LIVE REVIEW: Conan @ Thekla, Bristol

When you think about it, doom hasn’t changed all that much over the years, save only for getting heavier and more oppressive in its approach. The simplicity of doom can be its downfall but when you have two absolute masters of the trade like MONOLORD and CONAN playing a duel headliner, there’s little to fret about when it comes to the doomiest doom around.

There almost seems to be the two sides of the doom coin with tonight’s line up. MONOLORD are at their best when they sink deep into one of their thunderous grooves and ride it as long as they can. With their relatively clear guitar tone backed by a monstrous fuzz from the bass the trio are able to hold the audience’s attention and make excellent use of their dynamic ability to build their songs to cataclysmic completion. There is a lack of connection between the crowd and the band in the first half of their set, with the band almost seemingly ignoring the crowd until after their mid set lull.

Towards the end of the Swedes’ set their comfortability begins to clear up and as they enter another one of their epic grooves, bassist Mika Hakki and guitarist Thomas Jager dive into the crowd to jam out an absolutely rocking guitar solo to the headbanging masses. Despite the lull in their set halfway through, everything ends on a high with the crushing grooves of Empress Rising almost forcing everyone to head bang due to the sheer gargantuan weight and it’s only set to get denser.

Rating: 7/10

CONAN  are the other side of the doom coin. Riffs are present but this is more about the sheer oppressive weight of the music on offer. Where MONOLORD groove, CONAN simply crush and their set does just that. Marching their way through monstrosities like Thunderhoof and Foehammer they even find time to lift the veil on what they’ve been cooking up on their newest offering, and in case you were wondering, it’s as heavy as one would expect. When stood front and centre the sonic assault results in a real punch to the chest when the band go full tilt. Few bands are able to lay claim to a physical response from their live performance but the unmistakable rumble that their fuzz ridden noise elicits is awesome.  

The northern troupe aren’t as tight tonight as the previous MONOLORD, swapping out their pacing issues for a few missteps in the set that break the trance ever so slightly. There’s better crowd banter even if it is a few words here and there, but the surprising thing is how imposing CONAN‘s music makes the trio on stage. Their tone and gargantuan weight is everything and the band wield it like a mighty, mighty claymore.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Normandy Photography here: