Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno @ Corsica Studios

I have a nagging ringing in my right ear every time I close my jaw. The point where my skull meets my neck is vaguely aching. Yesterday I went to see Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno in Elephant and Castle. In front of a chunky stack of amps on the right-hand side of the stage guitarist Kawabata Mokoto radiated effortless metallic glory shredding relentlessly like the demented old uncle of Herman Li from Dragonforce. I don't think I saw a single drop of sweat come off that guy's forehead and when near then end he thrust his guitar up with one muscled arm to deflect the laser into the crowd amidst feedback and fuzz it felt like it might have been ultimate energy. Adorned with long wizard sleeves and silver beard Higashi Horishi swayed high over crowd and keyboard like a mystic poplar of portent, clearly illuminated by the divine cosmic connection that reveals itself to you after three bottles of red wine. Effortlessly immense and relentlessly fun, two hours and the tiny dark den of Corsica Studios couldn't contain the universe-inspired rock resplendence of these willowed old masters. And perhaps it was the wine, but they seemed in top form. "Perhaps you don't remember him .. last time we came he was thin: now he is very fat" joked Makoto of bassist Tabata Mitsuro, later professing unashamedly to capitalist tendencies as he entreated us to give up all our money at the (overwhelmingly equipped) merch table: turns out the poor guys had been taxed £600 to send everything over from Japan. "Please Queen help us" he beseeched. With drummers Shimura Koji and Pikachu ("Like father and daughter" joked Makoto) feeding perfectly into one another to add extra layers of minute detail to the underpinning rhythm, and a pretty constant undertone of screeching fuzz, A-M-T raised a holy hell-storm of metal prog-psych of interplanetary proportions, light-year speed and zen endurance.