It's only the 2
nd month of the year but already multiple amazing tours have happened but nothing to live up to the monstrous European tour of Black Metal legends
BEHEMOTH and
CRADLE OF FILTH with
SVARTTJERN, INQUISITION and
IN SOLITUDE joining them. For
BEHEMOTH it has been their first UK performance since 2012 and for
CRADLE OF FILTH it has been even longer so both bands had a huge gathering of long waiting fans which were dying to see the metal icons. If you want to be covered head to toe in black and heavy black eye liner then this tour is where you should be.
First on the stage is true Norwegian Black Metal group SVARTTJERN who blitz the audience with their sheer dark sound and astonishingly brutal lyrics. The corpse paint smeared the horror tainted band from Oslo, Norway that graced the stage at exactly 5:30pm, bringing with them the cold eerie atmosphere of the Norse frostiness, chilling anguish with a sheer of terror in their music. Performing songs such as ''Code Human'' they really blew the audience away, seething an energetic blitzkrieg of old school tainted Black Metal thunder just as the early 90's dictated, and of course with lots of fury to back it up. Though SVARTTJERN's set of songs was hard to live up, yet right after their departure from the stage, it was easily beaten by Black Metal duo demons of the American / Colombian INQUISITION.
Setlist:
1. Ultimatum Necrophilia
2. Upon Human Ending
3. Code Human
INQUISITION had the crowd chanting before they even approached the stage. Both members Dagon (guitar/vocals) and Incubus (Drums) both, as always with these bands, smeared in corpse paint took over the large stage at the venue and gave a show so good it would make a GORGOROTH show look boring with its flashing stage show lights and Dagon's hypnotizing wind mills whilst performing some of the heaviest riffs of all time, achieving such might that not all Black Metal bands could muster. It is all about the pyrotechnics, and how it is managed. Through their show, INQUISITION played tracks from all releases including ''Force Of The Floating Tomb'', ''Astral Path To Supreme Majesties'' and ''Infinite Interstellar Genocide'' which got the crowd moshing. Possibly one of the vigorous shows of the evening, just enough heart burning energy to exploit before the next show.
Setlist:1. Force Of The Floating Tomb
2. Nefarious Dismal Orations
3. Command Of The Dark Crown
4. Crush The Jewish Prophet
5. Astral Path to Supreme Majesties
6. Infinite Interstellar Genocide
Where INQUISITION had pushed their performance as hard as it could go there was no chance the occult Metal group IN SOLITUDE could hit the bar, though they tried hard enough. The Forum's stage was filled with burning incense strapped to amps and drums with stage smoke filling the room for the band but sadly the heavily dosed band only impressed merely half the audience. IN SOLITUDE put on a good show with their heavy Swedish sound performing their newest track ''Sister'' with a misty smoke screen surrounding them but also playing the much heavier older tracks as Hornper's thick Swedish accent just made the performance better along with Niklas Lindstrom swinging his guitar whilst performing the band's riffs. It could have been a much better performance, yet still IN SOLITUDE is a band more than worthy to take that stage, even if not apart, but still in manner that it would be enjoyed to some extent.
Setlist:1. Death Knows Where
2. Lavender
3. A Buried Sun
4. Horses In The Ground
5. Sister
6. Witches Sabbath
Now was the time for the penultimate band of the night, which was heavily anticipated by its cult following and the fact they had not played their home country in years. Black Metal icons CRADLE OF FILTH finally entered the stage with eerie background noise and various haunting images projected on a screen behind the ghoulish band. Dani Filth led the band through the concert with his lows and extremely scary highs playing classics such as ''Nymphetamine (Fix)'', ''Her Ghost In The Fog'' and ''Cthulu Dawn'' whilst prancing all over the haunting stage set up. CRADLE OF FILTH are known to put on a shocking show where ever they perform and every member of the band contributed to that factor.
Setlist:1. Cthulhu Dawn
2. A Dream Of Wolves In The Snow
3. Summer Dying Fast
4. The Principal Of Evil Made Flesh
5. Beneath The Howling Stars
6. For Your Vulgar Delection
7. Haunted Shores
8. Nymphetamine (Fix)
9. Born In A Burial Gown
10. Cruelty Brought Thee Orchids
11. Her Ghost In The Fog
12. Funeral In Carpathia
For the next band, the audience was wild before the band even came on and even wilder when their back drop was put onto the stage knowing that in a matter of time Black Metal legends BEHEMOTH will be playing on stage in front of them, assuming their vehement posture to them and afterwards to whoever will be attending their tour. The underworld came for a visit, and it was bloody. Opening up with new track from the highly rated album ''The Satanist'' the band blasted everyone away with ''Blow Your Trumpet's Gabriel'' which certainly got the circle pits going around the venue, the band played at least one track from every album created which gave fans a taste of their extremist parts of their discography with songs such as ''Demigod'', ''Ov Fire And The Void'' and ''At The Left Hand Ov God''. Nergal's vocals were as best as they could be and really stood out when performing songs from the new album and Inferno proved how he is one of the best drummers in Black Metal when performing grind core influenced ''Slaves Shall Serve''.
Setlist:1. Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel
2. Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
3. Conquer All
4. Decade Of Therion
5. As Above So Below
6. Slaves Shall Serve
7. Christians To The Lions
8. Driven By The Five Winged Star
9. The Satanist
10. Ov Fire And The Void
11. Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
12. Furor Divinus
13. At The Left Hand Ov God
14. Chant For Eschaton 2000
15. O Father O Satan O Sun
Overall the show was perfect and a great showing of how bands to can work together to put on an amazing line up even in one super large show. All the bands had something special about them and all should be listened to immediately,
BEHEMOTH were easily the best of the night but all bands have the special touch.
*Photos of BEHEMOTH and CRADLE OF FILTH are courtesy of Pete Woods (Ave Noctum)
