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Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Total Life: Live at The Albert Hall, Manchester
The majestic confines of the Albert Hall play host to the enigmatic clandestine outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor, on this hot spring evening. As the light fades through the elegant stained glass windows solo member drone act Total Life provide something of an endurance test. Devoting nearly an hour to all of three notes may be acceptable when the visual aspect of someone like Sunn0))) is in place, but when it is merely a chap crouched behind a guitar case, fiddling with a laptop and synth then the idea of watching paint dry becomes quiet an attractive alternative to this set of self-indulgent navel-gazing drudgery.
Enter Canada’s premier post rock export. Greeted in a suitably reverential fashion with polite applause lapsing into hushed anticipation the crowd seem grateful just to experience their heroes in such an opulent setting. Over the nine song set which follows Godspeed You! Black Emperor, are simply breath taking. Certainly the omission of numbers like ‘East Hastings’ may be an issue to some, but from the moment violinist Sophie Trudeau leads her colleagues into opener ‘Hope Drone’ the hall is lost in a reverie of wonder. Delivered against a backdrop of eerie projections, slogans such as ‘Out Of Order’ and ‘Fuck America’ appear, their antiauthoritarian rhetoric is absorbed in a far more accessible fashion than having it screaming right at you.
New opus ‘Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress’ is aired in its entirety veering from majesty to dissonant often savage territory. It is a brutal performance art piece where each composition is given its time in the spotlight. Trudeau and company encircled with their back to the audience, only acknowledge their adoring public following the conclusion of the set but to have babbled on between tracks would have spoiled the mood and detracted from the experience.
Two new compositions are aired tonight suggest that, whatever the future holds for this trailblazing octet it will be as mysterious and compelling as ever. Rightfully occupying their very own plain of existence, GYBE are already carving a new chapter in a legacy as compelling as it is unconventional.
ROSS BAKER
Dragged Into Sunlight – Hemelbestormer – Galg: Live At DB’s Utrecht NL
I definitely got dragged into some Light….
It was a cold november night, I think this was one of the first days of freezing cold in the Netherlands. And on this they we ventured to the DB’s in Utrecht to see some blackish, sludgy, post, doom, droney.. well do I have to continue?
First up was Galg (eng. Gallow) , this pretty young band is ready to be accepted by a bigger audience. This band definitely has this awesome vibe, they are going in the right direction with the music. They are good with giving you this squishy, nagging feeling in your stomach. So how does this involve the audience , you might ask? Galg got into the heads of a lot of people standing there. I have to say it was pretty crowded already when they began to play, which is a great measure for the way this genre has grown in the Netherlands. The young crowd was ready to get the party going and listen to something with more depth and something to start a conversation about. Galg is a great step toward exploring more in the genre. I have the feeling they could get more experimental musically, it wasn’t as diverse from the bands we already know. They can take this to the next level. Though, this is a pure band that knows how to set a mood with a sublime use of light or show. With a very subtile and smooth use of drums and a wall of sound, they created; they proved to be a very good band!
The second band up there was a very catchy and impressive act that definitely brought something new to my ears. Hemelbestormer (eng. Heavenstormer) is a band that brings a slightly progressive feeling into the post-doom, drone-ish sound that we already know. This band is hard, aggressive and really really catchy! It got me right at the beginning and didn’t let me go. They know we don’t need those boundless screams that seem to go nowhere at all. They just don’t do vocals, and it’s perfectly fine. The guitar lines are sublime, the drums fit perfectly, and the visuals were completely in sync with the music this band was producing. It was even pretty melodious! It was notable that the band could keep my attention during the whole show because they weren’t sticking in the endless guitarmastrubating, no instead they mixed it up and surprised the listener often. This band is a keeper, and really bringing something new. I loved it. I hope they had the same effect on more people over there.
Last but not least, off course, Dragged into Sunlight. This just is a fine piece of hypnotizing chaos. It was such a great atmosphere, people were so sucked into this show. And it was so dark, I was even afraid to write on my phone, I didn’t want to get people out of their vibe. But let’s get back to Dragged into Sunlight. This definitely one of the best shows I have seen yet. During the show the band plays with their backs to the audience in total darkness, except for a strobe light that is completely in sync with the drums. This works perfectly for their mesmerizing vibe. This is the kind of band that takes their music very seriously. It is not about the ego’s of the band members; no it is about the music. And they do everything to keep it this way. They never release their real names. Their vocalist, simply named T, he is not the standard extreme metal vocalist, it is not the screamer you normally see, it is more like it is a lone howling wolf that is amped on speed. Dragged Into Sunlight brings you the complete package, their music is executed perfectly, and it sets a psychoticly energetic mood!
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Dragged Into Sunlight on Facebook
WORDS: KAAT VAN DORMALEN
PHOTOS: SUSANNE A. MAATHUIS PHOTOGRAPHY