Friday the 13th the perfect night for the auspices to make their appearance, throughout the years it's had a link to witchery, the occult and the unexplainable. So gig that features 'fairy doom' and mystical Black Forest psychedelia was probably the right one to go to.
Heading upstairs in Swansea's Sin City (didn't even know they had an upstairs), there was already quite an eclectic crowd by the time I'd arrived. Hippies, doomheads, psych fans, guys with Amenra shirts and and even some totally mad bugger with a rotisserie chicken on his hand, that he was eating and offering to others like some kind of weird ceremony.
I politely declined as it was time to feast on gargantuan, mournful riffs courtesy of Coltaine (8), a band I've wanted to see since reviewing their brilliant 2025 album Brandung. Weaving psychedelic post rock with doom, through passages of glistening shoegaze and explosions of hardcore aggression, the band use the slow build brilliantly, each of their songs building layers of complexity around the impassioned, irrepressible cathartic vocal of Julia French.
Like a high priestess offering a shamanic sermon the music whips around her understated but entrancing stage presence. The guitars building on top of one another in jangly, melodic dissonance while the drumming draws out the slow impulsive beats and the bass throbs with distortion and constant sense of impending emotional release. Leaning more on their doomier, psychadelic sound, I personally would have liked a few more of the screaming outbursts they use on their records, however suit the set to the gig and by the time the last notes had been delivered anyone who didn't know Coltaine, knew them now.
A change over and on to the headliner, a two band bill a real novelty as many of the other shows have had an opening act, still I'm never one to complain about a 10pm finish! The room filled out a little more as the doom trio that is Faetooth (7) took to the stage. The L.A purveioyrs of 'fairy doom' immediately dove into some heavily fuzzed, blissed out doom, complete with those Electric Wizard-like reverbed vocals.
Sounding a little discombobulated at first, there was a stop and there seemed to be a few technical gremlins that knocked them off their stride and stalled the momentum. Once this was resolved though the triumvirate of Ari May (guitar/vocals), Jenna Garcia (bass/vocals) Rah Kanan (drums), restarted and dialed up the riffs again. Most of the crowd were here for them as watching a band with this much buzz around then in an intimate venue won't happen again I'd expect. For me Faetooth play their style of hypnotic doom well, but perhaps don't do it with the same crushing heaviness as Wales' own MWWB, a band who they have a lot of similarities with.
Still you can't argue with ticket sales and Faetooth, and Coltaine, both brought out the Swansea crowd on a wet and windy Friday, even with a double booked venue. Both bands deserve your attention, so make sure to catch them on the next go round.
Heading upstairs in Swansea's Sin City (didn't even know they had an upstairs), there was already quite an eclectic crowd by the time I'd arrived. Hippies, doomheads, psych fans, guys with Amenra shirts and and even some totally mad bugger with a rotisserie chicken on his hand, that he was eating and offering to others like some kind of weird ceremony.
I politely declined as it was time to feast on gargantuan, mournful riffs courtesy of Coltaine (8), a band I've wanted to see since reviewing their brilliant 2025 album Brandung. Weaving psychedelic post rock with doom, through passages of glistening shoegaze and explosions of hardcore aggression, the band use the slow build brilliantly, each of their songs building layers of complexity around the impassioned, irrepressible cathartic vocal of Julia French.
Like a high priestess offering a shamanic sermon the music whips around her understated but entrancing stage presence. The guitars building on top of one another in jangly, melodic dissonance while the drumming draws out the slow impulsive beats and the bass throbs with distortion and constant sense of impending emotional release. Leaning more on their doomier, psychadelic sound, I personally would have liked a few more of the screaming outbursts they use on their records, however suit the set to the gig and by the time the last notes had been delivered anyone who didn't know Coltaine, knew them now.
A change over and on to the headliner, a two band bill a real novelty as many of the other shows have had an opening act, still I'm never one to complain about a 10pm finish! The room filled out a little more as the doom trio that is Faetooth (7) took to the stage. The L.A purveioyrs of 'fairy doom' immediately dove into some heavily fuzzed, blissed out doom, complete with those Electric Wizard-like reverbed vocals.
Sounding a little discombobulated at first, there was a stop and there seemed to be a few technical gremlins that knocked them off their stride and stalled the momentum. Once this was resolved though the triumvirate of Ari May (guitar/vocals), Jenna Garcia (bass/vocals) Rah Kanan (drums), restarted and dialed up the riffs again. Most of the crowd were here for them as watching a band with this much buzz around then in an intimate venue won't happen again I'd expect. For me Faetooth play their style of hypnotic doom well, but perhaps don't do it with the same crushing heaviness as Wales' own MWWB, a band who they have a lot of similarities with.
Still you can't argue with ticket sales and Faetooth, and Coltaine, both brought out the Swansea crowd on a wet and windy Friday, even with a double booked venue. Both bands deserve your attention, so make sure to catch them on the next go round.
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