When I was young the package tour was the preserve of the golden oldies’ sixties brigade, hoisting Marti Webb and the Tremolos from provincial town to provincial town. It’s certainly had a facelift as a concept as Rising Merch’s Faces of Death tour is a multi-coloured promenade through Death Metal’s more elegant avenues.  Originally scheduled for last November, there is a culpable sense of relief from all involved that a) it’s happening at all and b) that so many people had remembered that they had booked the darn thing in the first place. Not even a World Cup home nation derby is enough to put people off, as the place is stuffed to the rafters from the off.

This tour highlights Death Metal’s more civilized and virtuoso side. It’s Death Metal that you could take home to your gran for tea. However, we all need a feral little brother and openers Harbinger plays the role of snotty uncivilized youth. They are certainly much more straightforward in their approach than their touring brethren. It is heartening to see that so many people have opted for an early tea and are in situ from the start of their short but highly effective set. They are highly aware that they have 25 minutes to impress the socks off the gathered hoards and they waste no time in getting down to it. Dilan Alvers is a hyperactive entity making good use of the stage space that they are allowed and musically they are a vociferous furnace of crashing riffs and hurtling reserves. Whilst they are less technically minded than the rest of the bill, their headfirst approach to musical dexterity warms the rapidly filling rebellion up nicely.

Making up for almost two years when nobody could get anywhere, the rest of the bill is a veritable feast of American acts that we were beginning to think didn't love us anymore. Inferi hail from the musical heartland of Nashville, Tennessee. A club under a railway bridge may not have been top of their list when they dreamt about making it overseas, but nevertheless, they seem rather chuffed to finally have made it over here. They adeptly set out the stall for what lies ahead for the rest of the evening as they specialise in the same brand of technical/melodic death metal as the rest of the bands to come. At the heart of their sound is the absolutely exquisite guitar work of Malcolm Pugh and Mike Low. My non-death metal loving accomplice (and photographer) is dumbfounded. They demonstrate a level of musical complexity that simply isn't usually within the death metal lexicon. "It's like watching Dream Theater" he manages to stutter before going back to snapping anything that moves. It is beautifully constructed and elegantly melodic and just rather wonderful to listen to.

Allegaeon are equally made up to be here and seem to be having the time of their lives even if it is within a tight 25-minute window. Part of this is probably due to the return of Ezra Haynes to the fold. He originally played with the band from their inception in 2008 up until 2015 and has been drafted back in to specifically cover these European shows. He may be technically a fill-in but he and the band look so comfortable with having him back where he belongs. They exist in the same musical waters as Inferi (growled vocals/virtuoso guitars) but there is more depth and variety to the sound. It feels epic and almost orchestral in places, and it certainly falls under the auspices of widescreen.

The assembled throng seem to absolutely revel in it and the level of audience participation (in a club that is now full to capacity) eggs the band on to increase the intensity further. It utterly beautiful thing to watch as Allegaeon absolutely dine out on their ability to play to a live crowd again. Ezra's return may be temporary, or it may be the start of the next chapter, it doesn't actually matter. What is important though is this was a stunning example of a band playing simply for the utter joy of playing.

Fallujah are in a rather interesting situation. On the one hand, they have just released, in the form of “Empyrean”, one cracker of an album, and on the other on the eve of this tour they have had 3/5 of their members go AWOL. So, what we get here tonight is a completely new iteration of the band, with only Scott Carstairs and Andrew Baird remaining from the Fallujah that last graced Rebellion on the eve of the pandemic. There is nothing like a heavy touring schedule to bed in a line-up and this new incarnation already seems to be firing on all cylinders and it is hard to see the joins.

Whilst personnel have changed, the sound hasn’t, and they still ply a precision-engineered version of death metal that seems to go beyond technical and into quantum mathematics. The structure and intricate nature of the riffs that Scott produces are simply breathtaking. Yes everyone in this package neatly fall into the technical and melodic categories but none of them really hold a candle to the level of complexity that Fallujah invoke. This is death metal presented as a four-dimensional algebra puzzle and it makes my head hurt just trying to define and deduce the number of layers and sub-layers that the band knit together. But at the heart of this multifaceted composite, there is still a primal heaviness that drives the whole thing on. Like a mathematics professor with a sledgehammer, this is an unholy alliance of the cerebral and the primordial and it is absolutely divine.

Line-up kerfuffles seem to be the name of the game in terms of this tour and headliners Rivers of Nihil haven't escaped unscathed. Rhythm guitarist Jon Topore jumped ship earlier on in the year, to be followed in October by their enigmatic and charismatic multifaceted vocalist Jake Dieffenbach. Bassist Adam Biggs has stepped up to fill the gap at the front of the stage, but these are big shoes to fill. Vocally he makes a very adept replacement and his screams and growls fit. But what is missing is that aforementioned charisma. I'm sure Adam is a perfectly lovely guy and you could spend a wonderful afternoon in a snug with him and a barrel full of Guinness, but he doesn't blaze from the stage in the way that Jake did. For a band who have created such wonderfully diverse and varied take some death metal tonight just felt a little, safe. It's all perfectly serviceable and they are perfectly enjoyable as a live spectacle, but it all just lacks the spark of inordinate creativity that burned out of ‘Where Owls Know My Name’ and ‘The Work’.

Maybe I am being picky as the crowd laps it all up in wave after wave of adulation and the pit soon encircles all the floor space it can muster. From their perspective, the way that the band interlaces the experimental musical movements with the harsh vocals is simply masterful. They delight in every breakdown and every ornate guitar passage and there is adoration oozing out of every pore. As a collective whole, they get what Rivers of Nihil are doing this evening, so perhaps it's me that is not quite in tune or on song. I'm more than happy to be wrong, I am at an alarming frequency, but what I witnessed on stage tonight doesn't quite match up to or emulate what I know they have been capable of on record. I wanted the sax solos, the opulence, the mind-bending diversity and just the transcendental creativity. I know all of those are intrinsic parts of their DNA but this evening, to these ears at least, they seem to be absent. Still, a stellar and sterling performance that had me stirring in my seat but this is a band who I know are capable of absolute excellence and we weren't quite there.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos! Rivers of Nihil, Fallujah, Allegaeon, Inferi, Harbinger