On another night salvaged from Temples, watching crusty supergroup ALL PIGS MUST DIE [9] – perhaps enlivened by merely being here given their issues in making it to Europe at all or, more likely, due to the fact they’re surly running on fumes alone – is like sticking your face in front of a blast furnace for 35 minutes.
Playing only their second show since their unexpected return, kvlt doom overlords RAMESSES [8] are clearly revelling in the swelling of their fanbase during their hiatus.
Propelled by Mark Greening’s ritualistic drums, Iron Crow in particular seems to actually crumble the masonry around us. Where Ramesses crumble, however, DRAGGED INTO SUNLIGHT [9] punch right through. In the pitch black, with sparse candles and brief, bright flashes only illuminating ram’s skulls and deer antlers, their sonic torment is, tonight, like being caught in a phosphorescent cataclysm of pure nihilism – never more so that during N.V’s Absolver. With their 60-minute set barely long enough to squeeze in three songs, rancorous stoner-doom maestros BONGRIPPER [8] tonight opt to play the ‘hits’, culminating in a searing, noise-addled Endless as the massed, kinetic energy of headbanging moves the venue at least two feet down the street.
