PAIN
ENSIFERUM / ELEINE / RYUJIN ISLINGTON ACADEMY, LONDON
Peter Tägtgren’s industrial metallers forge a futuristic/ancient alliance
Pain run through a wide spectrum of industrial metal
Ensiferum earn their folk metal stripes
JAMES SHARROCK
THREE BANDS DEALING in various levels of pomp, fantasy and historical wish-fulfilment aren’t the most obvious choice of support for a renowned industrial metal act, but no one’s gone broke by getting metallers to shout “Hey!” or have a communal jig, and it ensures an air of celebration that builds up steadily through the night. But even if the 5.30pm start means the Matt Heafy-managed RYUJIN – formerly Gyze – have a small crowd to feed off, there’s not a huge amount of energy coming from the stage. For all their Trivium and Turisas-hijacking gallops, frontman Ryoji Shinomoto’s fret wizardry, backing tapes of epic Japanese melodies, and samurai-inspired stage clothes, it feels like all their musical building blocks are so well-established that there’s no scope to project or conjure any real sense of thrill.