These New Puritans @ The Garage, London

Bleak, industrial, menacing – and that’s just the Holloway Road. At the Highbury and Islington end (for one night, at least) lay something entirely more sinister: a twisted beast which recently developed an elaborate orchestral backbone and a taste for adventure. It’s name? These New Puritans.

Their debut may have garnered the odd plaudit, but there was always a lingering feeling that it was an album containing multiple flashes of what might have been. The follow-up, however, has left everyone with little doubt that they truly are a force to be reckoned with - and their live show more than confirms this.

As a statement of intent, ‘We Want War’ is about as strong an opening song as any band could ever hope for – especially when you have a chainmail-clad frontman who grows increasingly animated as the song progresses. Eight minute epics such as this should, on paper, have been a difficult hurdle for most crowds to overcome – but this simply wasn’t the case.

The relentless aural onslaught continued, and with sword slices and ghoulish orchestration adding a tremendous sense of dread to tracks like ‘Attack Music’ and ‘Fire-Power’, those present were clearly left uncertain as to whether they should be awestruck or genuinely terrified.

We’d be inclined to fall on the side of the former. Their curious mix of near-gothic terror music and tribal undertones is unlike anything else you’ll hear, and highlight the fact that These New Puritans are a band that everyone ought to experience live, at least once.