By Jase Walker
On the Friday of probably one of the busiest Fridays for big metal shows in Manchester, I’ve opted for the gentleman’s choice of seeing pg.lost along with Astronoid at FAC251. This is a venue I’ve not visited for years – the last time was VOLA, Monuments and Kadinja! The turnout early on this show does look a bit sparse though: well, they’re up against some pretty big shows elsewhere such as Cannibal Corpse, Delain and Graphic Nature, so Manchester is pretty saturated for shows tonight!
Anyway, it’s time to get stuck into Astronoid! It’s been a hot minute since I last saw these supporting Periphery at the Ritz in 2019! Right from the start their heavily layered sound permeates the room, I seem to remember thinking it was interesting how their look juxtaposes the overall pleasant sound of their music as they could just as easily be playing thrash. Their sound flows between post rock, shoegaze and prog metal, sounding like Explosions In The Sky one minute and Coheed and Cambria the next. At some points even broaching into straight up power metal, Astronoid are a band that has very little regard for genre demarcation, whatever fits for them is there and they do it incredibly well.
One of their later songs in their set reminds me very strongly of Gary Moore, its mix of pounding rhythm and tight climbing arpeggios makes me think of ‘Over The Hills’. Astronoid are a massively underrated band and a collection of musicians with massively eclectic influences that makes it genuinely hard to nail them down to one particular genre. For their whole set they’ve danced through so many different sounds and the set they’ve picked out for tonight’s show has done a brilliant job of showcasing that.
And finally for tonight, another of Pelagic Records’ finest, pg.lost! By this point the room is thankfully looking much more full for the oncoming experience. What immediately stands out to me for their performance is the use of vocals as a layering tool, not for specific lyrics or the like, just as an effects saturated method to add extra melody.
pg.lost already digging deep into what I love about post-rock and that’s building into massive releases that are absolutely saturated with sound. The repetition of chilled out verse segments before giving way to epic chorus segments is something that post-rock artists such as Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky excel at and pg lost is absolutely no different.
During a quiet passage in one of their songs, it’s noticeable how the crowd are deadly silent which is a fantastic show of respect that is very rare as I’ve found over the years. pg.lost also showcases how despite not being facemeltingly heavy, the level of tension they can build just with the intensity of melody and stress from the rhythm can provoke the same sort of feeling you’d get dodging arms in a strobed pit. Each song is like painting a canvas, each segment builds on top of each other towards a peak of each component part being brought back as a complete picture.
pg.lost have been another brilliant example of the sweeping soundscapes and intricate writing that post-rock is well known for. Each song is a mix of haunting beauty and auditory pleasure and are definitely going to be a mainstay of my daily listening going forward. Despite what else was going on in Manchester tonight, I definitely made the right choice.
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