Upon a late arrival halfway through their set, the dissonant screams of Bossk are heard through the burning smoke. The sludgy post metallers from Ashford unleash a climatic radioactive noise which hypnotises the crowd through most of their set. Despite the length of their product, the band know how to keep the audience drawn in, even during the brief intervals of eerie silent notes when the room goes into usual small talk and laughter until the loud noise which rises back up is impossible to ignore. A round of applause signifies the welcome indefinite return of this destructive atmospheric arsenal.
Opening with a small gentle breeze of ambience, Baroness unleash a whirlwind of melodic heavy noise onto the impatient crowd. Their set contains a great mixture of old and new material, which is poured forth from the passionate fingers of their musicianship. Fan favourites such as ‘Isak’ and ‘Swollen and Halo’ wake the whole room up from slumber, whilst the new material from ‘Yellow & Green’ sounds incredible. ‘Take My Bones Away’ and ‘March to the Sea’ have a real anthemic quality to them and are a shining example of how much the band have mastered the art of meshing melody and heaviness into a co-operative tool.
The connection between the band and crowd is unusually phenomenal especially coming from a band of their genre; the band feeds off this energy to fuel the sheer power of their craft. Overall any fears of a cold chasm preceding the show are non-existent as both band and crowd are left with satisfied grins.
Baroness have the sheer potential to be a massive phenomenon in the near future especially judging from both their performance tonight and the progressive improved sound of their new material. As lead vocalist John Baizley pointed out, there are a lot more people attending tonight’s show in comparison to the last time they played Manchester; the reality of this potential is happening.
4/5
Words by Aaron Lohan (@ooran_loohan)
