Behemoth & Arch Enemy / O2 Academy / Birmingham
As lines up go, you really get much better that this one. With Behemoth and Arch Enemy co-headlining with support from Carcass and Unto Others on their European Siege Tour. With a train strike, and early doors at 17:30 it made for an interesting and frantic car journey, with massive queues in Birmingham city centre. Finding a spot to park, I headed to the O2 Academy for a first visit. First impressions were great. Fantastic venue, with good sound and friendly helpful staff. The stage is maybe a bit smaller than in others, and probably the reason we had no pyros for the Behemoth set which happened elsewhere. There’s a big crowd in, and the metal heads of the West Midlands were in for a treat.
First up on stage we have Portland’s Unto Others who played a thoroughly engaging set of gothic metal. Fitting the mood, the lighting was minimal, mostly blue from the back of the stage, making it so difficult to get any really good photos, but as a fan, it fitted the sound perfectly, which had a different and cool dynamic. For me the opening track Heroin and the final track When Will God’s Work Be Done were the real highlights, the latter in particular with a real driving, hard gothic sound. Overall, a great sound. The balance between guitar and bass is great and the drums pull the whole sound together brilliantly.
Set List
Heroin
Give Me to the Night
No Children Laughing Now
Can You Hear the Rain
Nightfall
Summer
When Will Gods Work Be Done
We hardly have time to breathe as next up, Carcass hit the stage. Unto Others were great, but Carcass took that dial and wound it right up to 100 ! Right form the off, the intensity was off the scale. We open with Exhume To Consume as Jeff Walker growls out the vocals over a wall of metal noise, raising his bass high in the air. The guitar of Bill Steer brings a real rough, but technically brilliant edge to the sound. The intensity of the set just doesn’t dip from start to finish, as the crowd surfers come over. Carcass are quite simply a band not to miss, producing an incredible wall of extreme metal sound that bounces round the O2 Academy. And this is only band number 2….. we have two more to go !
Set List
Buried Dreams
Kelly’s Meat Imporium
Incarnated Solvent Abuse
Under the Scalpel Blade
This Mortal Coil
The dance of IXTAB
The Scythe’s Remorseless Swing
We have a bigger break now as the crew set up the stage for the first ofo ur headliners, Swedish metal band Arch Enemy fronted by Alissa White-Gluz. A melodic death metal band whose members have varied history coming from bands such as Carcass, Armageddon, Carnage, Mercyful Fate, Spiritual Beggars and The Agonist. Now on a Europe wide tour, following the release of their latest, and exceptionally good new album “Deceivers”. As we head into the it, we are faced by a huge curtain with the words “Pure Fucking Metal” in huge black letters.
The curtain falls and we’re straight into Deceiver Deceiver with its pounding guitars and heavy drums. It’s a crushing wall coming out over the crowd Alissa’s vocals wrapping it all together. This is followed by perhaps my favourite AE song, the anthemic War Eternal which showcases her vocal dynamic range brilliantly.
Up next is an old classic in the form of Ravenous from the album “Wages of Sin” with its great instrumental mid-section showcasing the fantastic guitar skills from Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis. House of Mirrors, is a big hit live with the crowd, from their new album “Deceivers”. My Apocalypse gets a rousing cheer from the crowd with it’
Perhaps the highlight of the set for me was the wonderful performance of The Eagle Flies Alone mid-setwhere Alissa’s vocals take centre stage. A visual treat too, the band members moving round the stage freely, interacting with each other and the crowd, Alissa with the most magnificent colourful headbanging style.
Snow Bound is an enjoyable instrumental track that provides a welcome breather and showcases the talents of Michael Amott and Jeff Loomis who combine to produce some beautiful melodic riffs. As we reach the end of the set Arch Enemy give us Nemesis from “Doomsday Machine” released back in 2005. A true Arch Enemy noise-fest, a wall of sound driving out of the speakers, showcasing a band that are in top form. As the set draws to a close, we end with Fields of Desolation.
This was my first time seeing Arch Enemy and they did not disappoint. The performance was rock solid from the first note to the last – A consummate performance.
Set List
Deceiver, Deceiver
War Eternal
Ravenous
In the Eye of the Storm
House of Mirrors
My Apocalypse
The Watcher
The Eagle Flies Alone
Handshake With Hell
Sunset Over the Empire
As the Pages Burn
Snow Bound
Nemesis
Fields of Desolation
Wow, three bands down and just the small matter of Behemoth to come. We’ve already been treated to a great line up, could it get any better ? Again, another longer break as the stage is re-fashioned. Their iconic ornate mic stands appear with a white screen behind. Behemoth are performing on the back of the release of perhaps their best album to date and that’s saying something) “Opvs Contra Natvram”.
You could feel the sense of excitement growing, and as the lights dimmed the screen lights up with a close up video of Nergal speaking to a soundtrack. The image is imposing and bears down on the audience, then you noticed the touch-lit face of Nergal, coming up to the screen, teasing us…..
The shadowy outline of the three front of stage band members appear before the screen suddenly drops and the band launch into Post-God Nirvana from the latest album. It is an onslaught on the senses, both audible and visual, with their gothic appearance, and white faces with smeared black makeup it creates an intimidating appearance, which is basically the point. The difference visually from the bright stage of Arch Enemy is striking and the atmosphere feels dark and so incredibly intense.
Ora Pro Nobis comes next before we dive into Deathless Sun and the pace is intense and unrelenting. Next up is one of my favourite Behemoth tracks Ov Fire and the Void from 2021’s “In Absentia Die” before another track form the latest album in Thy Becoming Eternal which blasts out from the stage.
The brilliance of Behemoth is that it’s not just ‘noise’. You can make out the intricate tones and sounds that build together into the whole and Thy Becoming Eternal is a great example of this with the drumming of Inferno…. Intense but complex, the speed of his pedal work is mezmerising, setting the sonic scape for the guitars of Nergal (Adam Darski) and Seth (Patryk Sztyber) to intricately blend together.
Nergal is an intense presence on stage, even the way he moves around creates a sense of foreboding, intensity, while bass player Orion (Tomasz Wróblewski) is an imposing figure on stage, both physically and sonically giving the visual aesthetic a menacing edge.
With a huge back catalogue of great material to chose from, I was so pleased that my favourite track Bartzabel gets a performance from their 2018 release “I Loved You at Your Darkest”. This is the track that got me hooked on Behemoth. The track has a medieval chant like feel to it, as if summoning some dark presence. If you’ve not heard it, this is the track to hear the real essence of Behemoth. The performance is outstanding. Nergal resplendent in his magnificent towering headpiece, Inferno’s drumming heavy and powerful, thudding through the stage and every bone in your body.
No Sympathy For Fools is just as immense, paving the way for another classic track in Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, from 2014’s “The Satanist” album.
As we reach the end of the set the spoken word introduction welcomes Versvs Christvs, before the set ends with Chant for Eschaton 2000 from 1999’s “Satanica” album, which starts with a peel of bells as the stage turns blood red. Seth and Orion take their positions as they and as the guitars/bass scream into life, it feels like the gates of hell itself are flung wide open. A fitting end to an incredible set.
I liked the balance of the set overall, with tracks from throughout their back catalogue. It feels like the culmination of a journey to date, not a ‘here’s the new album with a few favourites thrown in’ kind of tour.
Nergal leads the band in saluting the crowd and the legions return the worship. An incredible performance and well worth the wait to see.
Walking out in to the light refreshing rain my heart is pounding from the intensity of the experience. Four incredible extreme death/melodic/black metal bands, ALL on top form. For the money, I don’t think you could have a better evening.
Set List
Post-God Nirvana
Ora Pro Nobis
Deathless Sun
Ov Fire and the Void
The Becoming
Conquer All
Daimonos
Bartzabel
Off to War
No Sympathy
Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel
Versvs Christvs
Chant
