in various levels of pomp, fantasy and historical wish-fulfilment aren’t the most obvious choice of support for a renowned industrial metal act, but no one’s gone broke by getting metallers to shout “Hey!” or have a communal jig, and it– formerly Gyze – have a small crowd to feed off, there’s not a huge amount of energy coming from the stage. For all their Trivium and Turisas-hijacking gallops, frontman Ryoji Shinomoto’s fret wizardry, backing tapes of epic Japanese melodies, and samurai-inspired stage clothes, it feels like all their musical building blocks are so well-established that there’s no scope to project or conjure any real sense of thrill.
