LIVE REVIEW: Watain & Abbath @ Troxy, London

With the festival season well and truly over, and short summery nights turning long and cold, there can be no surer sign that gig season is well and truly underway than a stacked double-headliner tour passing through your town. A certain generation of London’s metalheads will remember that these were traditionally hosted at The Forum, whose reputation for poor sound became synonymous with the venue. So you can imagine our surprise and delight to hear that the Chariots Of Fire Tour was descending upon the Troxy, a charming art-deco former-cinema out in far-flung Stepney. The carpeted floor certainly makes a nice change from the sticky floors we’re used to, but let’s not lose sight of the real appeal here: this fantastically curated mixed bill. Arriving from Sweden are cult favourites TRIBULATION and legendary occultists WATAIN, whose names alone would have had us posted at the front by the barrier, but nestled in-between this Swedish sandwich are ABBATH, whose post-IMMORTAL legacy has become much admired in it’s own right.

Over their last three albums Sweden’s TRIBULATION have navigated themselves away from a traditional horror-themed death metal formula. Their moribund gothic rock owes more to PARADISE LOST than it does to ENTOMBED, and seems to have hit upon a latent niche for something less cartoonish than fellow spooky-Swedes GHOST, but still catchier than progressive countrymen KATATONIA. 

Their Lugosian aesthetic relies on a certain atmosphere; a particular style of mixing which rarely translates well outside of the studio to the more ad-hoc live scenario. Luckily for TRIBULATION the vast negative space of London’s Troxy provides the oodles of reverb needed for their oeuvre to flourish, and paired with the paper-thin crowd in the crypt-cold venue, their set tonight makes for a distinctive experience indeed. 

TRIBULATION are looking at the heaviness on display elsewhere this evening in the rear-view mirror: their departure from extreme metal was very deliberate, and their pursuit of this Transylvanian something-else is just the right appetiser for tonight’s bill. It will be interesting to see if TRIBULATION develop themselves into something befitting of a venue on this scale, or whether their descent back into the underground is not yet complete…

Rating: 7/10

Returning to the stage clean and sober, Abbath and his eponymous troupe are welcomed back to London with rapturous acclaim. The tumultuous IMMORTAL-saga seems to have simmered down, with the Doom Occulta brothers each taking their own path: IMMORTAL (née Demonaz) pursuing a more glacial latter-day BATHORY sort of vibe, with ABBATH continuing to revel in mid-period BATHORY battle metal worship with overtones of (dare we say it?) MANOWAR. 

Abbath’s unique style of riffing produces music entirely on its own scale, evoking arctic grandeur and images of fantastical mediaeval winter warfare. In tandem with the outfit’s outfits, ABBATH produce a kind of cognitive dissonance; being both undeniably goofy but completely committed to their bit, whatever you make of this band, it is assuredly entertaining. This veteran of the big stage knows to give the people what they want, and generously seasons tonight’s setlist with IMMORTAL ‘covers’ from Sons Of Northern Darkness alongside fresher cuts.

Beyond The North Waves, In My Kingdom Cold and Tyrants elicit the sort of enthusiasm Abbath wishes he could inspire with Dread Reaver tracks, and the I single Warriors goes down a treat too, getting the Troxy’s frostbitten crowd moving to its seismic riffing. All the same this is by no means a mere nostalgia set, and newer material seems to be getting some traction with time. Interspersed with his signature showmanship and staccato intersong oratory, it’s clear to everyone tonight that extreme metal’s great entertainer is well and truly back, and in great form to boot.

Rating: 8/10

Crowning tonight’s billing is the superlative WATAIN. Being at the top of the game is something of an oxymoron in black metal terms, and the band’s success is not without its detractors, but WATAIN’s stubborn commitment to developing their own occultist temple of sorts is not to be sniffed at. Before the band even reach the stage, the language and imagery of their production would take a scholar hours to fully unpack: this is a maximalist vision of black metal befitting the big stage.

As the torches and pyro light up, and frontman Erik Danielsson opens the ritual in theatrical fashion, the heat emanating from the stage finishes off ABBATH’s icy thaw. Hot off the heels of the release of The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain, the band exude a road-worn confidence from the very first note of Ecstasies In Night Infinite. The newer material is a more meandering and less immediate than we’ve come to expect from WATAIN (Trident Wolf Eclipse was, afterall, all-out primitivism) but when situated within the vast and ornate onstage altar, the band’s performance becomes an unholy spectacle like no other.

Tempered with a few choice-cuts from their back catalogue (including the lesser-performed Black Salvation) their performance tonight is as much more a celebration of where the band find themselves now as where they have come from. Fan favourites from breakthrough release Sworn To The Dark are conspicuous in their absence: that’s a bold move for a band on their seventh album, and a real vote of confidence in the new material. This is a band blazing forward rather than gazing backwards, and it’s wonderful watching them go.

Rating: 9/10

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