Among the underground's most championed practitioners of sinister, Satanic black metal, Swedish legends Watain closed out a banner 2022 with a live set South of the Border in Tijuana, MX to a capacity crowd that was as much a part of the ceremony as the band was.
Showcasing selections from their seventh full length studio effort with this year's The Agony & Ecstasy Of Watain, frontman Erik Danielsson led a symphony of the subversive as the band ripped through classics in the making like "Ecstasies in night infinite", "The Howling" and "Serimosa".
The band also took on cuts from deep in their catalog including "Devil's Blood" and "I Am the Earth" from the 2003 album Casus Luciferi as well as the vile "Reaping Death" from their Lawless Darkness era. Each selection only served to reignite the crowd as the pace throughout the evening proved nothing short of combustible.
Following an extensive year of touring, one that saw Watain share the stage along with Norwegian black metal fixtures Mayhem, Watain's headlining Agony & Ecstasy Tour showcased a unit firing on all cylinders. Finding the rhythm that comes with the regularity of being married to the road, along with the band's uncanny ability to create a truly unholy sinister spectacle, the Swedish horde were at the top of their game both in style and execution.
Check the complete gallery of images below captured by rock photographer Maurice Nunez
