Live Review: Solstafir - Club Academy, Manchester
Support: Hamferð andOranssi Pazuzu
21st November 2024
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: David Schutz
Horrendous weather, heavy traffic and some political demonstration marching down Oxford Road make me later than I’d like to be and, unfortunately mean I miss the lion’s share of Hamferð’s set. What I did manage to catch of the Faroe Island’s doom death delivery is certainly something that would make me want to investigate them further. Not as mournful as a My Dying Bride, yet not as romantically optimistic as a Swallow the Sun, Hamferð were a fine way to open this bill.
That tonight is the opening night of the Anthrax / Kreator / Testament tour and it’s beginning in the Apollo, just across town, gave me some concerns as to how busy the Club Academy would be this evening. But it seems not everyone in the district could be tempted by a night of Thrash, rather opting for the guaranteed psychedelia sure to be on offer.
Psychedelic Finns, Oranssi Pazuzu, with a new album, Muuntautuja, having just hit the shelves seem in a bamboozling mood. There’s nothing from this point that will be conventional, and the band begin their set with newbie, Bioalkemisti; brilliant white light seer with the same disregard for humanity as the harsh industrial slog pronouncing from the PA system. Almost Godflesh-like in its misanthropy, yet with the occasional flourish of organic sounding supplements. The earlier Kuulen ääniä maan alta, from the previous record, Mestarin kynsi, follows next, arriving with the uncanny use of bells usually heard on nursery toys. The industrial nature of the music might have become less harsh, but it is no less electronic, all the while featuring demonic black metal vocals.
The title track of the new album maintains the dark industrial feel of the set, Uusi teknokratia arrived, heralded by a harmonica and delivering up some crazy jazz rhythms, and there is a certain soundtrack feel to Valotus. Trying to pin Oranssi Pazuzu’s sound down to a specific category is like trying the plat smoke, as whenever you come close, the band head off into a completely different direction. They are, in many respects, crafted from the same material as Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega, and their ilk, in that theirs’ is a performance that is to be experienced as much as it is watched.
Icelandic post-metal band, Sólstafir, must have been walking under ladders when scheduling this Manchester gig, finding out about the show at the Apollo. Vocalist, and only original member, Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, in his introduction to Hún andar, thanks the crowd at the Club Academy for choosing to spend their evening with them rather than with Anthrax, et al.
But not for the clash of dates, I would be thrashing away at the Apollo, but Sólstafir have recently issued a killer new record, in the shape of Hin Helga Kvöl, and their performances at back to back Damnation Festivals in 2014 and 2015 are enough to draw me into this headlining set.
Beginning with the epic, sweeping instrumental of 78 Days in the Desert tells us that Sólstafir are not here merely to hawk the new record. The first vocal appears on Silfur-Refer, a more measured and accessible tune, with build in prog credentials among its soaring guitars.
The punk stylings of Blakkrakki marks the first stop at the new record; an AC/DC tease acts as the introduction to start of Svartir sandar’s title track, firing the gun on a complex journey through Gothic, post metal, soaring synths and acoustic guitars, blended expertly and served at the perfect temperature. That same album’s Ljós í Stormi comes with an extended running time in which big waves of Pink Floydisms lay a platform for which emotional vocals ebb and flow. Hún andar continues the fascination with progressive music by having a distinctly latter-era Anathema feel to it
A spacious and western sounding Fjara precedes the new album’s title track’s fast and furious blitz approach; the multi-layered instrumental Ritual of Fire takes the listener through a vast soundscape of scope, scale and intent, and Ótta brings an end to the main set with another vast and spacious tune, this time accompanied by additional classical instrumentation.
Sólstafir’s show ends as it began, with a composition from the 2009 album, Köld. Goddess of the Ages, another lengthy tune, enraptures in a way that the thrashing at the Apollo perhaps didn’t; another sumptuous feast of a composition, looking to engage you cerebrally, as do most of the band’s material.
As an alternative to the shindig going on elsewhere, the Nordic Descent tour was a journey through some of the more unusual interpretations of how heavy music might be presented; and was a perhaps more sedate, while enlightening, way to spend the evening.
Photo Credits: David Schutz
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