My attempt to arrive for this gig at the insanely early door time of 6.15 was thwarted by the TransPennine traffic bedlam of a Thursday evening rush hour. I was keen to see the openers Greek melodic death metal act Warhammer and in the end I arrived just as they were in the middle of their last song but from what I heard I was impressed, a confident bunch of musicians with an accomplished style, as I headed off to the bar to get a drink before US deathrash groove maniacs Almost Dead hit the stage in about fifteen minutes.

Confidence abounded during Almost Dead’s set, a swaggering macho bravado that manifest in their chug riddled riffs saturating their tunes in that head nodding catchiness that generally people appreciate. Announcing that ‘we’re Almost Dead, and so are you’ was the touch paper to ignite their set as the numbers in the crowd were swelling considerably by now, seeing as it was past 7pm and people had had their tea/dinner/snack (delete as appropriate).

The limited amount of room on stage meant movement was considered by the vocalist who dodged about to engage with the crowd on all fronts, though he did try a little too hard if truth be told, but the audience enjoyed his charisma. With the band members tucked away in small hollows on the stage, it was down to said vocalist to muster up the energy, which he did with assurance as each tune rattled by with chunky riffing and a machismo you might hear on a Pantera release or early Machine Head.

Quite a lot of their tracks sounded very similar which isn’t to detract from the appreciation the gathered throng had for the act, cheering between songs as I headed to the back and have a look at some merch, of which there were loads to such an extent that each band had a wall of shirts and other paraphernalia.

Beer number two was greeted with the arrival of Swedish blackened death metallers Diabolical who I was particularly looking forward to, above and beyond the two main acts. The step up created by the Swedes was exponential as they dowsed the stage in ridiculous amounts of smoke and strode on stage like demons in black. Their intensity and sheer atmospheric violence were colossal from the moment they started. Every musician was afforded a great mix in the sound as they aired ‘Failure’ from their last album ‘Eclipse’ after a brief chat about who they were and where they were from.

The increase in density was exceptional, baring their deathly credentials with an unmitigated assault as ‘The Fire Within’ continued their onslaught. Telling us it has taken five years to get here was greeted with a cheer as the temperature in the venue had increased substantially, now that most people had arrived. What Diabolical delivered was epic on all fronts, obsidian wrath blended with atmospheric styling as their use of a clean monastic vocal style was brilliant, lifting the songs stratospherically into realms I’ve not heard for some time.

I believe they played ‘Inception’, but apologies if I’m wrong, as their momentum never dulled, capitalising on the fervour of the crowd they concluded their short but blistering set with accomplished composure and vigour, as I headed off to go buy their last couple of albums, which were decently priced I might add.

Austrian act Belphegor never disappoint, the band is the epitome of the hybrid black and death metal genres as I found a decent spot down the right side to watch the stage hands decorate the stage with an array of props that set the scene for the Armageddon they unleashed.

Smoke was less for the band thankfully meaning you could see their faces instead of silhouettes as they blasted into ‘Swinefever’ with nihilistic fury, as it really felt like they were the headline band. Savagery and pernicious guitar work married up with the rabid vocals as ‘The Devil’s Son’ followed the opener. Utilising bridging pieces is nothing new, but the dramatic tension created made sure everyone was paying attention as their monstrous power inflicted grievous sonic harm.

Every song was greeted with roars of approval as ‘Hell’s Ambassador’ expanded their repertoire with plenty of ebbs and flow, offering battering phases alongside more subtle moments as ‘Stigma Diabolicum’ set about its destructive power prior to which vocalist Helmouth set a skull on fire raising it towards the crowd whilst we glared at the mass of inverted crosses that festooned the stage both front and back.

Placing said ignited skull on the floor allowed the set to continue as I noted that some knobhead had planted himself in front of the stage where he wasn’t supposed to be, though the band tended to ignore him. ‘Conjuring The Dead’ had an intro piece before assailing the crowd with its fury the band stalked the stage like predators, engaging with the crowd, and the knobhead sometimes, as the tune inflicted its deathly blackened vitriol and blended it with ‘Pactum in Aeternum’ to create a sort of medley.

There were a couple of bowls on pedestals at the front of the stage and I wondered whether they were going to set them ablaze at some point, and just as I thought that they promptly did as the band dropped the pace a notch.

The stage left guitarist was acting demented, placing himself in strange positions, even standing right in front of my friend and headbanging like his life depended on it as they tore into ‘Baphomet’ and linked it brilliantly with ‘Gasmask Terror’ and ensured that everyone who watched Belphegor know that Batsuhka had a mammoth task to overshadow the Austrians.

The dispute surrounding which guy from the original Batushka has the rights to the band name means there are two incarnations of the band, aside of the piss take ones dotted around the globe, as this version playing tonight was Барфоломей’s Batushka and not Христофор’s.

The former has a more prolific release rate it has to be said, and whichever one you prefer each offers its own self-styled atmospheric black metal. They were due on at 10pm, and so far, everything ran virtually to time, only to be foiled by the headliners because it took an age to set the up the insane amount of stage props, that eventually made the stage look like they were prepping for the Antiques Roadshow.

That being said they were only ten minutes overdue and floated on stage, shrouded in cloaks with their faces obscured. There were three backing vocalists at the back where the drum kit would normally be, which meant positioning the kit stage left at the back with drummer facing away from us which was utterly bizarre to which the crowd were singing “you’re facing the wrong way”. As vocalist Барфоломей slowly marched on stage he proceeded to light the myriad of candles as the crowd started to sing happy birthday and they hadn’t even played a song yet, meaning my patience was wearing thin.

As an ambient intro piece finally completed the opener kicked in as said vocalist was wafting smoke around from a thurible. Metal wise the band ripped into the crowd, as people screamed Satan at the top of their lungs and the backing vocalists did a sound job creating a decent atmosphere. However, they lacked impact, often droning in nature, their set seemed to blend the song into each other with no differentiation that affected the momentum, power and drive of the performance, to such an extent many people were leaving, which surprised me.

When they got the atmospherics and black metal nuanced balanced, they were exceptional, but it was too disparate and anti-climactic to make me think they had any chance of upstaging Belphegor. With the innumerable stage props, including his makeshift prayer book, they definitely had the stage theatrics down brilliantly but they needed to work on how the set flows, musically I love this style of material, but it fell flat, proved by the dwindling numbers in the audience as I decided to cut my losses and head home after playing out on a school night (yes I work in a school).

With a line up spanning five different countries this was a great night of varied extreme metal but early door times mid-week impacted crowd numbers early on and if truth be told I would have been happy with the triple billing of Batushka, Belphegor and Diabolical, but everyone sure got their money’s worth tonight.

Review: Martin Harris

Photos: Andy Pountney