Photo credit: Ville Jurrikkala

Seeing as summer is fast becoming a memory, I figured it was time to check my weather app before setting off this evening. With poor visibility due to dense fog, the forecast, leaving earlier than usual was definitely a wise move, but strangely, this apparently widespread, impenetrable wall of mist never actually materialised. However, soon after entering KK’s Steel Mill the reason became clear. With three bands of varying Goth persuasions on the bill, all the fog in the country was inside.

With a haze of dry ice above the stage, High Parasite kick off the evening’s celebration of sadness, fronted by (now former) My Dying Bride singer Aaron Stainthorpe. Rattling through most of their debut album, the band get the crowd moving to the likes of “Parasite,” “Wasn’t Human,” “Hate Springs Eternal,” and “Forever We Burn.” Stainthorpe is on top form, looking quite the sight in his white outfit and his face half-painted to match while guitarists Jonny Hunter and Sam Hill deliver the riffs. Drummer Dan Brown smiles a lot more than a drummer in a goth band should be allowed as hooded, face-painted bassist/vocalist Tombs (aka Danny Lambert) ensures the momentum never drops below anything other than total entertainment.

Things slow down for Messa, the Italian quartet’s set filled with moody jazz and blues progressions as well as powerful, heavier sections. After a fairly restrained “Fire on the Roof,” vocalist Sara Bianchin really lets go on cuts like “At Races,” “The Dress” and “Rubedo,” and after the show ends, her voice and the fretboard skills of guitarist Alberto Piccolo are the two things people remember the most. Well, those and bass player Mark Sade‘s pedal board, a collection of gadgets so comprehensive it could challenge Derek Smalls‘ set-up in the new Spın̈al Tap movie.

All of which brings us to Halifax’s own masters of misery, Paradise Lost. The band has gone through many changes over the years, journeying down different musical paths with varying results, but still coming out with their fan base intact. More so than their hair anyway, only guitarist Gregor Mackintosh looking the same but greyer, the others having joined the nothing up top, beard below party a long while ago.

However, with age comes wisdom, and the band know exactly what is expected of them. New songs “Serpent on the Cross,” “Tyrants Serenade” and “Silence Like the Grave” are carefully spaced apart at the beginning, middle and end of the show while classics like “Pity the Sadness,” “True Belief,” “Once Solemn” and “One Second” sit along more divisive (at the time) offerings of “Nothing Sacred,” “Mouth” and “No Celebration.” And that’s the main thing here. Where the band were often dragged by the press for their “Depeche Mode” phase, each of the songs that represent that era tonight are greeted like old friends. There was never even an issue in the first place. Yes, of course, certain songs went down better than others, but not one of these more contentious cuts elicited anything other than loud cheers and applause.

Albums Tragic Idol, Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us, and In Requiem are all represented by their title tracks while “Beneath Broken Earth,” and set closer “Ghosts” from their last record sound great. However, it’s “Say Just Words” which really gets the job done. With everyone singing and banging their heads, even renowned misery-guts Nick Holmes is clearly having a great time, saying “cheer up!” every now and again, drawing distinctly non Goth-like chuckles from the audience. Elsewhere on the stage, guitarist Aaron Aedy is having a blast, rocking backwards and forwards while bassist Steve Edmondson remains as stoic as ever. Returning drummer Jeff Singer fits in perfectly, driving the band forward, and the whole evening is just one big sorrowful, foggy success.

Buy Paradise Lost music and merch here:
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GARY ALCOCK
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