Nile + Grave + Belphegor | Live - Whelans, Dublin

All 3 of these bands have been frequent visitors to Dublin over the last few years - so you could be forgiven for thinking that the crowd might be somewhat underwhelming on an overcast Tuesday night in Dublin. A near sold out 350 attendance though proves pessimistic expectations ill founded.

What is immediately evident is how young the crowd is, how many old staples are missing and how few Dublin accents are heard. I had wondered how far Nile can take their quite often faintly ridiculous take on brutalising Egyptology but it’s obvious that the current upswing in Metal’s popularity in Ireland can breathe new life into a band as fans are constantly joining along their timeline. I’ll wager though that few of the expectant faces around weren’t old enough in 2001 for Nile’s first visit to Ireland or in the country at the time.

Belphegor have no pretensions or airs and graces about them. They have one weapon in their armoury and over the last couple of years have honed it to blackened death metal precision through constant touring. It’s not clever or fancy, and in fact it’s wickedly neanderthal in it’s sheer bloody minded intent. But this is Death metal the old school nasty way right ? No more and no less. Helmuth cuts an imposing presence and it’s clear next to Nile they are the biggest pullers of the night.

Grave are flat and flabby sounding after Belphegor. All drums and saggy bottom end even managing to make old classics like “Into the Grave” sound unremarkable. There really isn’t much to raise this above countless other 5 outta 10 Death Metal performances I’ve seen recently and the crowd react accordingly with a marked lack of energy as they plod through their set. Nowhere near as abominably bad as Hate Eternal’s show here last month but far too workmanlike to goad an old hand like myself.

Nile soundcheck in front of a restless and eager crowd which somewhat kills the element of surprise and when someone flings an empty pint glass stageward, for a moment, knowing Karl and Dallas, the soundcheck might have been all we get.

It takes a long time into the set for one to feel that Niles two elder statesmen would rather be here than on the bus watching movies, but the absolute suffocating brutality soon takes effect and there is little to do but submit and let it wash over you. The pit is intense and just as tempers seem to boil over, another pint glass is flung at Karl and they threaten to walk off completely.

Why you would pay into shows to throw things at a band is beyond me. For a moment I’m transported back to the late 80s and early 90s in Dublin, with the band asking for the crowd to kick the offenders ass. Back then you most certainly would have left with your teeth in a bag. Maybe Death Metallers today are altogether more polite. In the end nothing happens, the set continues and the mind wanders.

It’s painfully obvious Dallas is not a frontman and young Chris on bass to his left should be the centre satge, constantly whipping the crowd into a frenzy with his sheer unbridled enthusiasm. If Nile realise that, then they might elevate themselves to the pantheon of legendary live death metal acts. But far too often tonight, watching the bodies flailing in the pit was more gripping than the band onstage.

Alan Averill ::: 25/09/08