The Infernal Sea + Necronautical + Darkest Era + Deitus @ The Underworld, London – Metal-Rules.com

@ The Underworld, London

10th February 2024

Review by Demitri Levantis

Photos by Farrah Kathleen

Saturday night in London is a time when you can find all kinds of weird and wonderful events afoot, and the metal scene is no exception to that.

British black metal stalwarts The Infernal Sea had arrived in the capital on their nationwide tour to celebrate the release of their fourth album, Hellfenlic.

Opening the night was a fellow act from Infernal Sea’s label: Candlelight, whom I had only discovered the previous year and was pleased to see its lineup containing member of British groups Andracca and Trivax, who have been leading the UKBM scene’s glory in recent months.

Deitus, a band that I can best describe as one who pulls no punches and gets the job done.

From the moment they appeared on stage, I could see they meant business, particularly the way their vocalist was covered in blood and the aggression sounded delightfully from the PA system like the apocalyptic nightmare they personified.

As mentioned before, I’d only discovered Deitus on the release of their 2023 album: Irreversible, and cannot think of a better time to have seen them live for the first time.

By this point, The Underworld had begun to fill quite well with a decent crowd meaning we were in for a good night of black metal appreciation. Deitus certainly began that night by whipping the crowd into a frenzy that only a decent bunch of black metal musicians can do so with the right levels of aggression and satanic outlook.

Overall, I cannot recall any slip-ups from the band despite a few moments when the guitars seemed to cut out but came back quickly enough to keep the audible furnace ablaze. This was a brilliant introduction to Deitus’s live shows so I look forward to catching them again.

By now the crowd had swelled to a stronger capacity and there were a large number of people queuing at the merch stands, telling me this was a gig that had sold well.

And the lineup of the night explained why so many metalheads had thronged to Camden Town that night with the second act of the night: Darkest Era. Again, a band I’d never seen live before and was only vaguely familiar with.

However I have to say the Belfast outfit added a new layer of doom and gloom onto the evening with their interesting blend of traditional metal, Celtic rock-related genres, and some elements of doom metal that made me think of acts like Draconian.

Vocalist Krum offered intriguing vocals covering all kinds of topics relating to the darkest, most tragic of times, and the most pensive of feelings the human psyche faces. It was interesting to see the alternation between male and female vocals, but I didn’t feel the mikes were loud enough for me to hear most of what Sarah Wieghell was singing, but that did not dampen the overall performance.

Here was another band I’m pleased to have seen live as they’re a new one to add to the dark metal; neofolk-fusion area of my record collection. Their beautifully gloomy rendition of some of the darkest folky pieces was met with deserved applause from the crowd who now occupied almost the entire venue.

By now the attendance of the night had grown to a capacity quite fitting for the penultimate band of the night, one whom I’ve seen go from strength to strength since they appeared on the black metal scene in 2010.

Necronautical, a group whose name might conjure images of a ghost ship or a band obsessed with tales from the sea was ready to tear a new hole in the capital city. But having followed these blokes for over a decade, I can tell you there’s nothing seafaring about these guys unless you feel it best to describe their work as a voyage into madness and outright chaos.

With a set filled with tunes from their most recent album, Slain in the Spirit (2021), and across their long, versatile history, Necronautical grabbed the crowd by the throat and dragged them into an inferno of audible horrors, recounting tales of death and dark nihilism that would please anyone who gets their kicks from the most horrific media.

There’s always been a poetic or whimsical element about Necronautical that has kept my intrigue about them, a trait shared with the gone-but-not-forgotten, Shadowflag. As well as being a band that delivers black metal in a truly vicious manner, there’s an underlying element to Necronautical’s performance and songwriting that echoes through their performances, and this night they were as strong as ever.

Necronautical is a band I doubt I’d get tired of watching live and from the support cheered at them as they blasted through their set, I doubt they’ll be tiring from the stage or studio anytime soon.

These lads were as solid as ever in their set and they’d whipped the crowd into a frenzy most fitting for the long-anticipated headliners.

With the stage decked out with mike stands designed like ancient lamps complete with candles and chains, the four masked souls whom we’d been waiting all night for took to the stage to give us their latest stanzas of horror and pestilence.

The Infernal Sea is a band I’ve known since I caught one of their earliest shows over a decade ago and have always found them a tad enigmatic, owing to their act involving elaborate masks and references to the great plagues.

Now they stand as one of the strongest forces in British extreme metal and seeing them on the Underworld stage again was a sheer delight.

What made this set particularly good was it involved many good tunes from the new album, Hellfenlic, and some older ones from across the band’s history. Hearing songs from the new days and yesteryear is always a good mix in my book as it means a band has not forgotten their roots and Infernal Sea showed just how far they have come.

The entire venue was now full to the rafters so I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a sold-out show which a band like this deserves. Not a single tune faltered anywhere and despite the guitars being a bit low at the start of the set, Infernal Sea drowned us in their audible doom.

Overall, it was a delightfully infernal time from start to finish and I left the Underworld that night as happy as a good black metal show can be, despite the gig finishing a little earlier than normal because of the venue’s Saturday schedule.

I would say Infernal Sea is not going to mellow anytime soon and the entire lineup proved that Candlelight is still one of the most reliable and sturdy record labels for contemporary black metal music. A wonderful night all round.