By Monk
Over the past half a dozen years or so, this two day exposition has established itself as a sort of miniature version of the Siege Of Limerick, albeit on a much smaller scale, with its bi-annual showcasing of the finest talent that the heavier end of the musical spectrum in this little corner of Überverse has to offer. Unfortunately, it has been quite a while since I have been able to revel in its eclectic delights, but there’s never a better time to play catch up than a rare night off from the job that pays the bills that enable us to bring you our humble thoughts on such occasions…
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost exactly three years since I last caught up with openers Gravity Well, but it doesn’t take long for them to prove that it has been worth the wait. Their dense, bottom-ended psychedelic doom is laced with dark atmospherics interwoven with a heavy space rock undercurrent and topped up with ethereal, almost floaty vocals. The result is a cathartic listen augmented by its laconic delivery. These guys have certainly tightened up since I last saw them and show why they are one of the most respected acts on the local doom scene.
- Gravity Well support Orbiter on their September tour, with dates in Belfast, Dublin, Limerick and Cork.
S O M A sound absolutely fucking HUGE. Their big, broiling triple guitar riffage delivers intensely dynamic punches to your gut, heart and soul simultaneously. If these guys had been the house band on the Titanic, it wouldn’t have made it out of Belfast Harbour, they’re that fucking heavy! Unfortunately, tech problems spoil their momentum, and after a lengthy delay they are forced to soldier on minus one guitarist, with the knock on that their set is shortened to just three songs, but what a hefty selection of tunes they are!
Elder Druid take things to a new level of dankness. Their massive slabs of sludgy noise are drenched in sweaty feedback and embedded in more concrete than is being poured into the nearby sleech beds to make way for yet more student housing. But, these guys are no students, but long ago earned their degrees in their craft, as they deliver another entrancing and enigmatic set.
Things take a slightly dramatic turn as Soothsayer take to the stage with their vocalist holding a large piece of black silk over his head. It’s quickly discarded, however, as he dives into the (admittedly slightly sparse) crowd midway through their first song. Sound-wise, they deliver blackened DM-invested doom heavy on the bottom end, couple with hypnotic melodies and overtopped with shamanistic screams which result in a captivating, ritualistic atmosphere, which serves as a somewhat ironically ambient precursor as to what is to come from our final act…
“What the fuck just happened?” is my first thought as Partholón explode onto the stage filled with venomous fury and furious venom in equal measure. They proceed to bombard us with huge, crushing waves of dissonant sonics as bold and punishing as the Atlantic waves that batter their native south coast, delivering a sound that is gargantuan in every single department, from the dense sludge of the bottom end through to the eloquent existentialism of their magnetic melodies and huge harmonics.
Our headliners have an album out called ‘The Ocean Pours In‘ and indeed they say the seas are rising to engulf us. On the evidence of tonight, Erin’s once fair isle is in severe danger of imminent sinking with the sheer weight of the musical tonnage it is carrying these days.
Unfortunately, work commitments meant I had to miss the second night of this excellent showcase, so apologies to all the bands who undoubtedly laid it all on the stage on the Saturday… I’ll catch up with you all again, hopefully sooner rather than later…
