Rockfreaks.net

support This Will Destroy You + Spurv
author AP date 23/10/23 venue Amager Bio, Copenhagen, DEN

October’s concert marathon continues with a trident of post-rock and -metal at Amager Bio, which, in spite of the strong line-up, is not operating at anything close to its maximum capacity tonight. This is surprising to me, considering the warm welcome the headliners in The Ocean have always received when playing in Denmark… though perhaps it is the major stylistic shift on their latest studio album “Holocene” that has failed to convince some of their Danish fans of its merits. It is also possible that their frequent visits here mean that people have prioritised their funds toward other concerts, trusting that the Berlin-based collective will probably return to Denmark in the not too distant future. Be that as it may, there was no way that I was going to miss a bill like this, not even if it meant racing to the venue for the early start through a mist of light rain, and arriving panting as if I’d just done interval training.

Spurv

Spurv’s concert begins in an unorthodox manner, with trombonist Simen Eifring and one of the three guitarists — Herman Otterlei, Gustav Jørgen Pedersen and Erik Ørevik Aadland —playing on the hi-hat and one of the cymbals of drummer Simon Ljung’s kit. This feat offers a sneak peek into the versatility at the core of this band’s ethos, which also involves utilising a glockenspiel, tambourine, trumpet, and trombone, to both create a sense of drama and provide additional layers of melody for their ambitious soundscapes. The opening track, “En brennende vogn over jordet” from this year’s “Brefjære” album, delivers all of the aforementioned, as the six musicians embark upon a sonic odyssey through dreamy, serene and, ultimately, extremely heavy passages, weaving a cinematic tapestry of emotions with each pick stroke, horn blast, drumbeat, and pluck of Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen’s bass guitar. It is an almost perfect piece of post-rock that, somewhat bizarrely, does not seem to earn quite as much adoration from those around me as it does from me. It is a Monday evening, as underscored by the feeble attempt by one of the guitarists to incite a clap-along in the following track “Som skyer”, yet it feels like Spurv’s efforts tonight deserve a better reaction nonetheless.

Fortunately, the band seems unfazed by these circumstances, losing themselves in the depths of their own creations, their eyes shut and their bodies swayingly gently during the melancholy opening segments of the third song “Til en ny vår”, and twisting and turning in violent spasms when its dramatic crescendo hits. One of the guitarists even collapses to his knees in the end, mirroring the powerful impact that Spurv’s music has on me. The variety of instruments wielded by the members, and the way they use them to explore different timbres and textures in their music, renders songs like “Urdråpene” into immersive, borderline spiritual experiences, which the middle guitarist perfectly embodies with his possessed antics during the loud build-up of this final piece. The bar has thus been set high for the two co-headliners.

This Will Destroy You

You could be forgiven for being lulled into an idea that This Will Destroy You’s music is tranquil as “The Mighty Rio Grande” from their self-titled 2007 album unfolds. Its deeply introspective nature is accentuated by guitarist Jeremy Galindo’s sitting down with his right side toward the audience — distant from us, yet intimately involved with his own creation. But when the second song “Clubs”, taken from 2018’s “New Others Part Two”, falls silent and then suddenly erupts in a maelstrom of noise, that idea swiftly evaporates. It is so loud and all-consuming that I need to push my earplugs further in than almost ever before, and it leaves me dumbfounded as to how the four musicians are able to sustain such a clear separation of instruments despite the decibels. As mentioned, the crowd has remained quite placid thus far, but once this passage kicks in and sends both bassist / keyboardist Jesse Kees and guitarist Christopher Royal King into a veritable frenzy, it seems to deliver the injection of adrenaline that was needed for the Monday mood to be shrugged off and for bodies to start moving at last. The inspired drumming by Robi Gonzalez in the following, brand new single “4.03.21” even samples some people into impromptu dancing. As for myself, I simply stand there in awe of TWDY’s penchant for making such abrupt transitions from a quietus to an absolute inferno of noise sound so seamless and natural.

Indeed, the show presents itself as an unrelenting interplay between building up and releasing tension. It is thus an almost welcome interruption when, in the wake of “Dustism”, King’s guitar is found to be broken, and Galindo dryly remarks: “Well, I guess this does destroy guitars.” Fortunately, the problem turns out to be a defective cable, and soon King is able to return to his volatile ways, dropping to his knees as he rips out the tremolo lead in the oxymoronically titled “Quiet” from the band’s 2006 offering “Young Mountain”. It is one of the most hard-hitting inclusions on tonight’s setlist and strikes a nice contrast to the more ethereal “Threads”, which is played right after. And though Galindo prefers to remain seated and focused away from the audience, his antics in the both of the crescendos is still a sight to behold — in keeping with his three bandmates. “Little Smoke”, which starts with a ready tone, a slow drip of keys by King, and ambient strokes of guitar by Galindo, captures the band’s superb showmanship perfectly, with the former throwing his just-restored instrument to the floor and then proceeding to rip all six strings out of it with the amplifier still turned on. His coming off the hinges in the end is not entirely unexpected, but it nonetheless leaves an impression of artistic madness that helps to set TWDY apart in the crowded post-rock scene.

The Ocean

The Ocean’s latest album “Holocene” divided the waters (no pun intended) somewhat with its more subdued and atmospheric nature compared to the German post-metal ensemble’s past efforts. And tonight, the band seems to be on a mission to convince us that it deserves a place in their storied repertoire as the final instalment in their exploration of natural history. The show begins in a muted fashion with “Preboreal”, in which it is the voice of frontman Loïc Rosetti and an assortment of enigmatic, electronic sounds that take the lead. Rosetti’s silhouette is hidden within a dim, orange glow plumes of smoke, head bowed down and clutching his microphone with both hands as he recites the cryptic lyrics in an almost robotic tone. Its message seems to resonate with the audience, however, with more than few people readily joining in on the recurring lamentations of “We embrace the rash degradation of knowledge / And critical thought / Critical thought / We are not critical”. The double meaning of those last four words ties in perfectly with The Ocean’s body of work, serving a timely reminder that our ignorance will lead to our own demise, and our planet will be indifferent. Indifferent is also what Rosetti & co. are in regards to people’s expectations for tonight’s setlist, as it soon becomes clear that the five musicians intend on playing the first five tracks of “Holocene” in succession, followed by virtually none of their ‘biggest hits’, so to speak.

In truth, omitting most of the staples has allowed The Ocean to put together a concert in which there is a red thread running through the entire setlist. The transitions between not just the first five songs, but all of the songs are executed seamlessly, creating a flow that borders on hypnotic across their 75-minute set. The movement from “Sea of Reeds”, with its hair raising vocal harmonies between Rosetti and lead guitarist Robin Staps, and the hushed, yet delirious first half of “Atlantic” is a good example of this. The showmanship of the five musicians follows the mood and tone of the music, so when Rosetti unleashes his acerbic growls in the latter half of that song and the instrumentation grows heavier, the entire band becomes unhinged, giving us the first real glimpse of the explosiveness that tends to define their performances. Their raw antics provide the fuel needed for a moshpit to ignite in the centre of the venue, albeit one that is short-lived. “Subboreal” then takes things down a notch amid the moody glow of the band’s own projector lights, before delivering a masterclass in building tension and releasing it in an almighty discharge of energy, earning roars of approval from an audience now held captive in the palm of The Ocean’s hand.

The quintet has an invaluable asset in their vocalist, a fact once again laid bare by a crushing rendition of “Permian: The Great Dying” from 2018’s “Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic”, made alive by Rosetti’s flailing arms and impassioned facial expressions. It is almost as though he is possessed by the music, acting as a vessel for conveying its musical and thematic weight. And while he may not be hanging off the rafters like he sometimes does tonight, there are a couple of moments toward the end of the concert that witness him making mad dashes into the crowd and delivering his vocals kneeling, standing, and even walking on the raised hands of the audience during the monolithic “Jurassic | Cretaceous”, taken from the group’s 2020 outing “Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic”, and the spellbinding finale delivered by “Cambrian II: Eternal Recurrence”. Watching Rosetti leap off the various fixtures on stage during the former, and share his microphone with the fans on whose hands he is kneeling during the latter, I am once again affirmed in my belief that antics like these, combined with The Ocean’s unparalleled knack for conjuring elusive and mysterious atmospheres with their progressive take on the post-metal genre, render the band one of the most potent live acts in metal. A different, but no less captivating performance by The Ocean.

Setlist:

• 1. Preboreal
• 2. Boreal
• 3. Sea of Reeds
• 4. Atlantic
• 5. Subboreal
• 6. Permian: The Great Dying
• 7. Statherian
• 8. Miocene | Pliocene
• 9. Abyssopelagic I: Boundless Vasts

— Encore —

• 10. Pleistocene
• 11. Jurassic | Cretaceous
• 12. The Cambrian Explosion / Cambrian II: Eternal Recurrence