LIVE REVIEW: Sólstafir @ Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow

The Nordic Descent Tour exhibits a live spectacle of innovative, genre-bending and heavy music, featuring Iceland’s SÓLSTAFIR, Finland’s ORANSSI PAZUZU and HAMFERÐ from the Faroe Islands. What makes this stellar lineup even more impressive is that the weather seems on board with it; Glasgow rolls out the white carpet treatment with its first snowfall of the season. The Queen Margaret Union is the site for this evening of mind-expanding music.

First up is HAMFERÐ, a multi-faceted death doom metal squad. The band has been active since 2008 and this is their maiden trip to the UK. They may not look like the stereotypical Nordic metalheads one may expect, but their moody metal is full of surprises. This isn’t bog-standard death doom.

There are plenty of quieter yet foreboding calmer post-metal passages with singer Jón Aldará highly accomplished, emotive and powerful singing. These are sumptuously contrasted against melodic death doom and Aldará‘s gravelly death metal growls – a true talent that can execute both singing styles in the same song to such an expert level. Keyboardist Esmar Joensen provides atmospheric backing to guitars touching progressive and folk inflections. The venue’s sound compliments HAMFERБs rich well-produced compositions, and the audience, who are reserved towards the start of the set, visibly warm up to the Faroese act’s creations.

Rating: 7/10

It’s not a simple feat to describe ORANSSI PAZUZU. Officially, they began life as a cosmos-inspired psychedelic black metal outfit in 2007. Even on their earliest recordings, they expanded beyond this simple label and set their controls for avant-garde systems. Fast-forward to today and their new album Muuntautuja is a ballistic aural assault, spreading its chaos to the likes of electronica, trip-hop, ambient, krautrock and so much more. With three keyboards on stage, each with its own player, there’s a wealth of layers to create a nearly tangible sound you can grasp.

Opening with Bioalkemisti from their latest offering, there’s a never-shifting sense of neurosis, dread and paranoia as the venue takes a guided tour of a descent into psychosis. Simple noises are experimented with, distended and distorted to create an alienating soundscape with the venue’s crystalline clarity. Most of the set is from their freshest recording; the title track, Hautatuuli and Valotus bemuse and intrigue the venue. Their anxiety-inducing sounds are accompanied by a violently energetic performance, contributing richly to the hyperactive pace of the set. Such musical oddities could be played for a few hours before they even begin to get tiring.

Closer Vasemman Käden Hierarkia paints with more black metal strokes followed by dizzying, angular progressive guitar leads. The music is so inhuman, that it’s almost a shock when frontman Jun-His breaks his silence at the end of the spectacle to thank the crowd.

Rating: 9/10

Heavy post-rock/metallers SÓLSTAFIR open with the expansive instrumental number 78 Days In The Desert that sets the tone for their performance. This is stalked by Silfur-Refur, a pensive introspective song. The four-piece paints a scene of weary desert travellers attired in early onset post-apocalyptic garb, and guitarist Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson and bassist  Svavar Austmann sporting fedoras. clinging to their instruments, they unfurl an impassioned and frenetic stage performance to accompany their emotionally-strung music. This year, the headliners released their eighth full-length, Hin Helga Kvöl, a notably more scathing output that weaves their extreme metal origins tighter into the music. Blakkrakki from the album is a rollicking catchy anthem, well crafted to ensnare mass attention in the live sphere.

Gazing back, 2011’s Svartir Sandir was the release that drew our their success, following the break-through Köld album in 2009. It remains one of the Icelanders’ most favoured full-lengths, so its appearance tonight is greeted by a hearty reception. Fjara from this release is a tender, lonesome lamentation, while the title track can be reliably measured in grief and strain, a sprawling mosaic of misplaced agony and blunt self-reflection. Newer song Ótta is surprisingly simplistic and repetitive but is as darkly beautiful as the rugged Icelandic wilderness. The Glasgow crowd is most receptive to this selection and gives it a thunderous ovation. While the core of their music is indeed post-rock and metal, they touch on so many other influences, including ambient, shoegaze, post-punk, stoner doom, folk, electronic, drone, and more. They’re a complex collective, but not in a musically technical manner; they’re keen dabblers in aural textures and the ways altering them can manipulate the listener. While there is a dazzling breadth of inspiration and layers to digest, all the music shares a common thread of yearning, nostalgia, and indescribable loss.

Frontman Aðalbjörn Tryggvason contributes icy leads and reverb-heavy guitar work alongside his idiosyncratic strained shouted vocals. his stage banter is endearing. at one point, when encouraging the audience to shout more, he remarks: I hear you guys hate the English. Shout like you’re shouting at the English!” Before playing what would traditionally be their encore, Tryggvason states that the next song will be their last one and they’re skipping the leave-the-stage encore charade. he wishes the punters a safe journey home in conditions that he says are considered a mild winter in his homeland.

The final observation is Goddess Of The Ages and diehard fans don’t hesitate to sing along. Tryggvason elevates his performance another level up, quite literally, when he stands on top of the barrier in front of the fans. He clasps onto their hands to avoid toppling over as he crab walks down the length of the divider. This is a punctuating point in such an unorthodox concert and a fitting way to wrap up the night. SÓLSTAFIR are always welcome to Scotland with such bold flawless performances, and hopefully they’ll return next year, complete with another lineup of artists unafraid to push the envelope.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:

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