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support Hypno5e + Stellar Circuits + Lampr3a
author AP date 01/03/24 venue Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN

I have ambivalent feelings toward these multi-pronged tours that have been established as the norm in recent years. Even on a Friday evening, the prospect of watching four bands, who often all exist in close proximity to one another in terms of their genre and style, can turn into a gruelling test of a reviewer’s fortitude, as one shudders at the amount of text that needs writing afterwards. But be that as it may, three quarters of tonight’s line-up consists of acts that have impressed me with their recorded output, rendering it impossible for me to forego the opportunity to watch them live long at last. I thus get myself into the right headspace for some progressive music and head towards the intimate confines of Stengade, hoping to be just as bedazzled by Persefone, Hypno5e and Stellar Circuits’ shows as I was by their respective latest releases.

Lampr3a

First, there is an opening act to consider though; a Basque trio with whom I’m unfamiliar as of yet. Armed with drums, a Chapman Stick, and a headless, seven-string guitar, the band is clearly not shy about wearing their affinity with prog on the sleeve. As such, it comes as no surprise that their opening track “MAGLA”, taken from their 2023 album “ESnSE”, seems to be heavily influenced by Animals as Leaders and their ilk, featuring flurries of tapped scales and djent-y riffs by guitarist Borja Mintegiaga, virtuosic, two-handed plucking of the aforementioned, polyphonic instrument by J.I. Izaguirre, and constantly shifting rhythms by drummer Mikel Gómez. The latter’s gusto behind his kit, and above all the dominant presence of his percussion in the mix, is a constant instigator of disbelief amongst the audience, as he honestly looks and plays more like a death metal drummer than a member of an instrumental prog outfit. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the standout “KəMFəRT”, a dark, heavy, and intense piece that leaves people stunned and aghast in its wake. No disrespect to the two musicians at the forefront, but even though Gómez is tucked away at the back, he manages to steal the spotlight in almost every song — not just by virtue of the infectious grooves that he lays, but also his gritty and enthusiastic showmanship. Mintegiaga and Izaguirre cut slightly more reserved figures on stage, focusing on musical rather than visual expressions of virtuosity, resulting in songs like the penultimate “EVØKE” that boggle the mind, but are a bit light on memorabilia. From a technical standpoint, Lampr3a’s concert tonight inspires endless awe, but it stops short of producing the lasting value needed to render it into something truly extraordinary. However, that does not mean they shouldn’t be high on your list of bands to check out this year.

Stellar Circuits

As the only non-European band on the bill tonight, it is up to Stellar Circuits to represent the other side of the pond. With both guitarist Jared Stamey and bassist Jesse Olsen wielding instruments without a head, the quartet immediately betray themselves as another progressive act, something that the first track “Witch House” from their 2023 offering “Sight to Sound” also confirms. The band is a vastly different phenomenon on stage compared to the openers, featuring an extremely lively vocalist in Bed Baddick, and a soundscape more focused on songwriting than technical wizardry. As the following song “Catch Your Death” also shows, Baddick has a powerful singing voice — in particular when he makes use of a strained style — which helps translate the adventurous song structures into something quite approachable, much like the equally underrated outfit Interloper.

The crowd has remained in a holding pattern thus far, watching, listening and deciding how to feel about a group that is almost certainly a new discovery for most people here, but once “The Polar Dream” from the band’s 2018 début album “Ways We Haunt” is unleashed, any initial reservations are swiftly replaced by an intense moshpit, as well as a crowd surfer towards the end of the song, making his way toward a kneeling, arching Baddick, caught in throes of passion. It is obvious that he lives and breathes through the band’s music and tries to offer the same experience for the rest of us, making elusive remarks like “Can you feel it?" and “It’s coming!”, accentuated by a robotic effect on his microphone, throughout the set, and at one point imploring all of us to be present in the moment instead of buying ourselves in our mobile phones or engaging in chatter. He and his compatriots thus come across as a deeply devoted and impassioned unit, and the only things standing in the way of their breakthrough is the lack of any truly lasting musical moments, as well as Beddick’s attempting to reach beyond the limits of his voice at times, such as during the closing track “Pleasure Cruise”. It is a very decent show, though I’m missing the originality that Lampr3a was able to bring to the table even in the absence of lasting value.

Hypno5e

The dim and pale lighting that floods the stage as the four musicians of Hypno5e emerge conjures a mysterious atmosphere perfectly aligned with the aesthetic of the French post-metal ensemble’s opening track, “Sheol - Part II - Lands of Haze”. In contrast to the previous two outfits, the quartet seems muted and introspective, albeit this is a deliberate artistic choice. As such, there is virtually no interaction between the band and the audience during the 40-minute set, with an ever-present backing track of samples from a laptop operated by drummer Pierre Rettien filling the changeovers between songs with ambience and creating the illusion of a single, amorphous piece of music. It is a spellbinding performance rife with noteworthy moments, such as the inspired use of cymbals by Rettien during the calmer parts of the opener, the post-black metal salvo that erupts in the next track “Maintained Relevance of Destruction (Part II)” from 2007’s “Des Deux L’une Est L’autre”, or the soft yet spine-tingling singing by frontman Emmanuel Jessua in the astounding standout piece “On the Dry Lake” off the band’s 2019 offering “A (Distant) Dark Source”. I am clearly not alone in assessing the latter to be one of the highlights, as it is met by a litany of crowd surfers much to the satisfaction of the four musicians.

And while Hypno5e’s performance is more reflective than it is explosive, it is far from akin to gazing at statues either; the four musicians have a unique penchant for embodying the style of the myriad different passages housed within their contemplative soundscapes through both their movements and their facial expressions. Another haunting moment arrives with the immersive and bleak finale, “Acid Mist Tomorrow” off its namesake 2011 record, in which the inventive percussion of Rettien once again inspires awe — c’est magnifique!. Both he and his compatriots master the art of quiet / loud dynamics, moving between tense and eerie build-ups, and violent discharges with an ease and simplicity that beggars belief. The result is a phenomenal show that sets the bar high for the evening’s headliners.

Persefone

It quickly turns out that the bar has been set at just the right height for these Andorran headliners, who, according to the lauded Encyclopaedia Metallum, are one of only four active metal bands in the tiny mountain enclave. As the opening track “Sounds and Vessels” off their recent EP “Lingua Ignota: Part 1” proves, however, on stage the six musicians perform with a passion that could fill the shoes of an entire scene, with vocalist Daniel Rodríguez Flys cutting a particularly dominant figure with his intense windmilling. Though Persefone is perhaps the least progressive outfit in the line-up of this tour, leaning heavily into the mid and late naughties melodic death metal sound, the sextet nonetheless refuses to cater to the lowest common denominator in their songs, which are seldom shorter than five minutes and pack a veritable treasure chest of melodies whisked together by keyboardist and backing vocalist Miguel Espinosa, and guitarists Carlos Lozano Quintanilla and Filipe Baldaia. Espinosa makes an early impression with powerful singing in the second song “One Word”, and it is not long before the first wall of death of the evening forms in response to Flys’ call to “open this s**t up!” in the lead-up to “The Equatable”. In a somewhat alarming escapade towards the end of that song, a member of the audience decides to brave a sudden stage dive that catches everyone else off guard, ending up on the floor on all fours, albeit fortunately in one piece.

With no damage done, Persefone thunders on like a hurricane, and their sheer, unbridled energy in tracks like the fan favorite “Flying Sea Dragons”, taken from 2013’s “Spiritual Migration”, ensures that an incessant cauldron of headbanging, moshing and crowd surfing action seethes on the floor. At one point during “The Great Reality”, Quintanilla charges into the thick of it, and delivers one of his countless, blazing guitar leads from the eye of a circle pit, which leads Flys to admit that this is “one of the craziest concerts of the tour thus far”. Many a band has employed these kinds of platitudes in order to win people over, but having been observing the pandemonium unfold from my slightly elevated vantage point in the back of the venue, there is truth to his words. After some technical difficulties have been resolved, the show continues into its final third with “Merkabah” off 2022’s “metanoia”, which sends Flys collapsing to his knees, waving his ams and arching his back to deliver his growls with every ounce of power left in his lungs. And once “Stillness Is Timeless” and “Living Waves” from the band’s 2017 offering “Aathma” have brought things to a conclusion, it suddenly feels like the evening should have lasted even longer. A demonstration of power by one of melodic death metal’s best kept secrets.

Setlist:

• 1. Sounds and Vessels
• 2. One Word
• 3. The Equable
• 4. Lingua Ignota
• 5. Flying Sea Dragons
• 6. Mind as Universe
• 7. The Great Reality
• 8. Merkabah
• 9. Stillness Is Timeless
• 10. Living Waves