Behemoth & Cradle Of Filth - The Forum, London - February 10 2014 (Live Review)

Try and think of the most evil, decadent thing you can. Chances are, you won’t manage to match the supremely satanic bill put on at the Forum tonight - Behemoth and Cradle Of Filth are in town. May the power of Christ compel you indeed.

Unfortunately, the three support acts fail to build anticipation towards the monumental co-headline attack. While Svarttjern and Inquisition play well enough, they sadly take too many cues from Gorgoroth and Immortal respectively. Top marks for effort, but on a bill topped by giants of the genre originality is key, and there's not an awful lot of it here.

In Solitude offer a change in pace and style that sadly, isn't received well by the punters. A particularly nasty man persists in shouting “go away” while the Swedish doom metallers try, and fail, to ignite the crowd. Their performance is energetic, the tunes are decent, but the baying horde just isn't having any of it.

That completely changes when Cradle Of Filth hit the stage. The opening throes of At The Gates Of Midian blare out of the speakers, and Dani Filth rocks up wearing a massive cloak. It's not like he takes himself seriously anyway.

Chtulhu Dawn then eviscerates the crowd, its pounding beat excusing the Forum's terrible attempt to get the guitars at an audible level in the mix. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Cradle's debut album, 'The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh', old tunes such as Haunted Shores and Beneath The Howling Stars make for spectacular setpieces. Filth’s vocals have spectacularly improved after a lull a few years back and it's fabulous to hear him belt out the verses to Funeral In Carpathia.

Overall, it's a solid outing for the band. The setlist is one of the best they've churned out for years, but it just doesn’t hit home as it perhaps should. The sad, but necessary, absence of guitarists Paul Allender and James McIlroy leaves a metaphorical hole in the performance. Their understudies, Ashok and Richard Shaw, make admirable replacements, but, for the band's 20th anniversary, it just doesn't sit right.

There are no doubts with Behemoth though. Kicking things off with the demonic Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, the Polish giants play their brand of blackened death metal with true intensity and the applause for frontman Nergal is deafening. At the end of Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer, he screams: “It feels good to be alive!” No statement could ring truer given his recent battle against leukaemia.

Nergal leads the band through a salvo of tracks new and old. Obviously, Ov Fire And the Void kicks a tremendous amount of arse, but the inclusion of Driven By The Five-Pointed Star sates the appetites of die-hards in the crowd.

Behemoth choose to close with the mighty O Father O Satan O Sun from their perfect new album, 'The Satanist'. Wearing horned metal masks and playing with punishing precision, they finish and leave with minimal fanfare. Behemoth came, they saw, and they bloody well conquered.

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