In a time where tours are being pulled left right and centre, it is certainly hats off to Batushka and Belphegor for preserving their co-headline endeavour. Across the continent, venues have changed and host cities have been swapped at last minute, but somehow, they have managed to keep the wheels on this tour. Maybe being in league with Satan is good for something after all? They pull into Manchester after a night in the Heavy Metal capital of Bedford (no me neither) and the Black Metal hordes of the north west are certainly out in droves to meet them. In many ways this line up is a promoter’s dream as Batushka, Belphegor and Diabolical all have their own fiercely loyal fanbases (don’t worry Warhammer and Almost Dead, your time will indeed come) and the presence of not one, but three well stocked Merch tables illustrates that all three are headline material.

Warhammer hit the stage at the very un-metal time of quarter past six as the aforementioned hordes are still drifting into the building and purchasing their first beverage of the night. Warhammer (yes! that sound you hear is the games company preparing a lawsuit) are a band in transition. They are shifting from thrash to Black Metal and tonight they certainly look (and sound) the part. The t-shirt and jeans have been replaced by black hoodies and a light face paint or the lockdown has been tough on their complexion. They have left their thrash back catalogue back in Greece and opted for a set concentrating on the yet to be unleashed “Ashes and Cinders”. Their game plan seems to be if they are going to do a hard right into a new genre to go big or go home. This is frantic almost feral Black Metal, brittle and bathed in malicious intent. I like their new incarnation and, as they say, once you have gone Black you never can go back.

Hailing from the sunshine state of California they have certainly travelled the furthest to be here today. Just two years ago American acts on our shores was a norm, but now it feels like an anomaly and a curiosity. Musically Almost Dead are out on a bit of the limb with the rest of the bill. Theirs’ is an almost Pantera-esque mix of thrash and chugging groove metal. However, the coarse, gruff vocals and screams most definitely pull them back into the fold. Almost Dead have a new record and after almost two years of zero activity they are determined to promote it, hence the decision to concentrate the entire set on “Brutal Onslaught”. Whereas the latter members of this package depend heavily on props and theatrics, Almost Dead are a visceral heavy metal band that rely solely on the dynamic energy of its four members. They are a potent force and whilst they may be a little bit of sore thumb on this tour, by the end the of their thirty minutes they have certainly earnt their place.

Diabolical may not have the profile of the co-headliners but they have been doing this for twenty years and seem to command a dedicated fanbase who have pitched camp at the front of the stage. Once again, we get a shift in style as theirs is a heavily symphonic and more measured and melodic take on Black Metal. There are points it boarders on doom and others where its even wanders into Power Territory. The consistent factor is the grand nature of the whole thing. This is not Black Metal in its claustrophobic insular form, this is Black Metal built to bother stadiums. Big, Bold and Bombastic.

It becomes very clear very early on that Belphegor are dead set on staking their claim as the headliner here. The stage is strown with props and long before they emerge, the stage lights dim and eerie otherworldly music fills the room. The latter helps to further hype up the already rather giddy crowd. The pit seems to be singularly made of Belphegor fan boys and girls (the Batushka massive are probably lighting candles somewhere) and when they finally emerge the shit really goes down. They are a slick, professional, evil machine, as you would expect for a band that has been doing this for thirty (even if Helmuth Lehner and relative newcomer Serpenth are currently the only formal members nowadays).  

Theirs is a highly theatrical take on Black Metal and in many ways hankers back to the aspirations of the Nordic founding fathers to recapture the mysticism, mystery and melodramatics of Metal that they felt had been eroded by Grunge. It may be guttural and demonic, but bloody hell is it a show! Helmuth is like Freddie Mercury’s evil twin, holding the rapt crowd in his blood-stained hand. It may flirt (and in some places go fully down on) the devil but in the end this is pure escapism. Tonight, Belphegor are larger than life and bloody fantastic.

My track record with Batushka is not great and judging by the way the crowd thins at the end of Belphegor, I am not the only one to have had some bad experiences. It is made even more complicated by the fact that there are currently two Batushka operating (pesky musical differences). Tonight we get vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk’s version of the band (though having seen both they are pretty indistinguishable).

The ceremonial candle lighting (which can sometimes take up to half an hour) has been massively scaled back and now is over with pretty sharpish. They then start building and continue building and that is essentially my problem with Batushka. The Black Metal when you get it is nothing short of sensational. Brutal, caustic but contains another ingenuity and originality to stand out in the crowd, but frankly there is not enough of it. It is surrounded by an inordinate amount of padding. The intro ratchets up and up and up and then no sooner have we had a blast of the good stuff than the outro is slowly leading us away. It is the equivalent of a sandwich that is all bread and a miniscule bit of filling. No matter how good that middle bit is (and believe me it is good) the oodles of bread overpowers it.

There are moments tonight where Batushka are stunning (basically when they unleash their peerless pulsating Black Metal) but for me there is still too much faffing and faux-ritual. It may add to the atmosphere, but the amateur dramatics essentially masks (pun intended) and detracts from the fact that Batushka are at their core a shit hot Black Metal act. As harsh as it sounds, it still feels like an unnecessary gimmick, especially because when they stop mucking about and play they are unstoppable. I am not asking them to de-robe and put on jeans, but a slight shift away from the pointless rites towards concentrating on the chunky black metal would see them evolve into something so special. And at that point I wander into the night dreaming of what could be…