While the surrounding Sheffield bars were full of Christmas parties, a select few headed to the Corporation for a celebration of blackened death metal and while the crowd remained modest, those that made the journey were treated to four bands at the absolute top of their game.

Opening the evening were Monastery who had the unenviable job of taking to the stage just as the doors opened. However, being experienced veterans, they didn’t let the sparse crowd detract from their heavy slab of old school death metal, opening with ‘River of the Fallen Souls’ from their new ‘From Blood’ album, and followed by a cover of Bolt Thrower’s ‘The IVth Crusade’ (if I recall correctly).

Bathed in red light, their dense yet aggressive sound soon won over the crowd before the set ended all too soon with the crushing duo ‘Bleed’ and ‘Divine Damnation’.

Although they have been going for over thirty years, this was my first chance to catch the Hungarians live, and I came away very impressed.

Following a ten-minute turnaround, Atrocity took to the stage, with their melodic, galloping death metal bringing a more upbeat atmosphere to the Corporation.

‘Desecration of God’, ’Death by Metal’ and ‘Fire Ignites’ flew by but Alex Krull wasn’t content with the degree of energy levels and encouraged more crowd participation, with saw a pit open up for ‘Fatal Step’.

The band spent a lot of time barely visible in subdued blue lighting, with the focal point being frontman Alex, who spent a large proportion of the set obscured from view behind his huge, logo adorned microphone stand.

Their most recent album was unsurprisingly heavily represented in the set with four of the nine tracks played being from ‘Okkult III’ and they all sounded great, sitting nicely alongside older tracks.

However, with twelve albums to pull from, a 40-minute slot was never going to be enough and sadly ‘Reich of Phenomena’ came far too soon. Let’s hope for a headline set before too long.

Another impressive ten-minute turnaround followed before Dutch blackened death metallers God Dethroned took their turn as last minute replacements for Arkona who had to pull out of the English dates, apparently due to visa issues.

However, as last minute stand ins go, it doesn’t get much better than the Dutch heavyweights. Another band with a long history, their experience and pedigree was evident from the outset as they wasted no time, launching straight into ‘Illuminati’ and ‘Villa Vampiria’.

Effortlessly straddling the line between death metal and blackened death metal, their no frills onslaught was well received by the growing, but still modest, crowd. ‘Serpent King’ brought a more aggressive approach that kept the pit moving.

The glorious chugging riffs were relentless before the set came to a close with ‘Nihilism’. This had been a triumphant set and as much as I was disappointed that Arkona had been forced to pull out, I was grateful for the chance to see God Dethroned again.

After a long atmospheric intro tape, Belphegor appeared on the dimly lit stage, that was now adorned with various inverted crosses, chains and skulls and a strong smell of incense, before launching headlong into ‘Baphomet’ and ‘The Devil’s Son’.

Some blackened death metal bands fall visually onto the death metal side of the fence, whereas others come down on the black metal side with corpse paint and all sorts of stage paraphernalia being an important part of their image and shows.

Belphegor are resolutely in the latter group and tonight was no exception, not least with a corpse painted Helmuth who was orchestrating the relentless barrage. There seemed to be a growing intensity with each track and the pit lapped it up as ‘Sanctus Diaboli Confidimus’ and ‘Belphegor – Hell’s Ambassador’ flew by.

Particular mention should go to Julian David Guillen who stepped in to cover the absent Serpenth and did a fine job. The extensive back catalogue was reasonably well represented with five of the twelve albums being visited, the earliest being the title track from 2003’s ‘Lucifer Incestus’.

Sadly there was no time for ‘Bondage Goat Zombie’, ‘Gasmask Terror’ or ‘Justine: Soaked in Blood’ but what we did get was a masterclass in Blackened Death Metal, and the perfect antidote to the faux Christmas spirit that was rampant in the rest of the city centre.

Photos: Andy Pountney (@shot_in_the_dark_photography2)