LIVE REVIEW: Amenra & Boris @ Gorilla, Manchester

It’s mad to think that despite having made some memorable appearances at festivals like Damnation and CULT OF LUNA‘s Beyond the Redshift, this is the first time in their nearly decade-long history that AMENRA have done a fully-fledged UK tour. The Belgians are an underground institution at this point and yet for those who haven’t been able to make those occasional festival slots this may be their first opportunity to see this standout band. They’re not alone though, joined on the bill by Japanese drone and doom experimentalists BORIS. They might not be sonically all that similar, but these are both bands who have built up sizeable underground followings through hard work and never compromising their vision on anyone else’s terms. 

First though the audience is presented with an unconventional but striking opening act. JO QUAIL is on first glance simply one friendly woman with an electric cello, but her music becomes all the more impressive for its lack of components. Through usage of loop pedals, what start off as tiny seeds of pieces grow into elaborate aural landscapes that are at once both claustrophobic and expansive. She also doesn’t always play her instrument conventionally, hitting the cello percussively and scraping her nails across the strings to give her pieces an driving but eerie edge. Sometimes like in set opener White Salt Stag it doesn’t feel a million miles away from the Norse folk of a band like WARDRUNA, whereas at other points it is far harsher and nastier. She only sticks around for a short time playing three pieces in about twenty-five minutes, but she is a refreshing choice to open a show like this who shines in her compositional craft and an ingenuity in approaching what her instrument can do.

Rating: 8/10

As loved as they are in some circles though, those aren’t really things that come across about BORIS tonight. Having released their twenty-third album in just over two decades last year, there aren’t many bands who seem to emphasise quantity over quality quite like BORIS, and while their set pretty much exclusively draws from 2017’s Dear implying they’re rather proud of it, there’s not much in the way of exciting material on offer. The core principle of a drone show is certainly ticked off in that they deliver an enormous wall of feedback and low rumbling notes thicker than treacle that seem to absorb every inch of space around them, and around twenty minutes in they do actually have the good grace to play a guitar riff. While they’re not particularly exciting or active stage presences (bar drummer Atsuo Mizuno who always has something of a manic look in his eye and a theatrical flair to his strokes), their 70s vampire look has a degree of charm to it and they relish shrouding themselves in as much smoke as possible to enhance their trippy experience. Ultimately though, there’s not much in the way of excitement. Vocalist Takeshi Ohtani’s moans are more annoying than immersive, and while BORIS succeed in creating a vast wall of noise, standing for 80 minutes waiting for something more to happen is a more of a slog than some conscience-elevating experience as those who would make excuses for such lacking songwriting would have you believe. BORIS care little for what anyone else thinks and have spent decades making openly weird music only for the dedicated few who get it, and that has to be respected and applauded. Beyond that though sometimes you have to wonder whether music that self-indulgent and bland is actually any good.

Rating: 4/10

AMENRA though have the capability of making even the most potent live bands look average, and thus tonight they just dominate. Theirs is a show that is both deeply personal and sonically monstrous. As a band who have grown into their sound over the years, their most recent albums Mass V and VI are their best by some distance, and incredible as those landmark modern post-metal records are it’s the live environment that allows these songs to reach their fullest potential. As the members of the band clad in all black take to the stage and begin the chilling chimes-only intro to Boden, the audience is instantly silenced despite the full power of the band being yet to come. Two and a half minutes later, their patience is rewarded. AMENRA live are devastating, each thudding note dropping like bombs as the band throw their entire bodies in unison into their rhythm, movements on stage coming like tidal motion. Vocalist Colin H. van Eeckhout contorts his body as blistering screams seem to pour out of him, facing the back of the stage in such a way that almost makes his swaying enormous back tattoo the focal point, imposing and hypnotic in equal measure. This makes the occasional moments he turns around and launches himself towards the crowd directly like the beginning of Razoreater even more effective.

While it’s not something that feels theatrical per se due the raw emotional honesty that seeps from every pore, the staging enhances the experience in a way few bands manage. Their light show is tremendously effective, solely consisting of black and white as disturbing and sinister images are projected over them. The result is like entering a world of pure monochrome, all colour drained from view. Pictures dance over the band members’ bodies like shadows, sometimes slowing to a crawl across their faces and sometimes racing frantically as faster cuts emphasise more violent passages in the music. It’s a perfect example of a band who take a very simple idea and commit so fully to it that it transcends its simple nature. It makes it so much easier to surrender yourself to their vision, and through this suffocation in tandem with the emotional devastation of the performance AMENRA manage to illicit such a personal response and connection (no mean feat when their frontman isn’t facing the audience for the majority of the set). It’s catharsis in action. Plus Près De Toi is awe-inspiring as it reaches its jaw-dropping crescendo, Nowena I 9.10 crushes as van Eeckhout trades vocal blows with bassist and WIEGEDOOD frontman Levy Seynaeve (taking the place of NEUROSIS’ Scott Kelly from the recorded version), and as they draw to their conclusion, AMENRA leave no soul untouched.

Rating: 9/10