At last, it’s great to be back and about bloody time. Some Dutch courage no doubt helped those of us still not 100% certain about shedding the masks and dispensing with the social distancing, which totally went out the window (if there had been any) at the Garage tonight. But enough of that and onto this long-awaited show by bands and punters tonight.

First up and well, they have been fortuitously wearing plague masks for quite some time, are The Infernal Sea. Spooky backlighting sees them emerge from the fog, the band members along with two lantern bearers whose job is to stand stock still for the entirety of the set. They come on to a backing tape of a Giallo lullaby soundtrack I recognise but cannot place, possibly courtesy of Morricone and explode into ‘Destruction Of Shum’ at a volume that has us reeling back having not witnessed anything this loud for ages. Its volatile, brash and stormy.

It’s only 4.15PM and already there is a large crowd absolutely up for letting hair down and going for it, this foot-stomper having boots thudding into the ground in time and quickly setting the mood for the next few hours. Vocalist Dean fills the space between songs with some inhuman growls adding to the malevolence of it all and having delivered the 1st couple of numbers from latest album ‘Negotium Crucis’ take us back to thrashier fare with ‘Agents Of Satan’ a pogo bouncing declaration to the dark lord himself. Although this displays one side of the band and gets heads-banging it’s their more atmospherically vile side such as ‘Way Of The Wolf’ that really gets its claws in and decimates with a fiery evil cleave and shrill vocal rasps. They may be creatures of the day right now but what beautifully hellish sounds they have made.

You might expect bands to be a little bit rusty after so much time especially when they have a technical complexity about them. No danger of that as far as Fen are concerned and as the shivering and unmistakable guitar chords of Exile’s Journey are majestically swathed aside by massive slabs of brutal blackness the sound has taken a step up and is absolutely massive. This is quick to tear into us and consume our very being. Brothers Frank and Adam hold the front of the stage ploughing away at guitar and bass as recent drummer JG flattens things at the back. The band take us up to majestic peaks and drop us down into nightmarish plateaus of extremity and the balance between the two facets with precision and poise. I doubt I was the only person who completely lost myself in the performance and it seemed to really buoy the crowd as for an all too brief period the band delivered a triumphant home performance. It was over far too quickly with a cheeky rock shred finale, leaving us completely battered and bowed.

Time for something with shorter songs and a more incendiary style as Hellripper set about thrashing us till death. First of two visiting Scottish bands which is about all travel and other conditions are allowing us now, they are also, like Saor to follow, a one-man studio act expanded to a full live format. James McBain leads this charge galloping through songs from their last blazing album ‘The Affair Of The Poisons’ and infecting us all with its venom. Having never seen them before it was interesting to note that live they are a lot more chaotic and gnarly on stage making the recorded material seem somewhat polished.

This certainly suited us here though as they literally unleashed ‘Total Mayhem.’ The crowd were savagely baying every step of the way, the booze had definitely done its job by now and with everything going like the veritable clappers and the kick drum bouncing us around things were likely to turn messy. You can’t mess with a good old b-movie song title and Blood Orgy Of The She Devil’s would have had Ted V Mikels grinning down at the carnage in his name here. The next song ‘Conduit Closing’ is described as a fast one, as if everything wasn’t but it seemed the audience had one thing on their mind bleating for a certain song at every opportunity. Finally, they got their wish in the form of ‘All Hail The Goat,’ cloven hooves trampling all over us. Plenty of energy here and it’s fair to say Hellripper smashed it. Is it too early for a lie down?

It was Warhorns a few years ago that I last caught Andy Marshall’s Saor and as the band line up on stage one thing that grabbed attention was Lambert Segura who quickly got into the spirit of things and started headbanging along to the music like a loon. It’s a bit of a change of pace as they ramp up atmosphere playing four long numbers over their set running time. Starting off with the title track of last album Forgotten Paths this is passionate and stirring stuff to lose oneself in.

Densely layered and with thick sound, there’s some classic guitar motifs that give things a bit of a Thin Lizzy sounding tinge as the melody twists around. There is also a fair amount of galloping bravado and some chugging guitar work to go along with it and drive the pace, keeping things full of ballast and motion. I found the violin side of things stuck to the subtle side rather than being overbearing just giving things a bit of an occasional folky tinge. Finishing things with ‘Tears Of A Nation’ Saor were well accepted and their brand of Caledonian Metal certainly hit the mark.

So many band’s have suffered from cancelled shows over the last couple of years and Primordial are no exception having meant to have played London with Naglfar and having that scuppered. They are hungry, that is obvious and like a cork unleashed from a bottle of finest Irish Whisky Alan Averill is happy to be back in a room full of people and is chatty with it too. Of course there are many great songs to pump up the now delirious crowd and the group start things off with ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen.’ Passion flows as quick as the beer and by the time they reach the depths of ‘No Grave Deep Enough’ there is no containing things and bodies start to surf over the top. Obviously delighted the frontman is off the stage to welcome them not forgetting the suddenly hard-working security staff some thanks for being cool about it all.

When not doing this, he spends time prostrating arms like an Armageddon messiah, taunting us with a noose, swigging red wine and picking out audience members with imaginary sniper fire. The rest of the band are by comparison stayed and sensible, digging in and keeping the music flowing and what great music it is. Songs come thick and fast as they pack as much into things as possible. There are naturally some highlights such as ‘Traitor’s Gate’ which is nothing short of momentous and ‘As Rome Burns’ which has everyone singing along to the slaves and pumping the air in tribute and wild abandon. ‘Burning Season’ is a bit of a slow-burner and ‘Gods’ To The Godless’ gives us some salvation and stirs our pagan hearts.

We are told that Primordial are not the sort of band to just play for a short time and prepare ourselves for more and are inevitably led through “fear, venom and hatred” to a rousing finale of ‘Empire Falls’ before staggering out into the fresh night air and hoping we will prove germ free come the morning. Primordial themselves are scheduled to headline the Prophecy Festival in the Balver Höhle cave Germany on the 10th September. Anyone lucky enough to attend is in for a treat and it will be interesting to see if Alan can outdo the nutty Arthur Brown who is on directly before them. It remains to be seen if at least one of them sets their head on fire!

(Pete Woods)