1st Nelsonian Black Metal Sabbat: Daemon, The Adversary, Beltane @ Smiths Ford, Maitai Valley, Nelson

This was the first in what is hoped to be an annual event. As twilight started to fall we arrived at the venue, which was a large natural bowl which provided a really cool atmosphere. The crowd was very small and consisted only of local insiders, because the flyers had only been produced 24 hours before the gig. No one was worried about this however as the alcohol started to flow.
The bands had hoped to get underway at 20:42, as this was the exact time of the Solstice, and that is what this event was celebrating. However, it wasn't until about 22:00 and daylight was totally fading that Beltane finally took the stage, after an opening invocation by vocalist/guitarist Xanataph. They played a set of rather melodic and atmospheric Black Metal, which the locals didn't really get into at all.
Next up was a dark jam session featuring Kez screeching her dark poetry over the distorted guitar of Xanataph and the drumming of the Beltane drummer. The sound rolled around the valley quite impressively and was very evil.
At about midnight The Adversary was finally ready to hit the stage, and they played a very dark and technical Death Metal, which finally got a drunken fan up the front. In every pause between the songs he yelled about how he had only come to see The Adversary, not some hippie folk shit, which didn't exactly endear him to everyone who had enjoyed the previous set. At the conclusion of the set a drunken red-neck pulled a large gun out of his pick-up truck and let a few rounds off into the sky. We were quite relieved when this brought absolutely no attention to our gathering.
It must have been about 02:00 when Daemon finally picked up their instruments, and by that time most of them were stoned and tripping. Giles the maniac pyromaniac ran around keeping the torches alight as the band played. Towards the end of the set Xanataph went to light a cross that they had constructed, but it burst into flames rather completely and he danced dangerously and rather wasted through the flames, while the more sober around the place tried to get all the leads out of the fire.
That was about the end of things, but we stayed on, because the PA system was perfect for sitting around and listening to Darkthrone and Mayhem on - about the closest you can get to seeing them live in this part of the world.