Apparently as soon as doors opened the night before the London show in Manchester 500 people were straight in to give Winterfylleth rousing support. London is one of those places where people prefer to sit in the pub (and with the beer prices here it’s not surprising) but combined with engineering works on the tube and the fact it was FA cup day there was still a very healthy turn out to watch the openers attempt to get through 35 minutes worth of music in 30. The sound was fantastic with the instrumentation coming off sharp, well clarified and thundering, with singer Chris’s vocals rasping over the top of the burgeoning incendiary pace. The mountain did not so much shiver as quake with the austere Vikingesque backing croons admirably soaring. Brutal and sweeping the music surged, there is no other word to describe it and the front three players lined up the across the stage cast in blood red light strumming hell for leather. The wall of sound was clearly defined but like a impenetrable army arms crossed and spears thrust forward there was no way of getting through it. By now everyone seemed really into things with fists being pumped up towards the sky. A new album ‘The Threnody Of Triumph’ is on the way and we got a new sharp and brutal cut from this ‘Void Of Light’ which struck as particularly unmerciful on first airing, fiercely bristling with furious jagged riffs and savagery. The homeland was defended and that set things up nicely for the last song, one that has become an anthem and one that leaves you under no illusion that this lot are one of Albion’s blackest heathen sons.

I thought it was a bit of a risk putting a band like Hell amidst two others that are so serious when they are so (well) daft and silly. It did pay off though as a Hell show is pure pantomime and they quickly turned the venue on its head descending it into a party atmosphere. They look completely odd, straight out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a dash of Monty Python and someMunsters thrown in for good measure. Singer Dave Bower plays as preacher on the path to hell with bits of Arthur Brown, Martin Walkyier and Snowy Shaw all mixed in to his repertoire. The reactivated band are now no strangers to mincing it up and throwing poses to the hemmed in photographers and packed front rows of the audience. Of course you had the songs, metal to the core they were. There were numbers about aliens complete with anal probes and falsetto vocals, plagues and times of the Holy Grail were revisited and the singer gave himself a good old spell of flagellation, one lucky punter managing to catch the whip as it was flung into the crowd. We went into the realms of Shakespeare in ways the bard never could have expected with ‘Macbeth’ and by the end and ‘Save Us From Those Who Would Save Us’ we may have had a little too much of the joke but at least the band had kept us thoroughly entertained until the seriousness of the event once again took hold.

Primordial are one of the best live bands on the planet (there I said it now). They always pour passion and heartfelt emotion into everything they do on stage and it never loses its impact. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that they do not play that often and it makes every show more of an event that sees us welcoming them back with open arms. As usual it seemed like they had brought quite a few fans with them from Ireland too and Primordial deserve the fervour that gets people travelling around to see them, which is something not many bands can say in this day and age. From the opening strains of newer song ‘Lain With The Wolf’ they had us firmly in the grasp. Striding out to a heroes welcome they were led as ever by the all conquering front man Alan Averill who left the rest of the band to do what they do best and play solidly, the bass sound was particularly jarring for those of us in the photo pit. Yes he lost his voice last time we saw them at Bloodstock, everyone can have an off day (man flu left me without mine by the end of the night) but tonight it was magnificent.

Going back in time we revisited ‘Autumn’s Ablaze’ from ‘A Journey’s End’ I was actually not expecting anything this far back and thought they were going to concentrate on the last few albums so was particularly impressed. They did just that for the rest of the set but who can complain when these numbers are so excellent.  ‘Gallows Hymn’ and the excellent ‘As Rome Burns’ had everyone chanting along victoriously and it was obvious the band like the song were on fire and at fever pitch tonight. Having not reviewed it I probably am not as au fait with ‘Redemption’ as many of the other albums but enjoyed what we got from it tonight. ‘The Mouth Of Judas’ particularly standing out. Alan informed us that it was 18 years since they had first played London which made me feel a little smug having seen each and every one of these shows. At least unlike the last time he played this particular venue with Twilight Of The Gods, half the audience did not walk out. With curfew for a crap club approaching there was little time for in between song banter though and with epic numbers such as ‘The Coffin Ships’ and ‘Empire Fall’ to play they dragged us through a huge emotional peak before we were left to wander out into the night air numb from such an emotionally wrought barrage of songs. Yep I will say it again, one of the best live bands on the planet!

Pete Woods