Live Review: Paradise Lost, Rise Of Avernus, Cruciform

Having reconvened in recent years, '90s-bred outfit Cruciform certainly wouldn't have appeared out of place opening for the headliners two decades ago and this sensibility still rang true in 2017. The Sydney mob's slow, lurching doom/death metal proved an appropriate mood-setter, exuding a sonic sense of foreboding.

Fellow Sydneysiders Rise Of Avernus are experienced hands at the international support-slot caper and this was evident from the outset. The corpse paint-sporting act's orchestral doom/death with a dash of prog was executed with a conviction that seemed to impress some of the previously uninitiated. Particularly noteworthy was drummer Andrew Craig's animated facial expressions and sheer showmanship.

Misery loves company. Even though gloom merchants Paradise Lost were met with a respectably sized gathering, albeit lower in numbers than to be expected on a Friday night, those who did pay their hard-earned eagerly anticipated a set covering most bases of their nearly 30-year existence. Given that frontman Nick Holmes acknowledged that the English metallers' 15-record career represented "a fucking lot of albums", satisfying all parties would have been nigh on impossible, especially for a band whose fanbase so vigorously debates the merits of its respective eras. As a confident and seasoned live outfit they gave it a fair crack, however.

An often somewhat staid, less-than-buoyant onstage demeanour was fitting for the brooding fare. But it wasn't perhaps until One Second, followed by Enchantment (from 1995 goth-metal masterpiece Draconian Times), a handful of songs in, that the punters truly found their collective voice. As I Die may have felt akin to a token nod to their early days for long-time devotees, but was rapturously received. A healthy dose of material from sludgier, more doom-focused latest disc Medusa, especially its title track and The Longest Winter, translated with greater weight live too.

Perhaps the modest turnout meant the atmosphere rarely reached any genuinely grand heights, but metal's perennial pessimists remain a viable entity in heavy music.