Kicking off a long evening with a double-shot of generic but competent black metal, Svarttjern and Inquisition inspire a healthy response from early attendees, despite support-band sound and a lack of engaging stage presence. The former bring more of a DM touch to their songs, while the latter’s uncanny Immortal impression and two members draw the most attention.

In Solitude know they’re on the wrong bill, but they launch into their first track of atmospheric classic heavy metal with total enthusiasm. A muddy, over-loud sound robs them of some subtlety and grace, and this was never their audience, but their professionalism and energy wins them some new fans. Watch out for them headlining their own shows.

Playing to a large audience of hard-core fans, one time British black metal royalty Cradle Of Filth take to the stage like headliners. For a brief time tonight it’s possible to overlook the last decade of over-long, unspectacular “come-back” albums and ironic mugging, as they thunder gloriously through a set-list of old classics and a few newer favourites as if everyone in the venue had come to see them. The pit is filled with people screaming every word and greeting old classics with the kind of howling you’d expect for a headliner, and the band remind us how good they truly were before hype and backlash got in the way. As surprise encore ‘Funeral In Carpathia’ crashes to a close they leave the stage to many fans still shouting for more, and my inner 18-year-old finally stops grinning. Thank you, Dani – those long years of goth clubs and Never Mind The Buzzcocks appearances were hard to bear, but we’ll always have Paris. Or Kentish Town.

You know a band are big beyond usual metal terms when a literally-packed-to-bursting Forum explodes into excited cheers every time a roadie picks up a mic-stand. After a long and unusually well-received soundcheck, Behemoth take the stage to a level of theatrics and professionalism that make their peers look like pub bands. Trading in their leather man-skirts for a tribal-paint-and-leathers style that makes them look like a pack of Chaos Beastmen, the band dominate the elaborately decorated stage with movements so precise and commanding that you suspect they’ve rehearsed them.

Musically they’re even more precise, a stunning sound supporting a mercilessly tight, martial delivery of songs from their new album The Satanist (Metal Blade) alongside older classics. Behemoth are a band that have never entirely worked for me on record, their albums polished but a little superficial, but live it makes sense. Nergal is a genuinely masterful front-man, leading the band and the audience with an absolutely commanding performance of pure Metal arrogance, but between songs displaying a more human side, talking about his joy to have survived his recent health scares. Shining through their stern stage-manner and martial theatrics is genuine enjoyment and pleasure, and they communicate this to the fans – the packed audience go crazy, welcoming every track like a classic, and if their material still lacks a certain depth, absolutely no-one here cares.

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Set List:

Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel

Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer

Conquer All

Decade of Therion

As Above So Below

Slaves Shall Serve

Christians to the Lions

Driven by the Five-Winged Star

The Satanist

Ov Fire and the Void

Alas, Lord Is Upon Me

Furor Divinus

At the Left Hand ov God

Chant for Eschaton 2000

Encore:

O Father O Satan O Sun

Behemoth on Facebook

Cradle of Filth on Facebook

In Solitude on Facebook

Inquisition on Facebook

Svarttjern on Facebook

Works: Richie H-R

Photos: Ian Cashman