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You’ll seldom see a band as ragged as BLACK SKIES BURN [7] be so enjoyable. The Oxfordshire quartet burst through a set of blasting, crusty grind that, with songtitles like Cunt The Fuck Off, clearly doesn’t take itself very seriously. Despite their ramshackle onstage persona, the music gets them over the line. It definitely becomes a slicker affair upon CRYPTOPSY’s [8] arrival. The Canadians have more than 25 years of penning technically masterful, ultraviolent death metal behind them and tonight play 1996’s None So Vile in its entirety. What comes across when hearing fan faves like Slit Your Guts is just how fresh they still sound. Even though some might wish to have seen the Crypotpsy line-up that recorded the album, this incarnation is as tight and focused as ever. Vocalist Christian Donaldson is an excellent frontman who commands the crowd with a cry of “Come on, you cunts” before throwing his imposing frame around the stage and sole surviving member Flo Mounier is the octopus-armed human metronome he always was. Cryptopsy are still vile.

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.