Live Review: Kreator, Vader, Daemon Pyre

Effectively channelling the melodic death metal wares of At the Gates, Carcass, et al, and fronted by the imposing Sam Rilatt, Daemon Pyre revelled in opening the sold out show. In a classy touch, the Sydneysiders also paid tribute to Mortal Sin member Mick Burke, whose funeral took place that day. The headliners would later acknowledge Burke, too.

It's been 25 years since the Poles' debut LP The Ultimate Incantation landed on record store racks, but if Vader mainstay and main-man Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek has been feeling the strain of that time it wasn't evident. Beloved cuts from that record (Dark Age, Chaos) laid the foundations for a set rooted in early favourites and latter-day bangers like Send Me Back To Hell. The death metallers have undergone numerous personnel shifts, but the energetic current line-up has been intact for several years, and it showed during the hour-long set. The riffs and furious drumming hit like a sucker-punch to the gut, attacked with a ferociousness reciprocated by rabid punters in the pit.

From one veteran crew to another. Fans' voices were well-lubricated and necks warmed up by the time Kreator opened with a furious Hordes Of Chaos. The prior occasion this reviewer caught the German outfit they slayed a festival crowd in their homeland, but with more than three decades' experience in the thrash metal game, they proved equally adept at delivering a blistering set for a packed indoor venue.

Being bathed in red light for much of the set, with plenty of smoke interspersed throughout, boosted the sense of occasion and atmosphere. Frontman Mille Petrozza was in his element, he and fellow axeman Sami Yli-Sirnio complementing each other's frantic fretwork. Another long-standing thrash act enjoying a career second wind, new tracks Satan Is Real and Hail To The Hordes slotted effortlessly alongside decades-old staples People Of The Lie and Extreme Aggression. A suitably full-throttle display wildly embraced by the faithful; even in middle age, restraint really isn't a term in Kreator's vernacular.