The Metalist were there with open arms to welcome back Arcturus with open arms after a 10 year absence!
[date]7th May 2015[/date]
[venue]Boston Music Room[/venue]
[city]London, UK[/city]
[support_bands]Vulture Industries[/support_bands]
VULTURE INDUSTRIES
Ashamedly I had no prior knowledge of this band. This avantgarde Norwegian quintet have been around quite a while, since 2002 in fact, yet I have never come sight or sound across them. I hope I can be forgiven, as this band was quite a surprise for the evening and fully deserve some recognition!
Dressed in what almost looked like chimney sweep attire, the band march on stage to the atmospheric rupture of ‘The Tower‘. Immediately frontman Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen takes complete control, with his eyes locked on the audience almost popping out of his head, wailing epic vocal lines along to the bombastic verses of the song, and somehow dramatising each element of the song with his stage movements. Heads were banging and fans were entranced.
While the music was a bit different it was thoroughly entertaining. Industrial-esque breakdowns lead into segments of modern doom metal with vocals that often sounded like a musical narration to Cirque du Soleil. Something that is fairly experimental yet comes off on a stage so well is a pleasure to see and hear.
Vulture Industries owned their performance this evening, and have definitely won over a new fan here. I will greatly look forward to a new album, and a return to UK shores!
ARCTURUS
Arcturus have been gone too long. We really have missed them! Every soul in the packed Boston Music Room again is very pleased about the return of Avantgarde Metal’s premier musical force, as we were all under the impression 8 years ago that we were never to see or hear from Arcturus again. Times have changed, and Arcturus have made a triumphant return this evening with a small European tour and a new album just about to be released. We are happy, and judging by the entrance and reactions of the band, Arcturus are very happy to be back too.
It’s nothing but smiles when the band enter the stage and kick off with ‘Evacuation Code Deciphered‘. The band are donned in bizarre attire which no one can seem to make sense of, but that is the whole charm of Arcturus, and that bizarre charm is what makes the music so good and their performances so fantastic. Frontman ICS Vortex is on form blaring his operatic vocals that resonate pure epic in the venue, and with the sound at optimum the band look to be seriously enjoying what they are doing despite the most minimal of stage elements probably for an Arcturus show for a decade. It doesn’t seem to bother them though, and waste no time into playing ‘Nightmare Haven‘ before treating us to a brand new song, ‘The Arcturian Sign‘.
I don’t think that the fans attending the first Arcturus UK show in probably a decade could have been more pleased with what they were seeing tonight. The last time the band played in the UK, the iPhone hadn’t been invented yet – of which there were plenty of them out to capture every moment of the magic that was on stage tonight – and it was only now noticeable what a gap there has been in the Avantgarde metal scene. Great musical achievements the band played tonight such as ‘Daemon Painter‘, ‘The Chaos Path‘ and ‘Hibernation Sickness Complete‘ reinforce the idea that there is nothing quite like Arcturus, and they are one of those bands you just have to see.
A rare band that use barely any backing tracks the musicians are a pleasure to watch when taking on the complexities that are the music of Arcturus. Keyboardist Steinar Sverd Johnsen was shredding the synths and classical pianos without missing a note, respective guitarist and bassist Knut Magne Valle and Hugh ‘Skoll’ Mingay were on top form, and watching Jan Axel ‘Hellhammer’ Blomberg outside of Mayhem was truly interesting indeed. The musicians vast wealth of experience through many years and many bands really emanates on the stage, yet another of the plethora of reasons that make this band so special.
The show was sadly short tonight clocking over at just over an hour, but the band treated us a very old school medley of ‘Wintry Grey‘, ‘Du Nordavind‘ and ‘Morax‘ before wrapping up with the iconic ‘Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer‘. A show that was great fun for all, and it was clearly evident that the band were clearly pleased about the reception that they had received tonight. From inviting fans on stage to sing along with the Arcturus classics to the bizarre stage antics of the musicians, Arcturus have stolen the evening, and let it be one of many returns to the UK.
