Live Review: The Sun’s Journey Through The Night, Spider God and The Oracle | The Flapper, Birmingham | 23/11/2023
Two of the most exciting bands on the UK black metal scene join forces for a short four date co-headline tour, bringing avant-garde dark electronic maestro The Oracle along for their first international shows.
The Oracle
Whilst the upstairs main bar is still packed out with rave hungry revellers awaiting a nearby The Prodigy arena show, The Flapper’s basement already has an inquisitive crowd gathering for a different type electronic experience. Tonight marks The Oracle’s first ever international performance, originally hailing from Worcester Massachusetts in the US, its fitting their first ritual on this side of the ocean is only a stones throw away from away from their sister city. It may seem an odd choice to some, but Black Metal has a long history of embracing an experimental electronic side. The stage lighting is kept low, allowing the robed figure known as The Oracle to embrace the darkness and pull focus on the hypnotising soundscapes being conjured.
Despite fully embracing the black metal aesthetic, musically The Oracle presents an approachable sound. Lush, ambient and dynamic soundscapes that lean closer towards evoking a distant sense of dread as opposed to being pummelled by harsh noise and abrasive sonic textures. Quality wise everything sounds pristine, there’s a fine balance with the volume that allows the crowd to feel embraced by the sound without it becoming overwhelming. It’s definitely not for everyone, a small collective of punters decide that they’d rather disrespectfully hold a conversation and compete with the PA instead of stepping outside, but that doesn’t dismay the vast majority of the crowd from fully enjoying the international debut of this unique soundscape artist.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn
Spider God
Self described “hyper-melodic black metal” outfit Spider God have made quite the name for themselves since their inception in 2020, bucking “black metal tradition” on several fronts and causing a stir within the “trve kvlt” for their rise to prominence off the back of their Blackened Renditions of pop songs. As the band take the stage in plain clothes, besides guest drummer The Oracle still corpse painted in full, they immediately tear into the opening track from their debut album “The Fifty Second Murderer”. The emotionally charged guitar melodies accent the pained howls of the vocals and the bleak atmospheres conjured with relentless percussion and surging bass lines. Following this they blast straight into further cuts from the debut album, title track “Flies In The Trap” is oppressive and intricate, “A Thousand Lonely Spiders” keeps the pained furore on pace and allowing for a mild break from the pummelling black metal shred to showcase a slightly more sludgy side.
Unfortunately for Spider God though, their set is plagued by an overwhelming bass resonance swallowing a lot of the sound, in particular somewhat muting the rhythm guitar and leaving the lead vocals struggling for air. No matter where you’re stood in the room it’s very noticeable in the audience, but the band don’t let the plaguing issues affect their performance. It becomes particularly invasive, nearing unpleasant, whenever the furious bass picking locks with the double kick, bringing forth the acoustic anomaly of feeling pummelled and suffocated by the low end. It is a damn shame as the band themselves are playing superbly through their set, especially considering this is the first time they’re playing live with The Oracle on drums.
Spider God call back to earlier points in their discography still, bringing 2021 single “The Master’s Malady” and “Horrible Forces” from their Ett Främmande Språk EP. New track “Star Crusher” leans harder into the blackened sludge side of things, feeling heavily reminiscent of Mantar with a little pure black metal ferocity to close the song. The set comes to a close with the highly emotive and melodic “Labyrinth of Hallways”, bringing the pace down for a Black Metal slow jam. The night wouldn’t be complete without a tip of the hat to their divisive Blackened Renditions as Spider God close out their set with a disgustingly fun version of Christina Aguilera’s “Genie In A Bottle”. It’s clear to see that, when the live mix is on their side, Spider God are a performative force to reckoned with in the live domain regardless of what opinion you might hold over their discography.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn
The Sun's Journey Through The Night
As this is a hometown show for The Sun’s Journey Through The Night, it was an obvious choice to have them close out the first night of this co-headline tour in Sabbath city. Still supporting their monolithic new album Worldless, tonight’s set is focussed more on their recent works. The band members take to the stage uniformly clad in plain black outfits with face coverings before the enigmatic No One emerges with their signature skull crown, wasting little time and commencing their performance with 2022 single “The Black Pyramid”. The spacey ambience of the tracks opening inevitably breaks into the cosmic black metal agony that band are well known for, but live in a basement room lends a certain claustrophobic nature to the vast soundscapes.
“Void Walker” seamlessly follows, the lengthy acoustic guitar melody played as a backing track and building a palpable tension in the room, awaiting the cathartic explosion into the track proper and explode it does. No One looks like a man possessed, regularly holding onto the stage lighting and leaning over the crowd and playing to them, as if taunting them. The band members hold their stage positions for the most part, allowing the strange charisma of No One told hold the power over the audience, perfectly timing gestures in line with instrumental breaks and swells.
Thankfully the prior sound issues plaguing Spider God seem to have been solved as The Sun’s Journey Through The Night sound absolutely flawless. The bass is still prominent, but without suffocating other instrumental sound, allowing for the intricate shredded guitar melodies to soar alongside No One’s agonised howls. Still wanting to look back on some prior material, the band pull out the 12 minute blackened post-metal epic “Aeons of Suffering For a Bleeding God” from the 2021 release DEMO II. The break from the demonic frenzy is welcomed, a little room to breathe and sway amongst the suffering. The mild reprieve doesn’t last for too long though, immediately summoning the monolithic majesty of “Orion”.
The new material still sounds absolutely unreal live, “Orion” is relentlessly aggressive until the track breaks into an ambient bridge, the epic string melodies played via backing track and building anticipation towards the next explosive reintroduction. After a few brief hails from No One to both The Oracle and Spider God, they announce they have one last song to play. Set closer “Worldless” rolls around what feels like far too quickly, they could easily go on for another half hour as far as the audience is concerned. Effortlessly crawling through the final claustrophobic riff, slowing down with each repetition, the audience stay planted long after the outro concludes demanding more. The Sun’s Journey Through The Night have nowhere to go but up, bolstering their reputation as one of the strongest live acts on the U.K. black metal scene. Hail No One.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn
The Sun's Journey Through The Night
#
#birmingham, #
Ambient, #
Black Metal, #
Church Road Records, #
Cosmic Black Metal, #
Dark Electronic, #
Melodic Black Metal, #
Repose Records, #
Spider God, #
The Flapper, #
The Oracle, #
The Sun's Journey Through the Night