Review: WNLTL / Limb / Fall of Messiah

Have you ever noticed how, when you are standing up watching a really great band, you don’t notice your feet at all? They could be playing for two hours, but at no point do you want to sit down. On the other hand, while politely enduring a 25 minute set from a buy-on support band, your feet ache like nothing else. Standing up feels like the toughest chore on earth when it is accompanied by a tedious live soundtrack. 

The Footache-O-Meter is a trusty way of rating live bands, because like Shakira’s hips, it seems the feet don’t lie. Was I impatiently shifting my weight for 40 minutes during Fall Of Messiah’s set at the Stag & Hounds? No, because their bittersweet, angular post-rock is so uplifting that I felt as though I were floating.

Heading over from France to grace our shores in support of their new album Empty Colours, Fall Of Messiah show that they are the experts in creating a vast live sound tonight. 

With melodies that soar and twist at every turn, it’s impossible not to be caught up in their waves of crescendos.  From shimmering guitar interplay to walls of distortion, their songs build and build – leaving the crowd constantly wanting more. The instrumental, delay drenched post-rock style is admittedly often-used in alt-metal, but rarely with such weight that Fall Of Messiah lend to it. Definitely a band to watch if you like your post rock glorious and tantric.

In stark contrast, their emotive set is immediately followed  by Limb – a sludgy doom four piece from London. They pump the upstairs room of the Stag And Hounds full of smoke, with atmospheric white lights to complete the look. Whilst you’ve got to admire a band that brings a three dimensional visual quality to a tiny pub venue, it’s a shame when their songs don’t display equal amounts of effort. 

Drifting along in the Kyuss / Black Sabbath vein of stoner rock, Limb keep the grooves locked tight throughout their 50 minute set. The crowd nod in agreement with their bluesy statements, but by the 10th repetition of an achingly familiar pattern, it feels as though the riffs have outstayed their welcome. Sure, there’s a nice sprinkling of classic rock influences; but the main thing that stands out is the vocalist’s use of an effects unit that sounds about as subtle and natural as Jason DeRulo’s autotune. i couldn’t help but spend the majority of their set wondering what he would sound like without it.

After nearly an hour of downtuned hypnotics, it’s safe to say that if you like the confines of the stoner genre strictly adhered to, Limb will not disappoint. They tick every box with a big fat green marker pen. But the only limbs I’m feeling are my legs beginning to ache.

I forget all about my feet again when the powerful opening chords of Afloat by We Never Learned To Live ring out. This band sure know how to make a musical entrance: their brooding atmospheric tone is as intriguing as it is heavy.

It doesn’t take long before the the crowd are fully immersed in the twisting plots of WNLTL’s cinematic post-hardcore. Displaying a well honed ability to juxtapose between softness and aggression, one can only marvel at the dynamic ebb and flow of their live performance. 

During Twitching With Every Apology vocalist Sean seamlessly alternates between a passionate scream and haunting singing in the space of a breath. His ability to deliver bleak poetic lyrics with such rawness is evocative to watch.  This is a band who are as heavy in an emotional sense as they are in their crushing riffs.

The drums of Crystalline, So Serene are perfectly off-kilter; fills tumble and crash in elaborate co-ordination behind swells of distorted guitar. Gary’s finesse for playing un-obvious beats lifts the mellow sections of their songs into a hypnotic territory all their own.

The sorrowful dissonance of You Will Sleep Now, Yourko provides the reverb-coated highlight of the evening, as its dark guitar leads wail out with tremendous power. Guitarists Brett and Dave clearly know how to milk the massive pedal boards that lay at their feet.

Closing their set with a huge rendition of Marionettes, We Never Learned To Live certainly did learn how to blend melody with melancholy to devastating effect. They played their longest set ever tonight, but at no point did their sound grow tiresome. At no point did I feel my feet ache, because I had been completely swept off them by this amazing Brighton quintet.