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Review: Katatonia/Sólstafir, Motion
“Do we look like the kind of band that plays requests?” quips Aðalbjörn ‘Addi’ Tryggvason in response to what can only be described as a request. No sir, as usual you look like a bunch of particularly scary extras from the set of Vikings. Proving, once again, that there’s more to Icelandic music that those rather tedious, critically approved usual suspects, Reykjavik quartet Sólstafir are playing their third show in Bristol after headlining the Exchange in 2015 and the Fleece in 2018. Each gig has been bigger than the last and the audience packing the cavernous Motion are clearly familiar with the epic grandeur of their music, even though most of us have no idea what those impressively angsty vocals are all about.
More so than on their last visit, Sólstafir seem inclined to delve deep into the earlier part of their catalogue, returning to the Masterpiece of Bitterness and Köld albums, which results in a hard-rockin’ set with hints of their black metal roots. Repeatedly voted the sexiest man in Iceland, ever-droll Aðalbjörn informs us unconvincingly, bassist Svavar Austmann pummels his Rickenbacker with an enthusiasm that would have impressed Lemmy, while reliably cowboy-hatted Sæþór Maríus Sæþórsson shares the riffs with the Flying V-sporting frontman. The overall effect is, as ever, utterly mesmerising and many in the audience are in raptures. They finish with a stunning, Goddess of the Ages, Aðalbjörn tottering along the top of the barrier to grip the outstretched hands of the faithful.
is needed now More than ever
Whisper it quietly, but Katatonia, Stockholm’s kings of melancholic metal, seem to be having a fucking blast tonight. “We’re having a fucking blast!” confirms Jonas Renkse, who skips about the stage with unseemly joy for one who’s so glum by profession. Maybe it because this long-delayed tour has proven so successful, packing halls across Europe, but it’s all rather incongruously ecstatic.
The tour was originally intended to mark the release of the City Burials album, which got a bit lost in the covid shuffle, and is mostly overlooked in favour of newie Sky Void of Stars. This supplies openers Austerity and Colossal Shade. Renkse, whose rich and evocative vocals are initially buried too low in the mix, introduces the latter with a cheery “Praise Satan!”
The new album’s greatest pleasures are saved for later, when they rattle through a magnificent Birds and nail the swoonworthy choral vocals on Opaline. My Twin from The Great Cold Distance is introduced as “the hit”. You won’t have heard it on the radio, but everyone sings along anyway. And just when we suspected that City Burials was, well, buried, with just Behind the Blood played from that album, they conclude with a spectacular rendition of Untrodden.
Unlike Sólstafir, they’ve overlooked much of their early stuff tonight, but that changes with an encore that concludes with Evidence from 2003’s Viva Emptiness, the joy of their performance once again contrasting with the dark gothic bleakness of the lyric.
Read more: Metal & Prog Picks: February 2023
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