Live Review: Cradle Of Filth, Lavidius

"You got it in blacker?" is literally a statement heard outside The Triffid doors tonight. Some guy is referring to a lass's freshly dyed locks, and while it may be a line borrowed from an old TV commercial it also perfectly paints a picture of the chosen get-up for tonight's show. The sea of black T-shirts and leather looks rather impenetrable in the foyer, but once inside the venue itself it's the opposite; this show is busy, but these folk are chilled and no one appears to be in a frantic, pushy rush to get anywhere. Nice.

The hard work that Brisbane metal five-piece Lavidius have put in over a few short years has been humbly rewarded with this opening slot. With minimal stage set-up, no gimmicky costumes and even the headliner's backdrop behind them, these guys are just super-stoked and keen to bust some chops. Some of the guitars are a bit rough around the edges here and there, but they still have a nice razor-sharp tone overall and sit well beneath Nathan Stiffel's howl. After dropping a few newbies off their latest LP, Helisma, (garnering a back and forth round of, "Fuck yeah!"s between band and audience), they finish up with breakout single Wannabe and those 1990s hip-hop metal " jump, jump, jump"s are just too good to refuse.

After an extremely brief interlude, the sea of black T-shirts has swelled (and there are many of the headliner's infamous "JESUS IS A CUNT" tees being sported). The lights dim, the stage is steeped in red and horns fill the air when Cradle Of Filth burst on stage. For newcomers to this band, the one thing to note about these guys is that it's all a bit of fun, really. If you looked up videos of frontman Dani Filth you'd soon discover this man has a ripping East London accent, guzzles beer and sent his daughter to a Catholic school. Filth rips of the hood he came out wearing to reveal the jovial, fake-lens wearing goblin he is before plunging the band into Gilded Cunt. The tongue-in-cheek moments are aplenty; he retains his growl when greeting Brisbane, but tells interrupters to "please shut the fuck up" and suggests, "We can all get drunk and we sound a lot better drunk, trust me".

But that's not to take away from the music, which truly is every bit as mesmerising in the live setting as it is on their 12 albums. Super-tight guitars, ethereal backing vocals and brutal double-kicks punctuate favourites Beneath The Howling Stars, Dusk And Her Embrace, Bathory Aria and From The Cradle To Enslave, and, by the time it's all wrapped up, crowd and band are well and truly spent.