First to welcome the Fallen angel wee Brazilian black death metal maniacs NervoChaos.
Grinding death influenced guitars and ferocious drumming set the tone for the next thirty minutes.
The bellowed vocals of Lauro Nightrealm thundered through the venue. The high energy set had everyone paying utmost attention. Heads were banging and horns were in the air.
The performance was tight, thoroughly entertaining and a strong start to the madness that followed.
Next to hail the Lord of Light were Belgian black metal heavyweights Enthroned. The blistering guitars, blastbeats and rumbling bass fired everyone into a headbanging frenzy, orchestrated by the ominous presence of man mountain Nornagest.
The dark imagery, corpse paint and eerie lighting only intensified the evil spewing out of the amplifiers. Enthroned showed over the course of forty minutes why they have been a driving force in black metal for nearly 25 years.
Every eye was transfixed by the dark Satanic madness conspiring on stage. The powerful vocals, razor sharp musicianship and a certain flair for the dramatic held the room captive from start to finish.
As the lights then dimmed to a creepy blue and crosses made of bones and goat skulls adorned the stage the ravenous congregation edged their way closer to witness what was to come.
Austrian blackened death metal giants Belphegor tore the Limelight to pieces in support of their absolute beast of a new album, ‘Totenritual’.
The stage presence was absolutely fear inducing, as a heavily corpsepainted Helmuth Lehner and his morbid band of madmen caused aural carnage and mayhem in its rawest form.
The monstrous bass, crushing blastbeat drumming and shredding fretwork turned the place into a nightmarish warzone.
The Limelight was now a place of evil, and Helmuth made sure nobody forgot it with demonic roars, inhuman shrieks and rasping eerie monologues throughout the performance.
It was a night of pure darkness in Belfast. A night that those in attendance will not soon forget.
Despite the lineup being plagued by Deströyer 666 and Nordjevel dropping out at relatively short notice NervoChaos, Enthroned and Belphegor put on a show that shook the Limelight to its very core.
Review by Phil Noonan
Pictures by Darren McVeigh
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