Black metal is more relevant and more intriguing than ever. The latest American crop - often described as USBM - encompasses the likes of Deafheaven, Wolves In The Throne Room, Liturgy and Sutekh Hexen. Although this crop honours the Norwegian heritage of the holy trinity Mayhem, Darkthrone and Burzum, it does flirt very heavily with avant garde, noise and even electronics. Ash Borer and Fell Voices also fit into this category, embracing ambient if it were Aleister Crowley.

A beautiful contradiction: the two bands are from sunny California, yet black metal is their thing. The latest album - “Cold Of Ages” - by quintet Ash Borer made it to the metal album top 10 on Pitchfork last year. Their tracks often last fifteen minutes and focus on 'decay, dissolution, and terror’. According to Pitchfork, "each song packed with more riffs and ideas than any number of lesser USBM acts layer into entire albums."

The trio Fell Voices opens. Black metal served with atmosphere and drones. Striking: Fell Voices don’t use a microphone for vocals, but scream at the audience. Their sound is often compared with Peter Brötzmann’s free music on the ’68 classic ‘Machine Gun’. Truly epic black metal!