LIVE REVIEW: Behemoth @ O2 Brixton Academy, London
Black metal is one of the quintessentially underground sub-genres of metal, but you wouldn’t know it from the crowd queuing outside London’s O2 Brixton Academy on a warm spring Saturday afternoon. One of the capital’s largest music venues is about to host what may well be the biggest black metal concert to be staged in this country, in a lineup of BEHEMOTH, SATYRICON and ROTTING CHRIST. A testament to how far the genre and extreme music in general has come.
First up on the bill are Greek veterans ROTTING CHRIST who come out while long queues still snake around the block. However, this does not deter them from unleashing the full strength of their epic brand of black metal, infused with gothic metal and the folkloric melodies of the Eastern Orthodox world. The setlist leans heavily into 2013’s Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy and the newer history of the band, but finds room for two old-school detours through the anthemic Non Serviam and the delightfully thrashy Societas Satanas. Frontman Sakis Tolis is masterful at hyping the crowd up through his barked shouts and calls for people to jump and shout ‘Hey’ with horns aloft. The massive Grandis Spiritus Diavolos closes a forty-minute set that is unflashy but extremely effective. ROTTING CHRIST seize the big stage and are sure to have impressed old fans and new converts alike.
Rating: 8/10
A black metal show of grand scales would not be complete without representation from Norway. Tonight, it fittingly comes from a band who was among those who first planted the seeds and kept them watered over the years, contributing to its rising stature. Returning to the UK for their first non-festival show in eight years, SATYRICON are jubilantly received by the masses. Satyr, Frost and their crew of backing musicians go back to basics with three tremolo-picked power chords and the truth, via bona fide hits of black-n-roll such as Now, Diabolical and Black Crow On A Tombstone. The staging is spartan, chiming with the straightforward direction of their music. Songs from SATYRICON’s mid-noughties black ‘n’ roll era may have been controversial at the time, but they’ve aged beautifully – The Pentagram Burns (for which Satyr dons an extra guitar) in particular sounding positively arena-ready. The closing duo consists of two unsurprising, but most welcome classics – the majestic Mother North, followed by the insistent earworm that is K.I.N.G.. SATYRICON may not tour anywhere near as much as their colleagues, but you wouldn’t know it from their craftful display tonight, proving that they remain a relevant and influential voice in black metal.
Rating: 9/10
No band has done more in the last two decades to continuously level up the scale and production value of extreme metal than BEHEMOTH, and tonight, as always, they are on a mission to best themselves again. Just as the ominous chords of new song The Shadow Elite give way to an explosion of ferocious tremolo riffing, a curtain drops to reveal the Polish theatrical masters’ elaborate staging. The trio of guitarists begin the night fixed on individual carpets with occult inscriptions, but multiple podiums and stairwells allow Nergal and co. to roam free. Drummer Inferno is located on a giant platform in a neighbouring postcode, making full use of Europe’s biggest fixed stage to the max.
It doesn’t take more than a few riffs before the pyro comes along, whether in huge sustained bursts, or in multiple machine-gun shots thrown across the stage. Over the course of the evening, the four will walk through fire, spit it, light it, and carry it up and down the many stairwells, in a spectacle that simultaneously dazzled and causes one to spare a thought for their insurance premiums.
Behind the flames, the quartet serve slabs of brutality like Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer and Demigod, masterfully mixing extreme metal in all its forms. Their latest provocation The Shit ov God split the online comment sections, but is received well enough with its bouncy rhythm and made-for-singalongs refrain. An even more unanimous winner is the epic ode of Bartzabel, with a chorus almost as big as the crown that Nergal dons for it. As a moment to slow down and appreciate their more epic side, it really works.
The quartet never shy away from making themselves part of the visual spectacle. The customary facepaint and black clothing aside, frontman Nergal is adorned with a huge chest pendant across his painted-white body – for now at least, as multiple costume changes are to follow. The band are 110% invested in their show, marauding fiercely and roaring the crowd on to get involved. Triumphant over the mass of over four-thousand fans before him, like a Roman emperor at gladiatorial games, Nergal calls upon the crowd to rejoice and proclaims that black metal has never been bigger.
Over the evening, the Polish legends nod to most corners of their sizable discography, covering no fewer than ten separate releases. A special moment is occupied by the first song they ever wrote, Cursed Angel of Doom. Who knows if a teenage Adam Darski from Gdansk thought then that he would be performing it 30 years later at this scale. The ending crescendo to the evening comes in the most fitting form, with the majestic O Father O Satan O Sun! – a final funereal pyre before the curtain falls on their meticulous theatre, like the closing scene to an ancient tragedy where there’s nothing left to do but reflect on the carnage and waste that has been laid.
BEHEMOTH set out to stage black metal at a grander scale than anyone ever has, and they achieved that. Having worked their arses off to reach this stage, tonight’s triumph and this tour more generally, will go down in their history as the time when they rightfully get their flowers. Apologies if they’re a little burned up from all the pyro.
Rating: 9/10
Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Sarah Tsang here:
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