ACID REIGN

AKERCOCKE/VOICES/THIS IS ENDLESS

UNDERWORLD, CAMDEN

As potent as this is endless’s marauding death metal is, their set is overshadowed by frontman Solomon’s falling face first onto the monitor at the end. Let’s hope recovery is swift. Featuring Akercocke and Voices’

Sam Loynes, shrines are a heavier proposition live than on record, and it takes a unique sensibility to combine touches of Pink Floyd and skeletal post-punk so seamlessly. AKERCOCKE

Underworld gigs always feel like a homecoming, and tonight’s set drops the gothic 80s touches in favour of brute yet ultimately sophisticated force. Of

Menstrual Blood And Semen, with its wait-for-it lurch into outright mayhem, detonates the pit, Jason Mendonca’s host of bellows, shrieks and imperious richly textured cleans suggesting a panoply of demons being channelled. First To Leave

The Funeral adds Virus-esque levels of proggy disorientation, and it’s a set of binding, blinding brilliance. Also reunited, ACID reign were never the most serious or tightest bands of the thrash era, but frontman H’s selfdeprecating humour is a constant throughout a set whose fun factor exceeds all critical faculties.