BELPHEGOR, The Arena, Torquay, 17 October 2026
Extreme metal hits the English Riviera! Who'd have thought it? Mexico’s A Call For Revenge opened this four-band bill rather nervously at the undevilishly early time of 7pm. With a fairly sparse crowd the two guitarists and drummer kicked things off with a doom-laden instrumental before waiting an unfeasibly long time for their vocalist Yoav Krinsky to emerge from the dressing room. That technical hitch aside, those who’d arrived early were treated to a highly energetic and vehemently enraged set from the deathcore quartet.
With more people filing in and an enthusiastic crowd beginning to form Dutch female black metal four-piece Asagraum picked up the baton and ran with it. With the stage bedecked with glowing skulls and coming over like a very, very angry Girlschool they wasted none of their 35 minutes, barking vocals and riffing furiously. For the uninitiated, scowled song titles were a bit hard to decipher, but ‘They Crawl From The Broken Circle’ and ‘Impure Fire’ certainly hit the spot.
A friend had tipped Krisiun as the band to see, and their technical death metal approach took things on a slightly different path. The brothers Alex (bass and vocals), Moyses (guitars) and Max (drums) boast a degree of technical proficiency which is apparent for all to see, and material like opener ‘Ravager’ and ‘Endless Madness Descends’ struck a chord with the crowd – many of whom appeared to be there pure for the Brazilian trio – as did Alex Carmargo’s seemingly endless expressions of gratitude to the fans. “Without you we are nothing,” he growled more than once.
20 minute changeovers had been the order of the day, but headliners Belphegor required an extra ten minutes to fill the stage with skulls, upturned crosses and other ephemera associated with the scene. Releasing their first demo in 1993 the Austrian four-piece are old hands, slick and professional, and with nothing new album-wise since 2022’s ‘The Devils’ last year’s singles ‘Scarlet Beast – Leviathan’ and ‘Sanctus Diaboli Confidimus’ were welcome additions to their ‘Praise The Beast’ 2026 tour set, while older material like ‘Baphomet’ and ‘Lucifer Incestus’ were greeted like old friends. A night to remember, certainly…
John Tucker October 2026