Live Review

Swallow The Sun – Camden Underworld

• 22nd Dec 2010

A Cold and wintry December night sets the perfect scene for a foray into the world of dark, melancholic, melodic doom. (or however you want to describe it!) Given the biting cold and icy pavements, I was beginning to wonder if the London travel chaos was going to put a dampener on tonight’s proceedings. I was happy to find upon my arrival, a merry band of determined metallers, seemingly immune to the cold had gathered.

Mar De Grises take to the stage in order to open the night. Their downbeat and often discordant melodies immediately set the scene for all that followed. I was especially impressed with some of their rhythm guitar sections paired with some very inventive double kick drum and these guys definitely know how to write powerful guitar harmonies. It’s never easy opening a show, especially at the Underworld but MDG warm the crowd up nicely and receive a warm ovation from a small but enthusiastic crowd despite not having complete control of the nuances of their sound, so important in setting mood. I will be listening to more of these guys in the future based on what I heard tonight.

Second up were Solstafir. A band that quite literally need to be heard in order to fully describe their sound. Imagine a melodic doom band mixed with a classic rock band and you’re getting close. The singer owned the stage brandishing a Flying V and a bottle of Jack. For all intents and purposes, it could have been Zak Wylde on stage. Indeed the rest of the band have embraced hat wearing and dreadlocks and their overall look is one of ‘Rock’ as opposed to ‘Metal’ but what’s in a look anyway? Solstafir’s songs are probably fittingly described by the band as Icelandic ballards. The music is full of euphoria in places and the listener is treated to a barrage of soundscapes lasting seemingly forever. Layer after layer is added and each song usually is followed by a proper rock-tastic finale. I was instantly hooked and Solstafir were the find of the night for me. The vast proportion of the now growing crowd was also happy with what they saw.

Swallow the Sun are now firmly routed in the upper echelons of this particular genre of metal and take to the stage knowing this. Vocalist, Mikka seems however to be almost meek when approaching his microphone, despite his fellow band members coming on stage and inciting the crowd. This actually added a quality to the band’s presence instead of diluting it as one might expect. Of course, the sound was perfectly tailored to their performance; melodic sections come across with clarity; heavy, chugging sections come across with the appropriate amount of force. Unfortunately, at times (and on other occasions when seeing this band), the vocals were lacking, not on account that Mikka can’t sing; he has a great voice with many layers but his delivery isn’t exactly bellowing through the PA. Nevertheless, if you weren’t too bothered with hearing every single lyric, then this would be of minor importance compared to the overall quality of the show. I was especially pleased to hear early material from ‘The Morning Never Came’ album, especially the song, ‘Hold this Woe’. Newer material was played also and songs from STS’s newest album, ‘New Moon’ seems to be as confidently played as anything else from the band’s back catalogue. Other highlights for me included: ‘The Ship’, ‘Swallow’ and ‘Plague of Butterflies’ although how a thirty-odd minute song can be packed into five and still sound great is anyone’s guess. STS play to a hardly sold out crowd but one could tell that the majority of those who turned up are long-time fans and not just those there from a purely curious point of view. Swallow the Sun are set to take the melodic doom genre by the scruff of the neck in the future.