The baubles are barely down from the tree and I am still finding pine needles every-frickin-where, but the resumption of ROCKFLESH duties signals that the holiday period is well and truly over. Tonight is a masterclass in the avant-garde corners of extreme Metal. Much fancied local melodic Black Metallers Argesk are openers and that is as much as I can tell you as they go on at around half six and to be honest I haven’t even left the house yet. Apparently, according to my sources, they were really rather good, with lush keyboard inserts and commanding vocals. It’s just a shame they were shoved on so bloody early.

I do arrive for Caronte and they are simply mind-boggling in their complexity. Unlike their tour buddies, this is not Black Metal. To be frank, I struggle to put my finger on what it actually is (they call it heavy acid doom, I simply call it good, very good). We start ceremonially with candle lightning and the presentation of ancient scriptures. But rather than be cloaked and shrouded in shrouds, the band look like they have just wandered out of a chapter meeting of the local Hell’s Angels branch. Then the music starts, the guitars swirl with a fuzzy seventies heavy rock sound and there are plenty of (pre-recorded) organ flourishes. Frontman Dorian Bones strikes a formidable presence. He towers over the audience like a demented shaman, passionately preaching prophecies of doom. His vocals are, frankly, exquisite. They veer from deep baritone to distorted and malevolently evil. All the time retaining both depth and power. There is everything in their sound and consequently they keep this lover of aggressive pigeon holing firmly on the back foot. There is doom, psychedelia, bits of trance and classic rock. Amongst others, lots of others. Still not sure what the hell they were doing, but I really really liked it.

Schammasch are nothing short of incredible. We get all the bells and whistles; synchronised hooded costumes (I presume the singer’s mum is missing her best curtains), coordinated stage moves and lighting effects. They come across as a band playing a vast hall to a rapturous audience, as opposed to fifty odd people in a freezing club below a strip joint. Their latest album, “Hearts of No Light” is quite simply stunning, a kaleidoscope of atmospheric Black Metal and sumptuous hypnotic post-rock. Live the tracks rise to another level entirely. Opener ‘Ego Sum Omega' is a swirling vortex of brittle truncated chords and ethereal melodies. It is transfixing in its intensity and spiralling riffs. Third track in, ‘A Paradigm of Beauty' is extraordinary. It starts with a jangly guitar sound that is right out of the ‘80’s goth songbook. It continues in a distinctly post-punk vein, placing euphoric layer upon euphoric layer. This is Fields of the Nephilim, reimagined as transcendental chants. By the end of the track, it has become a continual loop of clean vocals over searing guitar, spinning out into eternity. It is quiet quiet special and the adulation that greets its eventual conclusion shows that those lucky enough to be in the room think so too. 

I cannot stress enough how big the sound that Schammasch make is. It is cinematic and widescreen in both scope and ambition. The musicianship on display is utterly extraordinary; professional, slick and beautifully produced. At the heart of it is H.W.’s pounding blastbeats. His drumming is amazing and underpins the whole Schammasch sound. |t gives it weight and also powers it forward. They end with probably the most traditional Black Metal of the tracks on “Hearts of No Light”, 'Rays Like Razor’. Whilst it does owe quite a debt to Behemoth, it still manages to sound unworldly and entrancing. Then with a choreographed simultaneous downing of instruments and theatrical bow, they are gone. It may only be the 7th January, but I swear that I may very well have seen my gig of 2020. 

Enthroned have a lot to live up to and as the most traditional sounding of tonight’s acts, I initially fear the worse. Remarkably (but probably not unexpectedly for a band that have been around as long as they have and weathered so many changes in personnel), they more than hold their own. Nornagest is a formidable frontman (Metal runs through his veins, for Christ sake his cousin is the legendary Cronos of Venom). He looms over the crowd, spitting out his venomous odes of the occult and witchcraft.

Almost half the set comes from new record “Cold Black Suns”. With a back catalogue stretching back twenty-four years and eleven records, this would usually have me huffing into my keyboard or at least making frequent trips to the bar. However all is forgiven as the new stuff stands up remarkably well against the more vintage material (though to be honest we don’t get anything that predates 2007 “Tetra Karcist”). 'Silent Redemption' is particularly of note; a haunting, creeping track that uses its melodic undertones not to soften the darkness but instead to add extra layers of maliciousness. Enthroned may have been around the block a good few times and they may be on their umpteenth line-up, but tonight they prove there is very much life in the old (black) dog and that they are more than capable of keeping up with the young’uns when it comes to twisting and converting the parameters of Black Metal.