As the first rumbles of guitar on opener NWO echo through the room, giant white banners curl down from behind I Prevail as the lights swivel overhead. It takes less than five minutes for the first bursts of pyro to detonate, and as Bow Down crashes in, those mushroom clouds of flame just keep coming.
‘Statement of intent’ feels too pedestrian a phrase. In fact, it almost seems strange to imagine that some of these songs – the lip-curling swagger of Self Destruction, the tachycardic beatdown of Body Bag – were played in rooms less than half the size of this in the last week.
The other bands get to have in on the celebration too. Jamie returns to the stage to tear through Violent Nature, while Haley joins to add a richer, grittier tone to the verses originally sung by Amira Elfeky – who was supposed to support but dropped out – on the shadowy newcomer Paradise.