(((O))) : Live Review: Sólstafir, Dialects and Bosphorus – Audio, Glasgow. July 29th, 2015.

Photos: Bruce Cowie

Audio, Glasgow | July 29, 2015

Last Wednesday the mighty Sólstafir returned to Audio in Glasgow, a show I personally looked forward to a lot after having witnessed their very convincing set at last year’s Damnation Festival. While I waited for the doors to open with my gig buddy, and photographer for this night, Bruce Cowie, we both had a laugh at the huge picture of Sólstafir’s singer Aðalbjörn Tryggvason on display on the outside wall of the venue and how this might have been slightly embarrassing for the frontman. This picture was taken at their previous visit to Audio, a show that received mixed feedback, as apparently the sound wasn’t optimal that night and the crowd had troubles being quiet during the more quiet bits in the set. I wasn’t there though, so I’m just speaking from what I’ve heard.

Anyway, back to last Wednesday. Audio wouldn’t be Audio if they wouldn’t let a local talented band open up the procedures and tonight that honour was to Bosphorus, a fairly new band playing their fourth gig in existence if I’m not mistaken. But the band isn’t without experience consisting of members of renowned bands What the Blood Revealed, Pilljaw and Bloodlunch. They were by the heaviest band of the night, opening with a heavy distorted, sludgey riff in opening track ‘Conceive’. Their sound is slightly difficult to describe, but think along the lines of Neurosis meets Isis with added electronica. The electronic effects weren’t immediately clear in the loud and heavy mix, but towards the end of the set, especially in final song ‘Conceal’, they were very obvious, perhaps maybe a wee bit too obvious, taking away a bit of the heaviness of the guitar and distorted bass. Their drummer was very impressive throughout though, hitting the drums as hard as he possibly could.

Bosphorus

I know guitarist Stuart and bassist Gav from their time in What the Blood Revealed, and it’s great to see them back in action. What was a surprise to me though was the fact that Stuart can sing. For people unfamiliar with What the Blood Revealed (if you are, do something about that now!), they were a great Scottish instrumental post-metal band. But Stuart sings besides creating the heaviness in Bosphorus and he does this really well. I am definitely going to see them live again, and I’ve been told studio time has been booked later this year, so a début release should hopefully not be too far away.

I like a gig with plenty of variation on the bill, and this was ever more obvious with the next band getting on stage, Glasgow locals Dialects, who are the main tour support for Sólstafir during this UK tour. Being an instrumental post-rock/math-rock band they couldn’t be further away from Bosphorus’ sound, but as I said, I do like some variation in a gig. The last time I saw Dialects was during their previous UK tour on a dreich Sunday night at a basement in Edinburgh, where unfortunately only 6 paying punters were present. This time that was very different though with an Audio that was getting pretty full by the time the band kicked off with a new track called ‘Lorentzian’, which resulted in a few confused looks in the crowd as to where the microphone stands had gone. For the next 30 or so minutes there wasn’t going to be any singing, unless you could label the immense melodic mathy guitar playing as singing.

Dialects

This being only their second tour on the back of their recently released EP LTKLTL (Let The Kids Light These Lanterns) this support slot for Sólstafir is already a huge opportunity for the band so early in their young career. The band was visibly proud of themselves and they were very pleased to be able to play in front of their home crowd.

They didn’t play it safe either and weren’t afraid to try out new material, with a set list that only included 2 songs of LTKLTL (‘Restless Earth’ and ‘Unknown Orbit’) and 4 new, or at least non-recorded, songs, which on top of the the set opener were ‘Nibiru’, ‘When You Die, You’re Truly Alone’ and closing song ‘It’s Not A Ghost… It’s Gravity’, the latter being the new single which will released later this year.

Having seen them live twice now they remind me a lot of And So I Watch You From Afar, not only musically, but also in the band’s attitude, not being afraid to get on the road whenever the opportunity arises and displaying a healthy dose of stage energy. I hope they continue what they’re doing as they have the potential to open some big doors in the instrumental music world.

Based on the huge number of Sólstafir t-shirts, hoodies and patches present in the crowd, it was very clear who everyone was looking forward to the most: the Icelandic giants, gradually taking the heavy music world by storm. It surprised me a bit how many extreme metal fans love this band, as they are kinda like a rockier Sigur Rós with added vocals, but they just hit the right emotions and atmosphere I suppose. Yes, they were a lot heavier in the earlier stages of their 20 year spanning career, but I think it’s mostly at last year’s Damnation that they won over a lot of these extreme metal hearts. The band recently had a line-up change and much has been discussed and gossiped about this already, so enough of that and let’s just focus on their live set.

Sólstafir

Which was good, no not only good, it was phenomenal. Luckily the sound was spot on this time, which, together with the great show especially by frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason, made it for a very memorable show. There were no issues such as a loud chatting crowd this time, something Tryggvason made sure wasn’t going to happen. His request of silence was fulfilled without any problems, resulting in moments you could here the proverbial pin drop on the floor. It enabled the band to grow within their set and they really were on top form throughout, clearly enjoying being back in Glasgow.

Sólstafir

Tryggvason and the new drummer, who’s name I didn’t catch, have a history in Glasgow both having lived their for a brief period in their lives, which made it a special night for them as well. Tryggvason even came out with a Scottish Saltire wrapped around his microphone stand during the set closer ‘Goddess of the Ages’. And twice Tryggvason made his way over to top of the bar standing there serenading the back of the venue, resulting in many big grins among the crowd, adding to the memorability of the show.

They played a full 90 minutes set that focused heavily on their most recent record Ótta, starting with ‘Dagmál’, followed by ‘Ótta’, ‘Rismál’, ‘Miðdegi’ before they went back to the previous record Svartir Sandar with ‘Djákninn’. The second half of the set consisted of ‘Lágnætti’, ‘Náttmál’, ‘Svartir Sandar’, ‘Fjara’ and previously mentioned final song ‘Goddess of the Ages’, which was received by the loudest applause of the evening.

Afterwards I could only think of one thing: “This is how you play a show”. Sólstafir will no doubt make their way back to Glasgow again, but if they would play at Audio again or a bigger venue has to be seen. My bet is on the latter.