Live Review: Mono & Svalbard | Electric Ballroom, London | 16/09/22
Though tonight's show sadly no longer features GGGOLDDD, whose Roadburn-conquering This Shame Should Not Be Mine needs to be heard to be believed, it's still a celebration of emotion and post-adjacent music with Svalbard's blackgaze-meets-post-hardcore and a mammoth set from Japan's post-rock royalty, MONO.
Svalbard
Eleven years honing their craft has led Svalbard to majestic, emotionally raw compositions and a well-deserved deal with industry titans Nuclear Blast Records. Tonight feels like a culmination and fulfilment of dreams; it’s their first show at Camden’s illustrious Electric Ballroom and features an extended, career-spanning set. Every scream, every soaring blackened melody is wrung from vocalists and guitarists Serena Cherry and Liam Phelan with such feeling that it’s enough to reduce you to tears. Older songs like ‘Disparity’ and ‘Greyscale’, the latter describing how different real life is to online personas, slot right alongside newer material like the stunning ‘Silent Restraint’, that chronicles struggles with depression and reaching out for help. While Phelan’s vocals do occasionally seem quieter, they lose none of their impact, nor does the vulnerability displayed feel any less compelling. Three quarters of an hour pass in what seems like the blink of an eye and as the quartet close their set, their instruments (mostly – drums are a little unwieldy) held aloft in triumph, it’s impossible to not feel a sense of euphoria.
Score: 9/10
MONO
MONO, on the other hand, couldn’t be more different – at least on the surface. Gone is the raw discussion of mental health and frank, scathing takedowns of sexism. Instead their swelling, instrumental post rock commands the room to awed silence during songs and thunderous applause between them. They tell stories without words; subdued passages may continue for entire chapters but they’re punctuated by crescendos of such grandiosity that they’re completely arresting. Not only that but they run the emotional gauntlet from triumph, to sadness and despair so naturally; there’s not a note wrong in the swells of reverb, every snare hit and cymbal roll perfectly placed for maximum effect. The lack of lyrics doesn’t hurt their stage presence; if anything it’s amplified by a stunning light show and liberal use of haze. The effect is that of waves lapping on beaches or crashing against cliffs; works of beauty with a serenity that belies their true, sometimes destructive nature. That’s what MONO are; a force of nature, and they hold the whole room firmly in their grasp through every one of the 90 minutes they’re on stage for.
Score: 10/10