Well, the shows are coming thick and fast. Tonight, is the utter antithesis of my previous engagement with Ghost at the arena. This is metal in its most gnarly cellar-dwelling form. Harsh, anti-social, un-commercial and utterly unrepentant. Liverpudlians Atanamir are first up, and whilst Satan’s Hollow is not in any way full, they pull a good crowd for this time of the day. They trade in doom laced thrash, which results in a really interesting intertwinement of the formers lethargy and the latter’s pulsating canter like nature. For a band that sometimes has the sludge label thrown at them, the riffs are surprisingly clear and pristine. The tracks have that slow pounding backbone but there also a groove here. Overall, they feel like a highly competent and rather exciting experiment in splicing genres that are usually miles apart. Well worth checking out.

Another band that has long since outgrown that dreaded sludge label is my beloved Pist. I have shouted wildly at anyone that would listen that Pist have emerged from lockdown a different beast. To be precise a more professional, polish and contoured beast. A proper metal band with ambitions to break out of the toilet circuit into the world above. Being a local band, they have a loyal local following and Satan’s fills up for them. Yes they are still dirty and fuzzy in place but the guitar work is immaculate.

The acquisition of Jack on guitar back in 2020 just before the world turned to shit, has given their sound multiple additional layers. It has also allowed space for John Nicholson’s guitar work to really shine. Freed from the necessity to hold up the sound, he has been allowed to go off and live out his guitar hero fantasies, riffing his little heart out, and their whole on stage persona benefits from that. They obviously have a rapport with the crowd as announcement of last song is meet with boos, though as frontman Dave announces it means you get the extraordinary Baest next. Each time I see Pist I am astonished how accomplished and well honed they have become. Yes, there is still an enthralling air of chaos and drama, but man those riffs…..

There has been a buzz about Danish upstarts Baest (translates simply as Beast) for quite a few years and understandably Satan’s is heaving when they emerge. This is take no prisoner, heads down Death Metal. It avoids the current vogue in the genre to go all technical and pristine and instead revels in its primordial nature. Baest are jagged, coarse, and really rather brilliant. The riffs are dirty and raw and shake the very foundation of the building. Death Metal is all about corrosive power and the sheer weight of the sound coming out of the speakers is astounding. They create a swirling cauldron of sound that balances perfectly brutality with structure. The tracks are immaculately constructed but also full of malevolent disorder.

Like any good Scandinavian frontman Simone Olsen’s English is impeccable. His between song banter is chatty and wonderfully irreverent. There is no aloofness here, he seems genuinely pleased to be here and to be back on stage (or at least in the middle of a room). He prowls the performance space like a man possessed, consistently in the face of the front row egging on its members. This is metal taken its base element, full of unbridled energy. It is a whirlwind of tumultuous sound, and it is a joy to behold. You can take your big production arena sized nonsense; in rooms like this is where our music comes alive and tonight Baest prove that there is nothing more life affirming that frenzied death metal.