Author: Primož Novak
Video: Primož Novak
Location: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 14.12.2015
Ticket price: 16€/20€
A merry December is shaping up in the metal world too. All month long there’s a pretty decent number of local gigs, and the final tours of the year are bringing quite a few foreign names our way. This Friday was reserved for fans of Finnish melancholy and melody. The lower hall of Orto Bar was definitely a better fit than the upper one. The stage is bigger and so gives more room to move, so the bands didn’t feel cramped. Swallow the Sun have played here a few times over the last decade, so a solid turnout was to be expected.
But they weren’t alone on this tour. First on stage were Italy’s Adimiron, and you quickly got the feeling they didn’t know what to play. The band clearly wants to sound modern, which shows in the mixing of many genres. So we got modern thrash/death moves with touches of black metal and weird, kitschy passages that don’t really mean much. All in all, it didn’t make much sense. What helped most to keep you watching was the scantily dressed bassist, otherwise the male part of the crowd would have skipped the band’s set after a few songs.
Luckily, things took a turn for the better with Wolfheart. The sound wasn’t great, but you could still make out what the band was playing. This is the continuation of Before the Dawn, which was led by workaholic Tuomas Saukkonen. Before the Dawn’s last album, Rise of the Phoenix, showed very strong melodic death metal traits, and with Wolfheart Saukkonen has simply taken it all up a notch, as the second album Shadow World shows (review HERE). The music is still fast and melodic, but slower parts come through as well, making the whole thing more epic. There’s nothing to complain about in terms of how tight the band is, and the crowd was thrilled with them, backing the band with plenty of headbanging. Wolfheart did more than a good job presenting material from both albums. Sadly, nothing from Before the Dawn was played, but somehow there was no need for it, since Wolfheart are more convincing.
Swallow the Sun came on this tour with a big task. They recently released a whole triple album, titled Songs From The North I,II & III (review HERE), which meant a long show was on the cards. And the band really did emphasize material from the new album. The first part of the album was put in the spotlight early on, which is typical Swallow the Sun music, carried by a combination of black/death and doom metal. Of course, the songs were melodic to a great extent. Luckily the sound got fixed, so it was quite pleasant to soak in the band’s slow rhythms. Besides the obligatory new stuff, which they didn’t overdo, the band briefly recapped earlier albums too, serving up New Moon, Hate, Lead the Way!, Cathedral Walls. Before taking a break, the band played Abandoned by the Light, showing their darkest side, which is above all very slow. In other words, funeral doom metal style.
After the break the band came back and showed their bright, pretty side. They played an acoustic set, bringing in songs from the second part of the new album and giving their show one more dimension. At times the acoustic set came across as saccharine and not nearly as melancholic as the songs at the start. But it let Mikko Kotamäki’s melodic vocals come through better, which they hadn’t earlier because the guitars drowned them out.
For the end, the band actually saved the best. They played two older songs that hit home especially for the band’s longtime followers. The first was Descending Winters from the album Ghosts of Loss, the second Swallow (Horror Pt. 1) from the debut. Even though the band had 90 minutes at their disposal, it was hard to hear personal favorites because of the focus on the latest sprawling album. From what we saw, it’s safe to say the band pulled off their dark, melancholic show solidly. There wasn’t a peak of energy, but that’s not in line with the band’s music anyway.
With the Swallow the Sun and Wolfheart show, Orto Bar got a proper dose of Finnish melancholy, punch and melody. Yet another gig confirming that this year’s concert season was a varied one.
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