Considering the amount of venues left in the centre of London it’s no surprise that shows are moving to the outskirts of the city. Tonight, we find ourselves in Limehouse East London at the rather magnificent Troxy. This venue has plenty of history but not really for hosting extreme metal gigs. Moved from Hackney Earth who may well have bottled it due to the infamy and stench of the headliner’s shows its surprising to walk into the plush environs here and find it is not just carpeted but said flooring does not have you sticking to it. It’s fairly big a bit like the Forum and although there was already a big queue pre doors at 6, once everyone is in, there is still a substantial amount of room.

The reason many were here early was for Swiss duo Bolzer. It’s been a while since we last saw them in the UK but it’s been some time since this heavyweight tour was originally announced, only to be scuppered by you know what. The sound is dense at first but the guitar is magnificent as it snakes around the heft of the drumming. Things clarify once ‘The Archer’ draws back bow and is fired through the venue. It actually sounds fantastic right towards the back and everything is crystal clear and the harmonies of the song leap off the stage. KzR takes centre stage and plays the Hero although not that particular number. Having got acclimatised now we are literally ‘Entranced By The Wolfshock’ and the speedy dextrous flurries as the guitar spits and uncoils like a venomous serpent, HzR thundering away at the back. It’s easy to lose yourself in this twisting thrust and in the slower parts its quite mesmerising. No easy task for a duo to captivate an audience both musically and in performance but they manage admirably. The spoken word oration of ‘Æstivation’ completely enraptures over throbbing ambience before ‘Zeus – Seducer Of Hearts’ reaches Olympian heights, juddering grooves ploughing through the ribcage. It’s a thankfully fairly lengthy set for an opener and reached a near hallucinatory high with some of the sounds wrangled out of the instruments. Great start.

We expected some pungent scents tonight but not quite what we got from Tribulation in the form of some very nice incense. Some may look on them as a round peg in a square hole tonight with their more accessible Gothic take on things and they start off in style, rocking, rolling and grooving away. There’s a certain amount of posing and throwing of shapes and the whole thing, lit in green is pretty theatrical. You can’t fault all the hooks in their craft at all and people quickly get into the swing of things, the front row headbanging away in style. I remembered why I had got hooked on third album ‘Children Of The Night’, bought it and played it to death.

Can’t say I have particularly followed the Swedes since and they showed me that I had probably been missing out since. It’s very infectious and takes but a mere scratch to get entrapped in their dead zone. There’s plenty of classic metallic Swedish rifferama in the midst of it all too. I’d be hard pushed to name a song but at one point they chugged into one that had both the melodicism of Dissection as well as Abbath himself so their placement on the tour was not so strange after all. One song started with a sitar and another with a solemn organ and things got creepy, cooky but did not fall on the camp side of it at all. I enjoyed this and it was good drinking it all in as many were quickly grabbing a pint and heading back to the front and boogieing away.

Recent album ‘Dead Reaver’ has seen a revitalised and rehabilitated Abbath shaking off past demons and going from strength to strength. Perhaps he has something to prove and damn he seems to be doing so tonight. Swaggering on with band after an imperial intro march I feel the floor actually shaking at the front of the stage. The sound levels are pushed to the limit but not so that things are distorted as they thunder in to ‘Winterbane.’ They rocked, rolled, shook and quaked throwing out dry ice with Abbath looming out of it like an angry barbarian.

The aforementioned title track of the new opus gets an early airing and the master of orange-crushing might seems well and truly in his element. This is not just about the new but the old too, of ravens and Blashyrkh, the corresponding frost to the adopted Chariots of fire tour name. Who truly holds the keys to the kingdom? Well tonight there can be only one and some Immortal staples like ‘Beyond The North Waves’ are paid tribute to.

Sorry for the image and we would never want to see Abbath doing a Miley but tonight he is an absolute wrecking ball. It’s obvious who has to be last band on due to their elaborate set-up but the co-headlining status was guaranteed. There are some ridiculous gurgles and rasps and the craggy vocal lines and thorny guitars had sporadic outbreaks of dancing breaking out. The jangling near banjo like intro of Bridge Of Spasms and its Motorhead like charge was a standout. The show tonight was full bomber no bummer finishing in a flourish of spotlight overload Abbath has indeed withstood the fall of time and tonight tackled it all like a mighty Warrior.

A mighty stage construction takes place quickly and skilfully handled. We were not sure exactly what we were in store for tonight. Watain can be literally bloody unpredictable with their performances as anyone who has soaked up their gore will profess. I couldn’t honestly see them splashing the ichor around tonight in this place and there is just the faintest smell of rancid claret at the front, still an unmistakable scent but nowhere near as powerful as previously.

Everything is on fire, candles lit everywhere, flaming tridents, the works its quite spectacular as is the nasty, filthy full power as they blaze into the churning fury of ‘Ecstasies Of The Night Infinite.’ It’s difficult to know what to look at there is so much going on and the lethal display is nothing short of overwhelming. That enforced touring break may well have an effect as this lot have been uncaged and are acting out their furies like particularly rabid animals here.

Old and new songs are united, ‘The Howling’ is full-on lycanthropic fury and ‘Reaping Death’ delivers just what it promises. The players move around the stage E occasionally retreats to the back lighting things and devotionally prostrating. I watch him very carefully whilst at the front, there is a chalice held aloft later and naturally during ‘The Devil’s Blood’ but I do not see contents cast into the audience. What he does with it backstage as the players charge on without him will have to remain a mystery. At one point he launches a mini-fireball from his hand in our direction. Obviously, all that time spent in House Slytherin wasn’t wasted.

The music and the flames are doing the talking here tonight and to be honest it’s a bit of a relief. The jagged and unmistakable glimmering notes of ‘Serimosa’ are instantly identifiable and simmered things down a little. We glowed in the bask and I realised that due to all the flames it was actually nice and toasty in here as E holds aloft a flaming torch like an ambassador from hell.

All good things have to come to an end and they do that like clockwork, the timings tonight were spot on throughout. After the hammering explosion of ‘Nuclear Alchemy’ last song ‘Malfeitor’ brings the ceremony to a grandiose and maleficent conclusion. There is neither time nor frankly need for an encore as E in deadly red light gives thanks for a successful show at the altar and we seep out the doors wondering just what the hell hit us. It’s a dazed journey home as the band continue to sweep through Europe like a veritable plague.

Top marks all round and for the venue, staff and all involved. I hope they have us back again in the future.

(Review and Photos Pete Woods)