Returning to the much-missed (and recently refurbished) Rebellion for a night of black and death mayhem, the first in a long time thanks to the Plague Angels, was something of a culture shock for your reviewer, whose eardrums duly suffered. Not least for getting the timing completely wrong, arriving too late for the aggressive metalcore of Irish openers The Risen Dread and only catching a glimpse of Swiss Impalement's blackened barrage - apologies to both, and do check them out if you can! Fortunately, Polish death metal institution Vader quickly made up for it with a more than solid set from across their career that immediately started a violent mosh pit. With little banter other than admonishing the front of the crowd for watching through their phones and gently chiding an over-enthusiastic stage-diver, Piotr Wiwczarek spent most of his time on stage shredding out riffs and howling down the microphone to a very enthusiastic crowd. The band's discography is excellent, and there were cuts from all over it, from Blood of Kingu and Silent Empire to Shock and Awe and Into Oblivion. Essential cuts like What Colour is Your Blood and Wings went down like a storm, and the crowd was left wanting more but relishing what it had.

Originally it was easy to be more enthusiastic for Vader's solid death metal workmanship than the more contentious (and more varying in quality!) Marduk, yet the Swedes brought a real intensity to their brand of blast-heavy aural violence that made up for it. The moshing was more violent, if anything, than during Vader's set, and the sound more diverse, bookended by cuts from most recent album Viktoria that served as blunt, brutal punctuation marks, with a little diversity thanks to slower, more pounding cuts like Seven Angels, Seven Trumpets and Bleached Bones. Of course, this being Marduk, primarily speed and heaviness were on the cards, and the band delivered both of plenty, The Hangman of Prague and World Funeral particularly pulverising. And the band played plenty of older cuts to show off their discography, Those of the Unlight, Materialised in Stone and The Funeral Seemed to be Endless all crushing the crowd and showing a more atmospheric side off well. The set ended, of course, with the band at their heaviest as Panzer Division Marduk laid waste to all.

Perhaps a cut or two from the Rom 5:12 to Serpent Sermon album run would have improved things, but all in all, a fine show; you could find more to criticise in the audience than the artists. Crowds who mosh in black metal gigs (or mosh at all; why pay money to hear and see artists then spend your time trying to injure yourself and others?) will always seem a strange phenomenon yet Marduk are one of the heavier black metal bands, rhythmic and punishing, so the urge to move to their music makes sense. Even the bar prices were reasonable; the only other annoyance of the evening was the lack of technology at the merch stand. In this day and age, surely taking card payments is to be expected? We all want to directly support bands and buying shirts on tours is about as direct as it can be, but it's increasingly rare to be carrying cash around and rarer still to find working cashpoints, even if you want to leave the venue to go wandering in search of them. We want to give you money, guys, make it easier, not harder! But please, keep punishing our ears, regardless.