Alcest + Heirs + Pestilential Shadows + The Veil - Gig Review

Alcest + Heirs + Pestilential Shadows + The Veil

The Wall @ The Bald Faced Stag, Sydney

21 October 2011

Review by Gary Grim

Photos by Robyn Morrison

As prepared as I could be for the strange mix of sounds I was about to witness, I entered the dark and increasingly familiar surrounds of The Wall within the Bald Faced Stag. Kicking the night off would be hard rock goths THE VEIL, followed by raw black metallers PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS. Top it all off with the strange Melbournite instrumentalists that are making waves in the Australian scene, HEIRS, and the headliners of the night, all the way from France, the peculiar ALCEST. Interesting times lay ahead.

As I was reviewing the show, I arrived early as usual so as to not miss anything and this time I was certainly glad I did because I got to catch THE VEIL playing a song for their sound check. Even though I have seen this band a few times before, I was still impressed by their sound and figured if this was them just doing a sound check then I was in for a treat when the show actually started. Once things kicked off, THE VEIL failed to disappoint.

A song that seemed unfamiliar to me began the proceedings and it was perhaps one of the darkest songs I have heard them play. Gloomy, downbeat with a touch of doom but still melodic in turn, I wondered how I had missed this song before. Then Che DeBoehmler, guitarist and vocalist, announced that the song had never been played live by the band before and has yet to be recorded. Their set progressed and proved to me that these guys have the dark, gothic rock sound down pat in such a refreshing kind of way. They avoid the trappings of the cheesier, less effective bands in the genre; they’re moody without being overly soft, dramatic without being over indulgent, they’re serious but in a way that exudes their passion for their music. Their set drew quite a crowd and the band received some warm applause but it felt as though the crowd  were quite subdued and unfortunately, this feeling would continue for the rest of the night.

PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS took to the stage clad in corpse paint, blood and true black metal attitude. Although it seemed like such a strange and dramatic change in musical style from THE VEIL, I feel as though that is how black metal should be, that it should throw you off guard and be unapologetic about it. The band were in your face and aggressive, perfectly capturing the raw and dirty black metal sound. The vocalist screeched his way through the set, his face a mask of anguish and fury, all backed by speedy riffing and blast beats so heavy they would straighten your ball hair.

Beyond the corpse paint, there was not much else in the way of theatrics as you get from some BM bands these days but PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS didn’t need any of that. They were carried by the strength of their straight up, old school black metal. Again, aside from a small handful of fanboys up the front working themselves into a bit of a frenzy, the crowd barely reacted. This obviously did not sit well with this band and I could see a few looks exchanged between the drummer and the vocalist which was followed shortly by the abrupt ending of the set with the singer screaming “fuck you all!” at the crowd, the band throwing their instruments to the ground in disgust and storming off the stage.

I hadn’t heard much of HEIRS’ music but I have heard a lot of good things about them and read some interesting interviews with them so my curiosity was piqued. Again, this was a total change of direction in terms of musical style but it started off quite interestingly. A strong rhythm section was accompanied by some guitar work, which started off quite subtly, as did their synth and effects. But as the song progressed, the sound built, the guitar became a little heavier and the effects grew and added a whole new dimension to their music.

While the band was playing, a video of mostly scorpions but also of a array of different bugs was being projected. This would have complimented the music fantastically had the venue not been so small and the video actually fit on the wall behind them but, as it was, the projections took up the wall behind the band and parts of the ceiling hindering the viewer from actually seeing what was happening unless they were standing at the back of the room. That aside, there were moments when the video was quite effective and fit in rather well with the music being emitted from the stage.

The standout moment of this set was when the man in charge of the synth/effects, Miles Brown, took to the Theremin. The amount of times I have seen a Theremin played on stage I can probably count on one hand and on those occasions they were used for mainly making strange noises in the background, not really anything resembling a tune. Brown, however, took to the Theremin and the whole room stood in awe as he coaxed a beautiful tune out of the device, which soared over the top of the instruments that was backing him up. This rustled a bit of excited applause and cheering from the crowd.

From there, to be honest, I grew a bit weary of the rest of their set. Not that it was overly bad but personally I found it got a tad repetitive towards the end. The band finished and there was silence in the room as the last of the synth was drawing to a close. It was strange that there was no one even politely clapping. It was almost as though the crowd was unsure if the set had finished even though the band had started walking off the stage. I saw the singer from PESTILENTIAL SHADOWS (sans corpse paint) standing at the back of the venue starting to clap loudly as he yelled “come on!” This seemed to wake the crowd up slightly and HEIRS got some applause.

It would seem ALCEST was the band the crowd were waiting for. The room was absolutely packed with bodies in anticipation of the band’s arrival on stage. I had heard a small selection of ALCEST’s music before this night and I was not sure what I thought of it. I was constantly being told to check out this amazing black metal band and when I heard the music, it seemed anything but black metal. Still, it was intriguing and I figured this show might shed some light on what this band was all about.

Starting with some melodic, reverb drenched guitar work, the music sounded more bright and sunny than the dark and dismal approach most metal band choose to take. As the song continued and as the rest of their set unfolded, I could hear the black metal elements  within the music with some distorted riffing and a blast beat here and there, but this was a take on the genre I had never seen or heard before.  For the majority of the set, all of the vocals were clean rather than the screeching you might expect and there were even moments where the two guitarists performed some melodic duel vocals, which were extremely effective and uplifting.

There was so much brightness and positivity in their music and it was rather infectious. At times they played music that was more akin to a pop or alternative rock band but then mixed this with some heavier metal aspects. I guess this is why the band often gets labelled a “shoegaze black metal” band but this music proved to be much more than that label suggests. They were definitely quite unique and extremely inspiring, their songs seeming to be more colourful art pieces than dirty and grim dirges.

The band received a warm response from the crowd at the beginning but it wasn’t until about halfway through that people started showing a bit more appreciation, cheering on the band and shouting out phrases in French. Aside from a small technical difficulty stopping the show for about five minutes or so, the set was tight and I was in awe.

Overall, each band that played that night was extremely good at the sound they were conveying and I found it a little sad that they perhaps didn’t get the reactions they deserved. All that aside, it was good to see a band like ALCEST creating something so new and exciting, brimming with a kind of shining positivity that seems like it is somewhat lacking in metal. A strange but extremely interesting night indeed.