When you have three acts on a weekday night all deserving of a lengthy enough set to justify the horrendous costs of just being there, then by necessity an early start is required, which is no fun on a school night. Most weekday evenings that sadly means whoever has the graveyard shift is generally playing to an empty room as punters slowly trickle in in time for the headliner, but the queue is up around the back of the venue from about half six this evening patiently awaiting the doors to open. The reason for this, is that openers High Parasite (9) are a band of the moment.
This reviewing lark entails always being there from the start of the night and gritting your teeth at the bar prices, but tonight I am rather glad of this. I will be honest, when I applied to see this gig, I had no idea who the support slots had been allocated to up to and including the moment I walked through the door, because it’s been a relentlessly busy month for shows.
So, the delight in discovering that the openers had gone from being Aaron Stainhope’s side project to his main event after he walked away from My Dying Bride last week just in time for the start of this tour was palpable. Those in the know that turned up early were rewarded with an effervescent set of synthy Doom with a band that had overnight gone from an interesting sideline to a full-blown attraction. Given that MDB and tonight’s headliners pretty much started the whole Doom Metal movement from the Yorkshire underground in the early 90’s, this is an important tour for High Parasite.
They rise brilliantly to the occasion, enjoying the generous allocation of lights and sound desk from the headliners that allows them to own the stage and totally win the crowd around in very short order. Stainhope, resplendent in an exceedingly brave cream white suit and matching white corpse paint that evokes some of Graham Bonnet’s more eclectic 80’s fashion decisions totally deliver the goods and seems happier on stage than he has seemed for some time. With a band bedecked in an equally eclectic set of outfits one might expect them to be equally chaotic in their delivery, but these guys are absolutely in sympatico from bar one, and very soon the audience is with them. That’s how you open up a Metal show…
Next up is Italy’s Messa (6), who are an odd choice for the middle spot tonight. They describe themselves as ‘Scarlet Doom’, which is their shorthand for a style that splices and dices Blackened Doom with Ambient Jazz in a really unusual way. I’ve not come across them before, and although they’ve put the miles in and have a solid discography, things don’t quite gel tonight here in Bristol. Being sandwiched between (sort of) the British gods of Doom on their home turf must feel uncomfortable, and that mood spreads from the stage to the crowd.
Don’t get me wrong, when singer Sara really lets rip, she reveals a full and powerful range that would work well in a more Avant Garde Symphonic act, and guitarist Alberto delivers some fantastic Bluesy solos that Joe Bonamassa would be proud of, but they both unleash their party tricks too sparingly, and neither of these things feel right in a Doom act. I know these things get planned well in advance, and Messa are signed up for the whole tour with High Parasite only on board for the UK dates, but under the circumstances swapping places would have made sense for this leg of the tour.
Paradise Lost (10) are absolutely on fire tonight. I’ve seen this act many times over the years and there are nights when they are top notch and others when they aren’t in the mood but fuelled by the resoundingly positive response to their stellar 16th studio album Ascension, the band have taken their top-notch benchmark and dialled it up to eleven. Or maybe sixteen… It’s the fourth strong album in a row, but I also firmly believe it’s going to prove to be an all time top three for most fans, given that all the ones in the room here already know all the words less than a month from release date.
The concern when established bands rock around for another tour is that the set list all too often comprises of the same greatest hits with a couple of new ones bolted on to justify touring again. Testament proved that very point last week just around the corner, but that’s absolutely not the case tonight with Paradise Lost. We only get three songs from the new album, true, but the rest of the set list consists of some deeper cuts from the past than one might expect.
They rise brilliantly to the occasion, enjoying the generous allocation of lights and sound desk from the headliners that allows them to own the stage and totally win the crowd around in very short order. Stainhope, resplendent in an exceedingly brave cream white suit and matching white corpse paint that evokes some of Graham Bonnet’s more eclectic 80’s fashion decisions totally deliver the goods and seems happier on stage than he has seemed for some time. With a band bedecked in an equally eclectic set of outfits one might expect them to be equally chaotic in their delivery, but these guys are absolutely in sympatico from bar one, and very soon the audience is with them. That’s how you open up a Metal show…
Next up is Italy’s Messa (6), who are an odd choice for the middle spot tonight. They describe themselves as ‘Scarlet Doom’, which is their shorthand for a style that splices and dices Blackened Doom with Ambient Jazz in a really unusual way. I’ve not come across them before, and although they’ve put the miles in and have a solid discography, things don’t quite gel tonight here in Bristol. Being sandwiched between (sort of) the British gods of Doom on their home turf must feel uncomfortable, and that mood spreads from the stage to the crowd.
Don’t get me wrong, when singer Sara really lets rip, she reveals a full and powerful range that would work well in a more Avant Garde Symphonic act, and guitarist Alberto delivers some fantastic Bluesy solos that Joe Bonamassa would be proud of, but they both unleash their party tricks too sparingly, and neither of these things feel right in a Doom act. I know these things get planned well in advance, and Messa are signed up for the whole tour with High Parasite only on board for the UK dates, but under the circumstances swapping places would have made sense for this leg of the tour.
Paradise Lost (10) are absolutely on fire tonight. I’ve seen this act many times over the years and there are nights when they are top notch and others when they aren’t in the mood but fuelled by the resoundingly positive response to their stellar 16th studio album Ascension, the band have taken their top-notch benchmark and dialled it up to eleven. Or maybe sixteen… It’s the fourth strong album in a row, but I also firmly believe it’s going to prove to be an all time top three for most fans, given that all the ones in the room here already know all the words less than a month from release date.
The concern when established bands rock around for another tour is that the set list all too often comprises of the same greatest hits with a couple of new ones bolted on to justify touring again. Testament proved that very point last week just around the corner, but that’s absolutely not the case tonight with Paradise Lost. We only get three songs from the new album, true, but the rest of the set list consists of some deeper cuts from the past than one might expect.
Pity The Sadness and True Belief are probably the oldest, but the spread of material runs equally balanced across the years, as indeed does the style of vocal delivery from Nick Holmes. One of the strengths of the new record is that his vocal style changes throughout, and it used to be the case that you would rock up of a night and discover that he’s decided to do the whole set clean or guttural, or somewhere in between, but tonight, as in Ascension, he runs the gamut. And it works. Brilliantly.
Aided by a top-notch sound mix and the moodiest lighting ambience, this set, this band and this audiences are in total harmony tonight. This is not a band at the twilight, endlessly grinding out the same old, same old to the dwindling faithful, but one that feels like they may still be approaching their peak. That was an absolutely top notch performance.
Aided by a top-notch sound mix and the moodiest lighting ambience, this set, this band and this audiences are in total harmony tonight. This is not a band at the twilight, endlessly grinding out the same old, same old to the dwindling faithful, but one that feels like they may still be approaching their peak. That was an absolutely top notch performance.
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