Cradle Of Filth / Gorgoroth / Moonspell / Septic Flesh
1 December 2008
The Forum, London


For once I was relieved I couldn’t get off work early for a show advertised to start at 5pm. Arriving at 6.30pm, the queue of shivering early-birds was only just filing into the Forum and we learned that Asrai had been removed from the bill due to the late start.

Actually the delay was a blessing for me as it meant I saw the whole set of Septic Flesh. Arriving on stage to an operatic choral introduction, the Greek band launched into Unbeliever from their Sumerian Dreams album, though it wasn’t until the chorus that the song was recognizable due to very poor sound. This didn’t seem to bother a few down the front, who obviously eager to warm up, instigated a pit.

Septic Flesh* split in 2003 and reformed last year. Whilst their back catalogue numbers six full length albums prior to that split, only the opener survived from that period, with the rest of tonight’s set drawn from the rather excellent Communion album of this year. The vortex like title track saw an improvement in the sound, though to be fair with the orchestration all on backing tape, much of what we were hearing was pre-recorded. The intriguing Lovecraft’s Death had drummer Fotis Benardo speedily playing over that backing, whilst Spiros Antoniou mightily roared over the top. With guitarist Sotiris Vayenas a mass of headbanging curly mane and fellow dreaded six stringer Christos Antoniou fairly static it was left to Antoniou to hold attention, with the singer inciting chants of “rise” and arms punching during the more melodic Anubis.

At times the complexity of Septic Flesh’s material seemed a bit lost on this crowd, but under the circumstances of less than adequate sound the band pulled off the set of the evening.

Septic Flesh set list:
Unbeliever / Communion / Lovecraft’s Death / Anubis / We, the Gods / Persepolis


After a longer wait than expected, Moonspell took to the stage with swirling projections ushering in Finisterra. It was immediately evident that the Portuguese band were more familiar to this audience with fists pumping the air. Unfortunately, the common complaint tonight was that when the pace picked up the sound quality suffered. As a result, opening with some of their more aggressive material meant the set didn’t really click into gear until the waltz like Blood Tells.

The set peaked with a guest appearance of Anneke Van Giersbergen formerly of The Gathering to reprise her appearance on Scorpion Flower from the band’s latest album. Anneke’s voice soared and was admired side stage by Danny Cavanagh from Anathema.

An excellent rendition of the gothic Opium followed but just as frontman Fernando Ribeiro was about to unleash the immortal line, “You’re a beast evil one” during Vampiria, the power failed. A length break followed with numerous engineers crowded around the sound desk. Eventually things were restored for the closing Full Moon Madness which ended an up and down set on a bit of a damp note.

Moonspell set list:
Finisterra / Night Eternal / Moon In Mercury / Blood Tells / Scorpion Flower / Opium / Vampiria / Full Moon Madness


There was now quite a long wait with the same small selection of songs, on fairly low volume, repeatedly played over the P.A. really getting on my nerves. I doubt the intention was to agitate the crowd, more likely something that hadn’t been considered, but the atmosphere seemed to flatten.

Something finally happened when a man and a woman wearing only cloth around their waists climbed up onto crucifixes either side of the stage and donned hoods. Whether they arrived too early I’m not sure, but they were stood there some considerable time before Gorgoroth finally appeared and kicked started their wall of noise.

Controversy seems to follow Gorgoroth around, with prison stints, police enquiries, the band splitting in two and most recently frontman Gaahl revealing he is gay. With the black metal community not always the most open minded, it was intriguing to see what the reaction to Gaahl would be and I was pleased to see it was very positive. Wherever Gaahl wandered, he was greeted with a sea of raised horns at the front of the stage. Wandering is something Gaahl does a lot. Walk across the stage, pause for evil vacant stare, raise devil horns at crowd, repeat. Certainly Gorgoroth had gone to town with the corpse paint and spikes and Gaahl himself possesses an iconic black metal image.

Musically however this set was a lost cause. Even with sight of the onstage setlist, which the band were cherry picking from, I couldn’t work out which song Gorgoroth were playing for the most, with all subtleties disappearing into a vacuum like wall of noise. Such power was quite enthralling for a few songs until everything continued to sound the same and interest waned.

Gorgoroth set list on stage but not all played:
Bergtrollets Hevn / Procreating Satan / Forces Of Satan Storms / Teeth Grinding / Carving A Giant / Incipit Satan / Profetens Apenbaring / Sign Of An Open Eye / Wound Upon Wound / God Seed (Twilight Of The Idols) / Of Ice And Movement / Prosperity And Beauty / Unchain My Heart


With another long wait and the circumstances of the evening thus far, my enthusiasm for Cradle Of Filth’s set was evaporating fast when they took to the stage at 10.05pm. The stage set was quite stripped down for a Cradle show with projections behind the band. Shat Out Of Hell from latest album Godspeed On The Devil’s Thunder opened the set and it was obvious that the sound wasn’t going to improve massively. It was one of those occasions where if you knew the songs, you could imagine them in your head and fill in the gaps of what you were actually hearing.

A topless woman appeared on the screen behind drummer Martin Skaroupka as Dani Filth yelped out the lyrics to Giled Cunt. Filth barely stood still as he raced around the stage shifting from growl to roar to shriek, intermittently returning to his bone mic stand centre stage.

The band were joined onstage by a giant puppet, apparently called Edwina, which lolloped around during Dusk & Her Embrace, which with a twiddle of ear plugs and a strain of the hearing, turned out to be the high point of the set.

The 13th Caesar was one of three new songs played and otherwise it appeared Cradle Of Filth had decided to select one song from each of their albums with the exception of Damnation & A Day. Whether the late start had made Cradle cut their set I don’t know, but about an hour seemed rather short for a headline show, however with the sound rendering this show blunt it wasn’t a disappointment to be heading home.

Cradle Of Filth set list:
In Grandeur And Frankincense Devilment Stirs (intro) / Shat Out Of Hell / Gilded Cunt / Dusk & Her Embrace / The 13th Caesar / Nocturnal Supremacy / The Twisted Nails Of Faith / The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh / Honey & Sulphur / Under Huntress Moon / Cthulhu Dawn



*As a comical aside, my wife informs me there is actually no such thing as Septic Flesh. Look out for another top nursing fact in my next review!


LINKS:
Cradle Of Filth
Gorgoroth
Moonspell
Septic Flesh