Behemoth, O2 Institute, Birmingham - review

Despite the early start time the venue is already nearly full, with a lengthy queue having formed down Digbeth long before the doors opened.

On a three band bill of heavy hitters, WITTR are probably the outliers, with their lengthy songs avoiding brute force to trade off atmosphere and texture.

With three guitarists and a keyboard player it makes for a psychedelic experience that is, at times, intoxicating.

For a brief moment, and the sound of crackling fire that underpins set centrepiece The Old Ones Are With Us almost transports into the deepest, darkest, most rain drenched of forests.

It’s the job of Swedish legends At The Gates to bring us back to the real world.

They pioneered a melodic strain of death metal that became known as the Gothenburg sound back in the 90s, split up way too early, but returned a decade later and last year released To Drink From The Night Itself ­– an album that ranks up there with their very best.

Melodic they may be, but in the live setting At The Gates go-for-the-throat.

They open up with the title track from the aforementioned 2018 record, and from then on in there is no let up.

Singer Tompa Lindberg prowls the stage with a slight hunch, punching his clenched fists to the air one moment, instructing the baying masses to perform a circle pit the next.

There’s plenty of ATG fans who would have loved them to just play material from the first two, but despite a set that focused on the newer stuff, we still got an absolutely crushing rendition of Slaughter of the Soul’s Blinded By Fear.

The very second the Swedes leave the stage, Behemoth effectively start, as the haunting children’s voices from the track Solve chant out across the venue: “Jesus Christ… I forgive thee not!”

Many critics assumed Poland’s finest had peaked with 2014s masterwork The Satanist, but they were proved wrong when Nergal and co returned last year with I Loved You At Your Darkest, a sprawling, brooding beast that takes the listener on a journey straight into the bowels of hell.

It’s a record Behemoth plunder heavily from tonight, on the second date of the UK leg of their Ecclesia Diabolica Europa tour.

They set the scene with Wolves ov Siberia, before treating us to tracks including the marvellously named God = Dog and the haunting Bartzabel, which sees Nergal donning the robes and bishop’s hat of some demented Satanic preacher.

The frontman, who survived leukaemia to take his band of approaching three decades onto new heights, is in great form tonight, dominating the stage and demanding full crowd participation in his mock Satanic rituals.

With Behemoth you expect over the top theatrics. Inverted crosses are everywhere - including one that flashes onto a map of the UK - and bassist Orion’s corpse paint makes him look a bit like a polar bear that fell into a tar pit.

But beyond the props and the devil worshipping, there’s a band at the very top of their game. Unusually for a band of such vintage, Behemoth actually seem to get better with every tour.

The night ends with We Are The Next 1,000 Years, and Behemoth have satiated their legions once again.