Wheel & Múr, Thekla Bristol, 24.11.24
Wet windy and flooded was the journey to Bristol but the promise of some modern heavy prog action. The first support was due to be French band Molybaron but due to injury had to pull out of the tour.
They were replaced by Múr (8) who have just released their debut album (reviewed by Matt last week), their frontman/keyboardist Kári Haraldsson is the focal point here whether it's his great cleans or powerful harsh roars, his voice works well with the atmospheric sounds created by his keytar and the band behind him. Their live sound mix was great, you could hear every instrument, making you take notice when it changes from light to dark. It's a shame they were crowded into a small space on stage, as there was barely any room to move. We got a keytar solo, some militaristic drum patterns that worked well with lighting effects, showing that the band have thought about their live staging and how they present themselves.
I'm not sure if they were supposed to be on this tour as a third band but they really have put the work in to impress in this special guest slot. When Haraldsson put his keytar down for the final song it created more space for a bit of movement from the band and for him to be more expressive in his gestures/emote more, he's very expressive in his movement, when not constrained by the keys and as they closed with their heaviest cut, which had a great guitar solo I was already looking forward to seeing them on a bigger stage in future. They have a BIG sound needs more space.
Next up though it was our headliners who had to follow a great set from Múr, thankfully Wheel (10) never really fail to take your breath away. Again blessed by great sound, much like Múr but more of everything. Everything was so clear, the gorgeous guitar tones, the big, booming bass from Jere Lehto, who joined as live bassist prior to this tour, combining excellently with expert drumming. It all just worked.
There is a Tool comparison, which is inevitable but Wheel are far more than that. (Though they will be featured on Tool's festival thing in Costa Rica), Wheel have monster, crushing riffs, highlighting the band ability to metal-out if they want to, then they immediately switch to gentle, delicate atmospherics is hugely impressive and effective, this is what they did on the brilliantly on Dissipating. Wheel are a band who also should be on much bigger stages. Stages that match the scope of their songs.
Vultures for instance has massive heaviness at the start. It features riffs, ALL the guitars, huge vocals. Just brilliant. Very Tool, very fucking good. The orange lighting worked well with strobes at the end adding something extra. The lighting, yes well it was great for the crowd, less so for us photographers but you do what you can. The strobes were used sparingly later on, they were very impressive on one of the new songs. In sync with the drums a la the One video (for a short section). Then backlit in slow, quiet section. Atmospheric and effective, it had clearly been well thought out and reminiscent of far bigger shows/venues. There was also a snare sound like gunshots on this one.
I'd seen the band once at ArcTanGent but never a full headline set so some of the other highlights for me were; Hyperion where both guitarists using those finger devices to make continuous notes and while there was a foot pedal missing at transition into Lacking, but then it was found and the transition was "seamless" as singer James put it, even though it wasn't we were encouraged to "tell everyone it was!" So it was ok? Elsewhere, Lacking was brilliant. Excellent lighting and huge sound and power with massive vocals, Hyperion has brilliant chorus harmonies.
My favourite part of the night was that they played Synchronise. It's a massive, building song. Starting quiet but builds, led by drums and bass, eventually huge guitars and vocals. Blue strobes blazed before solo, I had not seen that before. This was a prog metal masterpiece, staccato riffing at the end, it was totally goose bump inducing. Drenched in blue lighting things quickly switched into all oranges and reds for next song to maximise the contrast.
Wheel, the final song, was just incredible and great one to finish on. Time flew by – I checked my watch at 9:30 then it 10:30, the played until 10:45, so around 1hr and 45 mins. I was totally engrossed for the whole time. No encore – none needed. Magnificent
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