There has been a buzz about the tour embarked upon by the two main bands as it has hit many a venue up and down the country leaving social media with lots of jaw dropped statements about just how good Wodensthrone and A Forest Of Stars have been. This tiny upstairs (above a pub) show was naturally going to be busy. It would have been completely sold out if there had not been a horde of Oz black thrash bands playing across town but it was lucky this was going on as there was just about enough room to breathe in here.

First up were a relatively new band Virophage who were playing just their third gig. Not that they were amateurs in any sense of the word as they are helmed by The Watcher, man of many a band including Fen, Skaldic Curse and Demagogue amongst them. They start surprisingly slowly almost at a melodic doom laden crawl. Vocals are thick and gravid and then wallop the song explodes into a full blooded bass heavy assault, black and wretched. There is a really ghastly feel behind this, not pleasant at all and lacking in any hint of happiness. The audience is not stepping down to the front of the venue almost as if the hate has them backing off and cramming the rear of the place as though songs like ‘Vacuum’ are going to rip off their faces and gobble down their flesh. It’s an all consuming windswept vortex of snarling guitars riding roughshod over misanthropic primitivism. A hint of black n roll is the precursor to the more melodic third number and it leaps forward with a rollicking groove about it, bouncing us about before the number bursts into another hate filled sermon. Four songs and thirty minutes but it is enough to leave us feeling drained in the sweaty confines of the intimate room. Watch out for this lot if you like your black metal orthodox and uncompromising.

Acolyte are described as progressive black metal and the Manchester band even have a spiky logo to go with their sounds. Walking in to see bassist and two guitarists lining up the front of the stage and the singer pacing around in front on the dance floor was slightly confusing as was (and I put this politely) them not looking the part at all. As they started I was thinking of them as definitely being the round peg in the square hole for the evening and this was something that was chugging riffs and a post hardcore slight down tempo sound without any semblance to black metal in the slightest. I could be even less polite and describe it as sceneitallbeforecore and despite the band giving it all posture wise the vocals were coming across as weak in the mix and having stayed for the first couple of numbers I decided that I had more than enough of this.

Those that had flocked to drink in the alleyway outside the pub filled the venue to the rafters for Wodensthrone and it was the first time we had caught the band live for a while. In that time they have brought out a fantastic new album Curse and lost previous singer Brunwulf. Hemmed in there was no escaping theSunderland band’s tumultuous scything brand of barbaric UKBM and they proved why are one of our best bands around at the moment. Bathed in cold blue light for the entire set they cast an icy atmosphere at odds to the wilting heat that virtually saw sweat dripping down the walls. The set was not without problems which saw one amp blowing completely and another cutting out leaving a song having to be started again. Despite this the band were hardly put off in the slightest and gritted teeth and ploughed on with grim determination, which made material such as the epic and battering ‘Battle Lines’ even more hungry and intense. The light airy acoustic flow the track drops into sounds fantastic and literally picks us up and has us soaring along with it, graceful and mesmerising after the clamour of the battle itself. The band had an hour set but it literally flew by leaving us in a bit of a daze. I think as was the case with AFOS most of the material played was from the new album a highlight being Curse’s longest cut ‘The Name Of The Wind.’ Powerful stuff, air was certainly necessary before the main event.

A Forest Of Stars looked rather resplendent as they filled the stage; fill it they did as there were seven of them. New album A Shadowplay For Yesterday has been getting a lot of spins from me and was beginning to get under the skin so I was happy to discover that they opened with one of my favourite tracks from it ‘Left Behind As Static’. There is something absolutely magical about some of the melodies on the album and this for me is the one with the strongest and most hypnotic. Of course it has plenty of power and some blackened swaggers to wade through as well, there is plenty going on and it is really interesting watching the players involved. Vocalist Mr Curse does things in a pretty unique fashion, standing stock still during the long instrumental parts and suddenly bursting into life in an incredibly intense fashion when needed to deliver his parts. At his side the other main focal part at the front is Katherine Queen Of The Ghosts, aka Katie Stone ex My Dying Bride on violin and occasionally a trill of flute. Songs are again long and involving although very different from Wodensthrone, not that the two acts did not compliment each other, in fact it was a really good pairing.

Although it is difficult to compare the band to anyone else I noted a splash of Cardiacs in the more manic parts and Fields Of The Nephilim during the more shoegazing moments. Blackness flowed and at full power the band were like being hit by a hurricane but they are never that far away from turning into a demented and carnivalesque display that is quite demented in essence. I recognised a lot of the material and am pretty sure it was mainly from the new album and although it was just as rammed as it was last time I saw them at Damnation Festival I enjoyed them a lot more this time. The god rant from ‘The Underside Of Eden’ was one part that certainly stuck out and where I thought the band a bit on the pretentious side last time they gelled a lot more for me now and I felt that it was more of a case of lunacy and partly genius, giving them a real unique flavour. One thing is for certain they are playing far too small venues but hopefully once word spreads this will change, actually scrub that remark and let’s hope the hipsters don’t suddenly find a new favourite band and ruin it for the rest of us!

Review and Photos © Pete Woods