With two bands and a mammoth two-hour set, Satyricon were hoping to squeeze a lot into the London show, all before the venue’s curfew. Because of this, the door times were pushed back to 5pm and as a result myself and a lot of others did not make it in time to see opening act Fight the Fight. I will hopefully catch them again.
Suicidal Angels
The second band of the evening was Greek thrash band Suicidal Angels. The sold out venue was beginning to fill up when they hit the stage. I did think that a thrash band was a strange choice to Satyricon but the energetic set had the crowd responding well. They even managed to persuade the crowd into a wall of death in the cramped venue.
Suicidal Angels are very much an old school thrash band, with a real feel of Exodus and Slayer to their tunes. A well played set by extremely proficient musicians.
Satyricon
I had listened to Satyricon’s new album, Deep Calleth Upon Deep, pretty much non-stop since its release the week before (James reviewed it for us) and was looking forward to hearing the now familiar songs live. They opened with the first track on the album, “Midnight Serpent”, before thundering through “Our World, It Rumbles Tonight” and “Black Crow On A Tombstone”. It was fantastic to see Satyr looking and sounding strong after his recent health problems. There was barely a pause between the songs, as if the band wanted to provide the crowd with as much music as possible in the time that had.
The set list itself was pretty much flawless. Obviously the bulk of the tracks came from the new album and the rest were divided up between crowd favourites from albums right back to Nemesis Divina. The response to “Repined Bastard Nation”, “Now, Diabolical” and “Mother North” was fantastic and the crowd remained engaged for the instrumental “Transcendental Requiem Of Slaves”.
Upon returning to the stage for the encore it was clear how much the crowd response meant to Satyr and Frost. Satyricon ended the night with superb versions of “Fuel for Hatred”, “The Pentagram Burns” and finally “K.I.N.G”.
Judging by everyone’s reluctance to leave despite nearly two hours of music, I wasn’t alone in thinking I would have happily watched Satyricon all night.
Photos by Exposing Shadows Photography
