Live Review: Opeth – The Piece Hall, Halifax
1st August 2026
Support: Paradise Lost, Katatonia
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Tim Finch
It’s Yorkshire Day apparently, a fact I was unaware of as I crossed the border into hostile territory. Had I been in full knowledge of this I would still have ventured over to the wonderful venue that is the Piece Hall in Halifax, built in the late eighteenth century and originally a trading hall for cloth, for what promised to be one of 2026’s live highlights.
I’m going to make no bones about this one as, combined, I’ve seen the three bands on this bill a total of about fifty times, so they aren’t unfamiliar to me and, in the interests of full disclosure, I would class myself a ‘Big Fan’ of each of them.
It’s still a balmy evening, and the sun is blazing pleasantly over the Piece Hall as Swedish gothic doomsters, Katatonia take the stage. It’s been a while since I last saw Jonas and company without the dark to add to their melancholic atmosphere; but there’s enough milage in this morose machine to be able to cope with such inconveniences as daylight. Opening the whole show with the lead track from last year’s turbulent Nightmares as Extensions of the Waking State, Thrice, guitarists Nico and Sebastian have had a couple of years not to make the Katatonia sound their own and they ably weave the delicate threads among those rambunctious riffs. Dead End Kings duo of Lethean and Dead Letters blend Jonas wistful vocals with driving rhythms; the mid-section of Dead Letters, with its fragile movement, plays like a heartbreak throughout the rapidly filling courtyard.
Forsaker turns things on their heads with the powerful and driving assault that is found right across the Night Is the New Day record. Jonas announces the tenth anniversary of The Fall of Hearts album as he introduces the orchestral tones of All Hearts Fall. On record this is a tragic tale of sorrow and loss, live it’s a dynamic and introspective confessional. No Beacon to Illuminate Our Fall is classic latter-era, full of emotional peaks and troughs, and a masterclass in how to pluck heartstrings and guitar stings simultaneously. All too soon it’s time to end, and it’s left to a twenty-year-old My Twin to close the set on a high note.
Hometown heroes Paradise Lost are greeted like returning prodigals as they take to the Piece Hall stage. The Ascension album is almost a year old now and is continuation of the last few albums with the band looking to their deep dark past and merging it with the styles they have experimented with over time. The three promo singles from the new record are all played tonight, opening with Serpent on the Cross, and receiving a forest of raised hands for their troubles. One Second, from earlier in the experimental period, is given a gentle reinterpretation, bringing in doomier vibes in place of the poppy sensibilities of the original recording.
In his usual gruff-Yorkshire man manner, vocalist Nick Holmes comments on how it’s a shame they pulled the swimming baths down and informs the crowd that today’s show is being filmed. The middle of the set goes deep into the past, with The Last Time and Hallowed Land from the Draconian Times record, an extremely welcome Ember’s Fire, and Shades of God’s As I Die, which was commented on as being written not far from here, many moons ago.
The last time I was at the Piece Hall it was pouring down and, in usual Yorkshire fashion, the sun shining directly on the stage was a good enough reason to blame God for the weather. Tyrants Serenade is built around a massive chugging section; the cover of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy is always a pleasure to hear as the band’s gothic nature melds well with the story of alienation and ostracization. Symbol of Life is still one of my favourite Paradise Lost records, so any time there’s chance to hear material from it is fine with me.
Opeth drummer, Waltteri Väyrynen, ousts Jeff Singer for the Obsidian track, Ghosts, which is only fair as he did play on the album version of it. He departs with just one more visit to Ascencion left, the first single from the record: Silence Like the Grave, which appears to get every head in the Piece Hall bobbing.
That Opeth bring their Last Will & Testament Exclusive Summer 2026 Concert Series to the historic confines of the Piece Hall is significant as to how this venue is regarded by bands of this stature. This is the only UK show on the current touring cycle, a tour that has seen them playing, among other places, Pompeii, a la Pink Floyd.
The band make full use of the video screens as the evening gives way to the night and darkness descends. I nominated The Last Will & Testament record as my Album of 2024, and it’s still something I regularly return to, finding it slowly giving up its secrets with every new listen. The screens show images from the story of the album during opener, §1; spotlights sweep the venue and searing white lamps rip open the night. This is musical theatre complete with lengthy extremity and gruff vocals.
In Cauda Venenum Swedish language version of Heart in Hand, Hjärtat vet vad handen gör, is barely noticed as being anything unusual, as it switches between ripping solos and gentle acoustic guitars, all the while flames lick up the screens and embers fall. The millennial transition between Opeth’s progressive death metal sound heard on three Candlelight records, and their brave new world that would arrive with Blackwater Park, is represented by Still Life’s Godhead’s Lament. Illuminated with images of lightening behind clouds, the tune is punchy and powerful, and a match to much from its more illustrious successor.
Ever the consummate host and with sarcasm ramped up to eleven, Mikael takes some time before §7 to explain he’d been warned that Halifax might chant ‘Yorkshire’ which might sound like ‘You’re Shit’; he explains that the next song is written in drop-d – “the most metal of tunings…” and that he likes to write songs some people find unlistenable. He japes that even the band finds some of their music unlistenable! Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson’s contribution to the record is the only audio used not created there and then by the band but, due to the precise nature of where it needs to fit, and the imprecise nature of a live band playing, Mikael expresses his concerns about managing to get the narration in exactly the right place.
Stories about religious protests on the back of the song The Devil’s Orchard and an anecdote about Phil Anselmo before Windowpane are just some of the onstage musings you come to expect at an Opeth show. The signature opening to The Grand Conjuration is unmistakable, leading into mesmerising visuals and hypnotic rhythms. Blackwater’s The Drapery Falls has another request for Freebird – which Mikael admits he cannot play – but does admit to writing the two-chord intro to Drapery. Hex Omega takes us back to Watershed and the now obligatory thirteen-minute encore of Deliverance bring the curtain down – or the drapery fall – on one stunning night of music.
A perfect combination of sound, vision and location, with the spire of the Square Church lit up in addition to the stage lights. I’m aware of having a conscious bias on this one, but I can’t imagine many people left the Piece Hall without feeling they’d just witnessed something very special.
Photo credits: Tim Finch
For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.
Be the first to comment