Pitch Black Summer Live Review // Carach Angren, Wolfheart, Thy Antichrist and Nevalra at Audio, Glasgow, Scotland

You don't get many "nice days" in the UK, a nice day being practically any day the sun can be seen. Luckily, today was a nice day to travel to Glasgow for the Pitch Black Summer Tour. This was Carach Angren's first headline run across Europe, and first visit to Scotland. With them, Finland's Wolfheart and America's Thy Antichrist and Nevalra. Four bands, a couple hundred fans and a very intimate show at Audio.

Black Metal newcomer's Nevalra kicked the night off, fast and heavy. Nevalra's debut album, Conjure The Storm, just came out in June of 2019, but these guys played tight as hell and did nothing but wind this crowd up right off the hop. Between a small mosh pit starting almost instantly and the audience getting absorbed right into Nevalra's brand of Metal, I have a feeling it won't be very long until we see more of them on the road. Highlight of the band's set was the closing track "Prophet For Profit", it's aggressive, it's catchy and it's intense. The audience loved it and people wanted more.

After a short intermission, to darkness and fog, Thy Antichrist hit the stage. Donning full stage garb, frontman Antichrist 666, looks more like an undead shaman than a Metal vocalist. Majority of Thy Antichrist's set is made up of track from their newest release, Wrath Of The Beast, and that's exactly what these guys sounded like. They were releasing the wrath of the beast. Aside from the pure force these guys drop live and the level of musicianship they all possess, they also write some catchy lyrics. "The Great Beast", off the aforementioned new album, has one of the catchiest choruses you'll hear in an Extreme Metal track, "Time by time / piece by piece / I'm possessed by The Great Beast".

 
Main support for this tour is Finland's Wolfheart, who were easily the most mellow of the band's on this package. While they had some good hooks, a large chunk of the crowd seemed to take this as a chance to catch a breather. The pit settled down to practically nothing while the headbangers took full advantage of the melody that Wolfheart brought to the table. Wolfheart fit in as much as they could from their career through their set, with an emphasis on their newest album Constellation of the Black Light. It was a solid set, but a bit out of place compared to the blitzing power of the two bands prior.

Finally, for the first time ever in Scotland, Carach Angren hit the stage. Drummer Namtar was first to step on stage, in a mask to the sound of "Electronic Voice Phenomenon". Followed by touring guitarist, The Butcher. Symphonic horror master and keyboard player, Ardek. Finally, vocalist Seregor joined them on stage. Just like from the band's 2010 release Death Came Through A Phantom Ship, the aforementioned intro is followed directly by "The Sighting Is A Portent Of Doom". The crowd was wild, instantly and the venue very quickly became a sweatbox. Carach Angren's setlist was filled to the brim with their strongest songs and almost getting something from every album, only missing out on This Is No Fairytale. Right off the top, they got their main pit song out of the way, "The Carriage Wheel Murder". The band's stage show is impressive, particularly "Blood Queen", where the band uncover their mannequin of Jane Doe, a faceless, bloody and beat woman. "Who wants to be my blood queen?" Asks the frontman, eagerly met by one of the fans at the front of the stage. After cutting open Jane Doe's throat and licking blood from some more intimate places, the frontman shares a kiss with his blood queen, covering her in blood. The end of the set consisted of one of the most intimate songs in the band's discography, "The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist". During the slower parts, frontman Seregor played an invisible violin using a knife as the bow, while keyboardist Ardek marches (on the spot) to the beat of the drum. The set ends the way it always has, "Bloodstains On The Captain's Log". The crowd got the last of their energy out during this track and come the end, everyone left the show thrilled. Carach Angren delivered on their first Scottish show and the only complaints were the lack of This Is No Fairytale songs and the fact they didn't play longer.