It’s an epic prospect at the ever-brilliant Brudenell Social Club in Leeds. Enslaved are invading from the Norwegian mountains, and they’ve brought Svalbard and Wayfarer along for an evening that leaves no true metal stone unturned! Brace yourselves. Onwards, with our fists held high, we embrace the night.
Wayfarer are a vision in blue as they kick off with their distinctly wild west approach to windswept metal. It’s got quite a skip in its step alongside its lumbering riffage. A twin vocal attack adds a nice dynamic, and there are plenty of people here grooving at their refreshingly different take on progressive death metal, as displayed on last year’s excellent ‘American Gothic’ album. The four-piece from Denver, Colorado, praise the pies here (they are really good!) and flatter the northern massive with tales of having been told what a proper heavy metal bunch we are; awww shucks, well, he’s got a point! Bidding us farewell with what sounds like a sample of Matthew McConaughey (I could be wrong, I probably am) slipping into a desolate-sounding melancholia that wouldn’t be out of place on the True Detective soundtrack. It’s fresh and unique, and we love it.
Svalbard are in fine form tonight, blasting onstage with a mixture of new and old to start and paying tribute to the Leeds DIY scene too! Pointing out that they actually played next door at the Royal Park on their first visit to our city. Serena is as powerful and commanding a performer as ever, blistering newer tracks like ‘Faking It’ sound as epic live as they do on last year’s incredible ‘Weight Of The Mask’ album. Tonight is a razor-sharp performance, perfected and focused, no doubt, due to Svalbard’s relentless touring schedule over the last couple of years. Svalbard’s secret lies in the passages of beauty that permeate everything they do; even when they’re being brutal, there is an undeniable grace in the sound, and it’s the light and the shade that is Svalbard’s sepia tone playground. Full of introspection and heartache, it’s a genuinely intimate take on heavy music that once again is truly unique to them; no one else sounds like Svalbard, which is something to be indeed celebrated. ‘Lights Out’ sounds utterly boisterous and then collapses into its discordant dream-like midsection with floating tremolo-picked leads sailing on cushions of reverberated chords, again genuinely gorgeous. Svalbard closes with a frenetic ‘Eternal Spirits’, dedicated to the heavy metal legends we have lost and thrashes and blasts its way out of the PA, ending on a very fitting tribute.
Enslaved are in imperious form, exploding on stage to Kingdom from last year’s ‘Heimdal’ album, grabbing us straight away, then moving back an album to ‘Utgard’ for a rousing ‘Homebound’ before pulling us back to the present day with a pitch-perfect ‘Forest Dweller’. This is full Norwegian metal glory blasting at you with shades of profound complexity. Put short, Enslaved are just as clever as Tool; they’re just a lot more fun! Grutle is a fantastic entertainer and always remembers that we’re here for a good time, not a long time. Shouting out Leeds United and getting the Yorkshire chants going, he knows how to work the crowd; maybe he’s been here before? There’s also a hard rocking heart beating in this blackened Norwegian assault as exemplified on ‘Sequence’ with riffs that wouldn’t be out of place on an eighties sunset strip.
Guitarist Arve Is never short of a rock God pose or two, and it’s exactly what we’re all here for. Grutle asks us if we’d like to hear something from the nineties; of course, we roar, and then he asks, “Oasis or Blur?” Before ripping into ‘Fenris’ from their black metal classic opus ‘Frost’ downgrading guitar tones to authentic fizzy Peavey distortion tones, I have to say I didn’t realise Kempers could do that! From prog to hard rock to math metal to the most frostbitten black metal, Enslaved are such value for money!
More variety than in a Christmas selection box in an age when people are counting pennies. It’s good to know that you’ll never be short-changed at an Enslaved gig ever. Keeping it brutal, next we get ‘The Dead Stare’ and one fellow near us, I believe, has messed himself judging by his ecstatic roar! Space rock wig-outs follow with analogue whooshes straight from the BBC Radiophonic workshop, and all we are lacking is the kitchen sink! You can also buy a T-shirt with a wizard on it, what more could you want?
This has been a fantastic night where everyone is sporting huge grins and having a total blast. Name another Norwegian black metal act that does that and manages to outplay most modern metal bands simultaneously, with way more imagination and depth. Enslaved finish the main set with a victorious ‘Heimdal’. A quick impromptu drum solo fills the walking offstage thing bands do before returning with “a proper song” in classic ‘Isa’ (which isn’t about bank accounts with competitive interest rates). Enslaved close out tonight with the pure metal glory of ‘Allf?ðr Oðinn’ and every head is banging furiously; this is, of course, as it should be…what a band!
Review & All Photos By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Wayfarer
Svalbard
Enslaved
