NIGHTRAGE DEMONIC RESURRECTION/SYMBOL OF ORION
229 THE VENUE, LONDON Greek melodic metallers head up a night of international thrills
Underside and the Silence Festival may have helped put Nepal on the metal map, but if you want any further indication of how strong the country’s scene is as a whole, tonight’s openers for an enthralling international bill, symbol OF ORION, are the equivalent of a huge neon sign. Londonbased but taking spiritual and occasional, subtle music direction from their homeland, their dense architecture of juddering, technical riffs, barrelling, death metal grooves and squalling yet elevating dynamics takes a clear cue from Gojira, but charges into fully fledged territories of their own. All four members look thoroughly committed to the cause, and the energy proves infectious.
“Who’s seen us play before?” A host of hands go up. “Damn, that means you’ve heard all my Brexit jokes already.” If you have caught Mumbai, India’s DEMONIC resurrection at least year’s Bloodstock or Incineration festivals, you’ll know how much the between-song banter becomes an integral part of any performance, and how thoroughly they can win over a crowd of any size. At tonight’s small venue, the connection with frontman Sahil ‘The Demonstealer’ Makhija becomes that much more intimate, but his trading of call-and-response jokes with audience members never takes anything away from seething grandeur of the music. This is epic death metal riven with sublimely executed leads, effortlessly lashing bounding black metal and classic touches with shameless made-for-live dynamics that has an entire room throwing horns and raising fists on command. Despite songtitles such as Death, Desolation And Despair, Demonic Resurrection are as uncompromisingly uplifting as extreme metal gets.
nightrage frontman Ronnie Nyman might not quite have Sahil’s charm, but he doesn’t lack in passion, or a band of committed supporters to feed off. Greek in origin, but relocated to Gothenburg – the natural home for their melodic death metal assault – the long-running group, who once counted Tomas Lindberg amongst their ranks, aren’t exactly breaking any sonic barriers, but their musical mastery has a potency that could trade blows with any of their Swedish peers.
JONATHAN SELZER