Live review: A Night of British Black Metal (November 2025)

Intro

Wulfhere Productions return to the haunted underground tunnels of The Banshee Labyrinth in the Old Town district of Edinburgh to bring us four British black metal bands of varied styles for a local showcase of fantastic extreme metal acts.

After meeting with friends for some pre-show drinks and chat, we made our way to the venue for doors opening, and just as last time it’s another sold-out show in the cramped basement vault.

Dreich

Kicking us off for the night are Aberdeen-based Depressive Suicidal Black Metal act Dreich: a band that I have become very familiar with through the year. As they play not only many shows across the UK, but are soon to tour Poland they are establishing a strong presence in the scene.

Opening with Tower of Sorrow, a song that beautifully and gently prepares the crowd for the evening ahead as it picks up in pace before the blast beat finale. This wakes us all up for a breakneck paced evening of headbanging.

Nemus pulling the microphone cord around his neck to strangle agonising and torturous screams out of himself before falling down to his knees for a more traumatic whimpering of distressing moans encapsulates the gloomy mood of Dreich. Of course, he also screams out his usual catchphrase of “Kill yourselves!” in a long, deep, harrowing growl to further hammer the point home.

The band were firing on all cylinders tonight as they played their melancholic tunes in a very solid fashion, finishing with Sharing Death as Nemus lets out his final call “We have been Dreich, go and fuck yourselves” and launches a noose into the crowd.

Mourning of the Heretic

A last-minute replacement after Ullenwood had to drop out, Mourning of the Heretic hailing from Northern Ireland are a more doomy black metal band focusing on ideas of occultism and romanticism.

A band that after a seven-year hiatus resurrected themselves in 2023 to release their debut album To The Shadows Betrothed in 2024. This is my first time seeing them, and I know they are on the line-up for shows I’m attending next year, so I was excited to see how they fared live.

After the slightly lengthy sound check, the five members all ready themselves to play their first notes, only to immediately stop as the drummer yells out “What the fuck? The drum’s fucked!”. The wonderfully gothy lead singer (Mark), looking moderately inspired by a cross between Ville Valo and early 2000's Davey Havok, was wonderfully charismatic through complications of the technical difficulties. He tells us to occupy ourselves and eases the tension with some banter, teasing us that he should have practised his stand-up comedy routine ahead of the show.

After some tech-crew intervention and the magical saving grace of duct tape was applied, Mark told us to “ignore all that” as they prepared to begin once again, with Possessed from their debut album.

The band played an incredibly tight set for the crowd, with a more upbeat and melodic tone to their music which set them apart from Dreich and changed the pace up. With introducing members on stage between songs and incorporating spoken word elements, there was a great stage presence from them as they performed She is Death, The Ghost Who Loves Me (fitting for such a supposedly haunted venue), Meridian (dedicated to the Team Jacob fans of Twilight - films I’ve never actually seen). Before finishing with two songs that appear to be new; Midnights Children and Amor Occulto. 

I truly enjoyed this performance and I am already looking forward to next year when I’ll see them take the stage again.

Thy Dying Light

From deepest darkest Cumbria, Hrafn of Wulfhere Productions sets up for one of his own bands. Stage props galore as we have candelabras (four this time!), skulls, bones adorning the stage, and inverted crucifixes hanging from the amps to set the ambience of this old school black metal inspired act.

As they began their onslaught with Under the Horns and Cold in Death for some furiously fast black metal, disaster struck Hrafn as his guitar strap fell off mid-song. Carefully balancing his Explorer and finding a comfortable enough position, he didn’t miss a note as he soldiered through the song.

Rattling through crushing tremolo riffs with bleak raspy vocals and relentless blast beats with songs such as Carpathian Mountains and Fist of Satan, the set was non-stop 90s black metal worship delivered with expertise.

For the final song, Derek of Burial joined on stage to perform a cover of Satan My Master by Bathory, beginning the performance with an almighty “OEUGH!” to get the crowd headbanging along to this all-time classic. Unfortunately, there were guitar issues during the end of this set with the guitar cutting out and the quality of it almost peaking it seems. Nonetheless, their set was otherwise solid, and the crowd was having a great time ready for our final act.

Burial

Our headlining band of the evening is Burial, a similar affair as our previous act with a tone that likens itself to black metal of the 90s, but with a slightly more angsty and punky vibe for its brutally blasphemous themes.

After a quick soundcheck, the trio gets straight into the intro of their set, only for the amp to perfectly time it, cutting out as soon as the song is supposed to kick off. Seems there was a loose cable at the back, which likely could have also been what was affecting the end of Thy Dying Light’s set beforehand. A simple fix, and we were thrown into the frantic pace of their set with sacrilegious delights such as Rejoice in Sin, Bastard of Christ, and Sadism for God.

There was plenty of stage banter between songs as Derek teased Thy Dying Light for having a birthday party on stage beforehand as he pointed out all the candles about the place. In a friendly jab he dedicated the next song to Hrafn: Black Metal C*nt.
(Sorry for censorship, but the almighty algorithm really does not like that word). 

Dreich were also not escaping the banter being quick fired between tracks, “Dreich say kill yourself, but you can’t kill me…. Diabetes will do that” getting a laugh from the crowd and band alike.

We got a taste of some beautiful tremolo riffs with Hellish Reaping Screams, and oppressively heavy blasts in Putrid Grave before we finished off with the unsubtly profane Nun Fucking Black Metal. 

Conclusion

And as Derek told us to fuck off and buy some merch, our Night of British Black Metal had ended. The crowd dispersed to navigate the subterranean maze searching for the merch tables or to wander the cobbled streets of Edinburgh, embracing the brisk cold. 

We had a few issues tonight with technical difficulties affecting the equipment and gremlins in my system causing issues on playback. Perhaps it was the haunted venue and the Victorian ghosts within that were not too keen on the blasphemous black metal happening in the cold stone walls that they remain trapped in. Or it was just shit luck that we have to accept and persevere with. Either way, this was a brilliant evening showcasing acts from the British Isles, and likely my final live review of 2025.

Wulfhere Productions will return in 2026 with new events, three festivals taking place in Fellfoot Woods, and A Weekend of British Black Metal comes to Edinburgh - a two-day event with a line-up that has yet to be announced. No doubt I’ll be returning for that one.

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