If the modern metal scene can often appear overly clinical and predictable, The Dome in Tufnell Park, London is going to turn into an oasis (albeit one befouled by brimstone and sulphur) for devotees of the dark side and the occult-curious this Sunday February 22 as the venue plays host to five incendiary and utterly exhilarating bands - Ascension, Bölzer, Deströyer 666, Vassafor and Dysangelium – all representing metal’s leading and most thoroughly devoted wing.
Hailing from Germany, Ascension are already a revered name in the extreme metal underground, wrestling black metal away from its more orthodox trappings and into turbulent if melody-tainted new territories. Their latest album, The Dead Of The World, is a dramatic, edge-of-the-seat plunge into atmospheric realms and a visceral quest for revelation built on massive dynamics that bind tension, feral determination and deliverance.
With just two EPs to their name Switzerland-based duo Bölzer’s uncompromising, groove-bolted act of channelling has seen their reputation spread across the metal spectrum and beyond as their raging and rapturous live shows spawn yet more converts in their wake, dissolving all boundaries between death and black metal, reality and the convulsive worlds just at the other side of consciousness. Petitioned to play by festival organisers all over the world, Bölzer are the most talked about band in the underground right now, and if you don’t know already, this is your chance to find out what all the fuss about, and your opportunity to dive off the edge of reason.
Forged in the red sands of Australia over 20 years ago, and since relocated to the UK, Deströyer 666 are the leading blights of ‘war metal’, the feral, adrenaline-charged take on black and death metal that originated Down Under, and a band that takes a steel-capped boot to the doors of perception without stinting on the kind of gloriously fist-raising riffs that could run over a rhino.
Both New Zealand’s Vassafor and Germany’s Dysangelium are playing their first ever shows on these shores, so the former’s baleful, blackened rites and the latter’s storm-invoking, pulpit-pulverising sermons leave you with no excuse for arriving late. Doors open at 4.30pm and tickets for this unmissable and perception-altering offering to the most ancient and voracious gods of heavy metal are £18, so make this Sunday an act of delirious desecration and we’ll see you down the front!
Check out the Facebook event page here!
And order your tickets here!
