My Dying Bride, the masters of gothic doom, their music a match for the harsh and dark London night on which they played. I'm new to London so this was my first visit to the O2 Academy Islington. I had no idea where I was going, but I had a plan which was to follow someone wearing new rock boots as surely they'd be going to the same place. Alighting the tube at Angel I spotted someone, and just as I predicted, I was led to the right place. After getting dirty looks for my attire all the way from Epsom it was a relief to enter a building where nobody batted an eyelid.
Opening the evening was Talanas, a progressive death metal band from London. They say they're "the darker side of the UK's cutting edge." and that's what we're all about here at The Dark Domain. The first thing that struck me about them was the stand up comic like charisma of the fairy-light clad leader, Hal Sinden, showing that the dark side can in fact possess a funny side too.
The music of Talanas is atmospheric yet harsh, and their
lengthy set of almost an hour was enough time to prove to those who had
actually turned up for the support act their level of competence. To those
ignorant folk who arrived later, well you missed out on a killer set. Overall,
a great start to the night.
After a good few minutes in the dark it was time for the
Yorkshire doom quintet to arrive on stage. Judging by the studio albums I was
predicting a relatively mellow evening of music, but the live experience was
monumental in comparison. Things got so heavy that at one point a little
moshpit formed, lucky me happened to be in the centre, though it was short-lived.
My Dying Bride is a band that can match its sublime
melancholy with sheer brutality offering a live performance that is near
perfection, and one of the best metal has to offer. As the night went on the
band played a set list spanning much of their discography pleasing everyone
present. The highlight and best received song was Turn Loose the Swans, which
did in fact turn loose great energy from the crowd.
Also worth noting were the theatrics from Aaron, who
portrayed despair very well through his actions, expressions and use of blood.
Though not sold out, it was pleasing to see that Islington
academy was near full capacity. The only downside to the evening was the same
as every concert at the academy, the sound there isn’t so good.