dark funeral live

I’m afraid I have to start this review with a bit of a rant. You see, the published door time for this gig were 7pm and that’s certainly the time that was printed on the tickets that my mates had, so arriving at a venue about thirty five to forty minutes after that time to find that the THIRD support is just finishing up their set because the doors were actually opened at 6pm isn’t exactly great! So, apologies to Zonaria, whose set I didn’t see enough of to make a judgement of and to both Carach Angren and Nefarium whose sets I both missed entirely as I was making the approximately seventy five mile journey from Liverpool on a work night and had absolutely no chance of seeing with the, apparently last minute, decision to open the doors at 6pm!

Anyway, onto the actual review – and though they were the fourth band of the night, the first band I actually got to see was our own Akercocke, a band that have always done things their own way and who I’m sure will continue to do so after the departure of guitarist Matt Wilcock who is leaving the band after this tour. Playing a balanced set drawing from all of their albums, from the set-starting Man Without Faith or Trust off their most recent album to one of their earliest songs Il Giardino Di Monte Oliveto Maggiore and pairing the classic one-two punch of Of Menstrual Blood And Semen and A Skin For Dancing In for the first time in a long time, the band all look like they’re enjoying being onstage with an active audience in front of them. Long term fans of the band will have seen the way the band performs onstage change from the besuited gentlemen Satanists that were a malevolent force that rarely spoke to the crowd other than to engage in over the top ritualistic speeches that Christopher Lee would have been proud of in his Hammer prime to a band that, while still as musically savage as ever, show just a little bit more of their human side with frontman Jason Mendonca, who looks ever more like a Geography teacher, even cracking jokes onstage now. They may not be as imposing as they once were but in many ways they’re actually a much better live band these days and hopefully Matt’s departure won’t keep them off the road for long.

Despite their similar lyrical outlooks Dark Funeral are a very different proposition to Akercocke, where the British band are very progressive and often seem to approach their music from the left-field Dark Funeral are much more straight forward. Dark Funeral have a much more ‘typical’ black metal look with their faces corpse-painted and wearing ‘armour’ that 1980s wrestlers would be proud of, it has to be said though that vocalist Emperor Magus Caligula really is the living embodiment of Bill Bailey’s “hello, we’re Slayer” gag with him vocalising all manner of unearthly screeches one minute and politely thanking people for coming out to see the band the next. As you may expect, with the band promoting the latest album Angelus Exuro pro Eternus the set leans quite heavily on the new album, with Stigmata coming across particularly well. That’s not to say there’s a lack of oldies though with every album getting at least one song from it aired tonight, though, somewhat surprisingly the classic Open the Gates isn’t played. This was my third time seeing Dark Funeral and despite having at least two changes in personnel since I last saw them the band once again play an excellent, tight set with their songs showing a thrashier edge than their recorded versions leading to lots of headbanging and a few moshpits breaking out throughout the course of the set. Dark Funeral have always been an entertaining live band and I’d recommend anyone who has even a passing interest in their material to see them live if they get the chance.

Overall then the two bands I did see put on great performances, helped, it has to be said by the usuallu excellent Rio’s sound... but moving the door time an hour forward with essentially no notice really isn’t on. Missing bands because you’ve turned up late to a venue (whether intentionally or not) is one thing but missing them because a venue has decided to open the doors earlier than scheduled is entirely another and I hope it’s a situation that never occurs again.

by Neil Woodfin