed out like a very last death rattle. There is no time for politeness it is all about causing literal Mayhem, there is nothing controversial which no doubt upsets any black-packing hipsters who have wandered in looking for spectacle rather than music which they probably have not ever listened to in the first place. There is however ‘A Time To Die.’ but then it is the one taste of new material in the form of the albums single ‘Psywar’ it rumbles and churns from the front to the back and strikes with devastating force. The vocals really come into their own here, croaking screaming, hollering and talking in tongues as the music thuds and judders away with a frantic driving pace taking us into short sharp obliterating sonic madness. Everything played is fast and furious here and it adds to the fervour in the pit. The previous two albums get a brief look in with ‘Illuminate Eliminate’ and ‘Whore’ before we are thrust back for a riotous classic romp through the old stuff. ‘Chainsaw Gutsfuck’ disembowels ‘Freezing Moon’ is cold and delivered with an almost Shakespearean authority as Atilla lovingly caresses bones and skull. Things brood slowly with shivering riffs before rearing up and taking bloody bites. We are left in the messy punk laden filthy chaos of Carnage and Pure Fucking Armageddon to stumble out wondering what just hit us and hope the off licence is still open. Thankfully it is! Mayhem were everything that we could have hoped for tonight as is the new album. More on that next week!

(Review and photos © Pete Woods)