LIVE REVIEW: Rolo Tomassi @ Electric Ballroom, London

Tonight’s been a long time coming; first announced shortly after their last tour, revered progressive post-hardcore outfit ROLO TOMASSI play their largest ever headline show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom. To support, they’ve brought two bands that occupy opposite ends of the sonic spectrum; the abrasive, pummelling HERIOT and the atmospheric, self-styled “loud pretty noises” of post-metal-meets-blackgaze quartet HOLY FAWN.

The former of those doesn’t fuck around; they stride onstage calmly before unleashing an onslaught of riffs interspersed with industrial noise. Brand new song Demure – released just yesterday – is cataclysmic. Already arguably their best song yet, it takes on an even more crushing dimension tonight, the staccato guitar punctuating the air like a sledgehammer through concrete. There’s a slight mishap in the middle they laugh off, thanking the crowd for seeing them before subjecting the room to another barrage. Near Vision threatens to induce whiplash with its tectonic breakdown, while the one-two punch of Profound Morality and Cleansed Existence to close their short, but filthy set is a bruising experience that leaves the crowd and their necks more than a little tenderised.

Rating: 9/10

In stark contrast, HOLY FAWN are ethereally beautiful even in their heaviest moments. On record, they meld tender atmospheric elements and synths with shoegaze, post-metal and blackened moments to create a moving experience. Live, it’s all that and more; those calm moments are brighter, more moving, and when those guitar crescendos hit, they do so with tectonic force. Instead of bearing you down under the weight though, it’s a transcendent experience that only deepens the emotional force and connection. It feels like a culmination of emotion, an outpouring that sweeps up the entire room in its path. Their set is weighted almost equally across their first EP and two albums, flowing from opener Candy from that first EP The Black Moon, while later plunging into phenomenal latest album Dimensional Bleed with Death Is A Relief and Void Of Light, the former of which concludes in a searing, blackened crescendo that threatens to escape the rafters. There’s a reason their fanbase is so devoted, and tonight’s life-affirming, excruciatingly beautiful performance proves it. 

Rating: 10/10

“We’re all returning to the start / It could be different but it’s not”; so opens Almost Always, ROLO TOMASSI‘s first song. At least tonight, at their biggest headline show to date, it couldn’t be further from the truth. They’ve come a long way from their glitchy mathcore beginnings to exemplifying some of the best in forward thinking heavy music, encompassing enormous emotional and sonic spectrums. That’s shown very literally as the fraught yearning of Almost Always gives way to the frantic shrieks of Cloaked, though it too shifts between gorgeous melody and acerbic heaviness, and To Resist Forgetting completes a blistering opening run.

As ever, they don’t delve past the most recent three albums given the huge sonic shift the band underwent with Grievances onwards, but it’s hardly unexpected and with how beloved those albums are, ensures the reception they receive is nothing short of rapturous. They’re backdropped by a shifting screen that goes between various gemoetric patterns as well as a stunning light show that flits across band and crowd with the same erratic magnetism as their music. While it isn’t totally sold out, it’s still a packed room and, coupled with an electrifying performance from one of the most innovative heavy bands in the scene, suggests that ROLO TOMASSI might finally be moving away from underrated, almost cult status, territory and into the hearts and minds of a wider audience that they so clearly deserve. 

Rating: 10/10

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

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