LIVE REVIEW: Converge @ Alexandra Palace, London

The Alexandra Palace Theatre is an interesting venue to say the least. Small and intimate in many ways, and yet its high ceilings and beautiful architecture convey a rich sense of history and grandeur that makes it something of the perfect vessel for this evening’s entertainment. Tonight, the legendary CONVERGE trade in their up close and personal metallic hardcore for the more expansive post-metal mastery of their dearly-loved Bloodmoon project.

First up this evening are Finnish folksy progressive rockers HEXVESSEL, who confess to those gathered that this is one of their first shows outside their home country in a fair while thanks to the pandemic. Taking to stage with little fanfare as LEONARD COHEN‘s You Want It Darker receives something of an abrupt fade-out, the band set about running through 45 minutes that lean heavily on a moody theatricalism well-suited to the bill and environs in question. There’s a dirginess to a lot of what they do for sure, but it works well, often lulling listeners into an intense hypnotism while also punctuating proceedings with bursts of more thunderously doomy intensity.

A thick sense of gloom and atmosphere permeates pretty much the entirety of the band’s set, and yet in another happy little paradox we are able to hear every rich detail of their music. The bass is clear but not overpowering, the violin and guitars weave in and out of one another with ease, and even little intricacies like drummer Jukka Rämänen‘s delicately brushed ghost-notes and the lovely backing vocals and harmonies which support band-leader Mathew Kvohst McNerney come through with smooth clarity to set a promising trend for the main event to follow. Concluding their set bathed in red light, it feels safe to say HEXVESSEL have acquitted themselves admirably given the stature of the band and project they’re here to support.

Rating: 8/10

Having first taken on life back in 2016, Bloodmoon isn’t quite a once in a lifetime experience at this point, but there is still definitely a sense that we’re in for something truly special as this augmented version of the Massachusetts legends steps up drenched in even more blinding red light than that in which their predecessors left. They kick things off with the staggering Viscera Of Men, a track whose 20-second D-beat fake-out into its absolutely gargantuan doom provides perhaps the best reminder you’ll get that this isn’t your typical CONVERGE set.

As expected, the band lean heavily on material from last year’s excellent Bloodmoon: I from there, somehow bringing even more power to cuts like Coil and Flower Moon than their already substantial studio counterparts. It’s often hard to know where to look even; stage right we’ve got CAVE IN‘s Stephen Brodsky, flanking the band with all the guitar histrionics you could possibly ask for; sandwiched between core members Nate Newton, Jake Bannon and Kurt Ballou – three of the coolest men on earth – is the enthralling CHELSEA WOLFE, a sort of ghostly priestess often only visible as a silhouette; and bringing up the rear we have the band’s powerhouse drummer Ben Koller, whose kick booms through the hearts of all gathered, and their final collaborator in Ben Chisholm, who embellishes everything with a gothy grandeur and fills the breaks between tracks with pervasive atmospherics.

All combine to make an hour and 15 minutes all but evaporate, with the set building to a breathtaking initial closing run of the Wolfe-led Scorpion’s Sting, the rousing Crimson Stone, and an utterly majestic re-interpretation of Last Light from the band’s classic 2004 full-length You Fail Me. It’s more than enough to get the entire room standing for an encore, which doesn’t disappoint either as the septet bring things to a true and towering conclusion with Wretched World (from 2009’s Axe To Fall) and, perhaps most fittingly of all, the title track and lead single from the aforementioned Bloodmoon record.

Perhaps the only other thing worth mentioning here is that there are a few points where some of the vocals – Wolfe‘s in particular – struggle to be heard over the sheer thunder of all that’s going on; it’s telling for example that Wolfe‘s finest hour comes in the relative sparsity of the aforementioned Scorpion’s Sting. Beyond that though, CONVERGE: Bloodmoon remains just about everything we could have ever wanted, and with much already made of the I in the title of last year’s record, we can only hope that many more will get a chance to share in this remarkable experience in due course.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in London from Karolina Janikunaite here: 

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