On a rainy night at the Camden Underworld Greek band Inactive Messiah opened up the celebrations for Vader’s 25th anniversary European tour with a reasonable set but a bad drummer. Towards the end the material sounded a bit samey but as always, nuff respect to a band for having the guts to give it their all in front of a hostile yet sparse crowd. Next up was Devian, the ex-Marduk members’ Legion and Emil Dragutinovic’s new band. They fired out some typically Scandinavian black metal with tinges of thrash and old-school heavy metal whilst all the while vocalist Legion’s piercing stare was burning into the excited crowd.

Then came Septic Flesh also from Greece who were greeted as well as any headliners. Indeed a layman wouldn’t be laughed at for thinking that they were Vader as the ecstatic cheers and moshing from the crowd got only more intense as their brutal set went on. Retiring backstage as true heroes, Septic Flesh were followed finally by the real headliners – Vader. There are no prizes for guessing where they are from for anyone who was at the gig as impassioned chants of ‘POLSKA POLSKA’ rumbled the foundations of the venue. Someone even got on stage to unveil a Polish flag emblemised with ‘Vader’ across it to enormous cheers. When the band finally came out the crowd went almost insane. Driven by the brutal guttural slash and pummel of Vader’s punishing attack the crowd neared anarchic chaos throughout the gig. There was perpetual crowd surfing and circle pits and anyone who was in there definitely came out with at least a few bruises thanks to the drunk Polish guys going absolutely mental. Vader themselves naturally managed to execute a very tight and crowd-pleasing set for a band that has been together probably longer than half the crowd have been alive. All in all a truly crazy night and a guarantee that Vader are still at the top of their game despite being old men now. Impressive no?

Reviewed by Liam McLaughlin

Photography by Asif Salam