LIVE REVIEW: Winterfylleth @ Rebellion, Manchester

The landscape for a touring band has been perilous to say the least over the past 18 months. With the ever-evolving rules and regulations to battle COVID-19, the safety net of touring, even just on home soil, is full of many gaping holes. Now, with shows and tours permitted, the opportunity is there for bands and fans alike to recapture the experience of a pre-pandemic and such is the case for WINTERFYLLETH. Having rescheduled their tour to support last year’s The Reckoning Dawn multiple times, their homecoming show in Manchester feels as surreal as it is triumphant.

Opening a show is never an easy task and for DEUS MORI, initially, it feels like the world is against them tonight. Arriving on stage 40 minutes or so from what was initially advertised isn’t the greatest of starts and the slight emergence of the technical gremlins the band tried so hard to resolve in the first place could easily have detailed the entire performance, so it’s fortunate then that the Manchester-based band are made of stern stuff.

Ploughing through the early wobbles, the quintet’s brand of black metal won’t make the front page but what is experienced here, particularly in the latter stages of their set, is highly impressive and well executed. Barrage after barrage of neck-snapping tremolo riffing from guitarists Exigne and Enecate keep the attention focused towards the stage and Dødsklokken is an admirable frontman through both is commandment of the stage and his delivery of shrieks and growls are solid enough. Despite the initial stumbling blocks, the set proves to be a solid opening indeed.

Rating: 7/10

With international travel still a perilous environment, previously billed main support MORK are absent for this run so it’s fortunate then, that DREAD SOVEREIGN are more than up to the task of rousing the crowd up for tonight’s headliners. Initially, it’s an odd proposition seeing Alan Averill aka Nemtheanga on stage without the formidable corpsepaint and arsenal of pagan infused black metal songs from his main project PRIMORDIAL, but as it turns out, Averill is a man of many talents and DREAD SOVEREIGN are an extremely fun and captivating band to experience live.

An amalgamation of punk, proto doom and traditional heavy metal, the trio (complimented by Con Ri‘s consistency behind the kit and Bones‘ slick riffing and soloing) feel incredibly organic throughout their set, allowing their material to breathe as it transcends from a doom-driven crawl to manic passages of wild soloing the next. In a highly engrossing performance, emboldened through Nemtheanga‘s clear passion for this project, DREAD SOVEREIGN at their core are just incredibly fun to watch and serve a wicked set that sets the stage nicely for WINTERFYLLETH.

Rating: 8/10

Given the delays experienced earlier, you could forgive WINTERFYLLETH if the set was trimmed in order to meet curfew, but impressively, the band arrive on stage just a mere three minutes after their initial billed time and the reception that greets them as they launch into Absolved In Fire is colossal. With a bucketload of experience under their collective belts, the band are no amateurs when it comes to replicating their concoction of folky black metal and across their headlining set, it shows.

The tremolo riffing from Chris Naughton and newboy Russel Dobson on the adrenaline-surging A Hostile Fate (The Wayfarer Pt 4) is particularly impressive, the lead solo in The Reckoning Dawn‘s title track is simply gorgeous with its delivery live even more impactful, and the way in which the frontline, including bassist Nick Wallwork, harmonise their pagan-inspired chants on Misdeeds of Faith raises the hairs on the back of your neck oh so effortlessly.

Whilst much of the set is dedicated to material from The Reckoning Dawn, and rightfully so given the tour’s purpose is to support their latest studio endeavour, the inclusion of deep cuts from their early period such as The Valley Thick With Oats or Mam Tor (The Shivering Mountain) not only shows an appreciation for what came before but the exquisite way in which they are executed live with the utmost precision only further bolsters WINTERFYLLETH‘s reputation as a formidable live outfit.

WINTERFYLLETH performing in their home city always feels like a homecoming event and especially given the events of the past 18 months, tonight in particular feels extra special. And as they conclude with the ever reliable Ensigns of Victory, and the crowd roars in appreciation one final time, WINTERFYLLETH can rest assured that they have made the wait for this show more than worth it.

Rating: 9/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here: