Belphegor
November 24, 2017
Union Nightclub – Los Angeles, CA
Belphegor is a blackened death metal band from Austria. They are named after the demon, Belphegor. On September 15, 2017, the band released their eleventh album titled, Totenritual. Belphegor wasted no time in touring for the new album and quickly set out on a North American tour to deliver diabolical metal to the masses.
The Union Nightclub in Los Angeles was the perfect setting for this night of black metal as many fans showed up in traditional corpse paint. The stage was setup and covered with two upside down crosses and the bones of animals. The lights went out and fog covered the stage as hungry metal fans awaited the arrival of Belphegor. What better way to spend Black Friday than seeing a black metal band.
Belphegor came out and started the show with the evil intro track Sanctus Diaboli Confidimus and then cut into the first song of the show, Bleeding Salvation. Right away, you’ll notice how Belphegor present themselves for the show. Aside from corpse paint, singer/guitarist Helmuth puts on red paint to make it seem like he, himself, has been crying blood from his eyes. The next song performed was a track from the new album titled, The Devil’s Son. Helmuth would repeatedly unleash his hellish vocals onto the audience as they happily moshed and sang along to the Devil’s music. Up next was one of the band’s popular songs, Belphegor – Hell’s Ambassador. A truly evil track that’s easy to get into and sing along to and great to mosh to. Helmuth has very little to say in between songs, just mainly the names of the songs said in a very deep and devilish voice. Belphegor laid down one satanic track after another after they unleashed hell by performing tracks like Swinefever – Regent of Pigs, Conjuring the Dead, Totenkult – Exegesis of Deterioration, and Lucifer Incestus.
Helmuth thanked the audience for coming out and announced the last song of the night which was the opening song from the new album, Baphomet. Belphegor left the stage and the stage went dark. Fans weren’t ready to go home just yet so they chanted the band’s name for them to come back out. After a few minutes, Belphegor came back out for one more song and their choice for an encore song was Diaboli Virtus in Lumbar Est. The stage continued to be filled with fog and fans kept moshing away. Belphegor bid the fans goodnight once again. A Black Friday well spent for the black metal legion.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
