Watain

Between hurling animal blood and carcasses at their audience and worshipping Satan, Swedish black metal act Watain have been raging away to a sound seemingly born out of the apocalypse since first forming as teenagers in 1998. Frontman Erik Danielsson's love of heavy rock thunder began when he went to his first Metallica gig when he was ten-years-old and by 16 he had formed Watain in his small home town of Uppala, north of Stockholm, with drummer Hakan Jonsson and guitarist Pelle Forsberg.

Named after a song by American thrashers Von, they were full of youthful angst and energy on their early recordings 'Black Metal Sacrifice' and 'The Essence of Black Purity', and became notorious, cult figures on the Scandinavian underground metal scene with ferocious albums 'Casus Luciferi' and 'Sworn to the Dark', before touring the US in 2008. Their extreme shows constantly divided opinion and they caused a major sensation with a concert in Brooklyn in 2014 when they flung animal blood over the audience, reputedly causing many of the fans to vomit.

Their mix of growling menace, shuddering blast beats and mesmerising speed riffs also developed soaring melodic highs on 'The Wild Hunt' in 2013, but the band have never strayed too far from their extreme, hostile metal meltdowns. Always intense, darkly theatrical and never too far from controversy, the band released the typically uncompromising 'Trident Wolf Eclipse' in 2018 which was partly inspired by the death of friend and collaborator Selim Lemouchi.