LIVE REVIEW: Polaris @ SWX, Bristol

POLARIS have been coming to our shores since 2017 and each time they’ve been coming back bigger and better.
This time round its their second show at SWX in Bristol and they bring with them a stacked bill with support from SILENT PLANET, THORNHILL and PALEDUSK. It’s no surprise to anyone that the show was an instant sell out.

Paledusk live @ SWX, Bristol. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

With the venue slowly filling up, a good chunk of people have made it down to catch openers PALEDUSK, hailing from Japan, its only their second time in the UK and coming on a monumental tour like this shows how well liked they are on our shores. Coming on in a hail of spin kicks they set the bar high for the start of the night. Hyping up the crowd with songs like Black Ice, PaleHell and Slay!!. With fists and legs constantly flying in the pit, it has us pondering if the crowd will handle three more bands. Their set was short, sweet and full of energy. The early birds for the night got a wonderful treat for the start of a spectacular evening. Everyone will be going away remembering PALEDUSK.

Rating: 9/10Thornhill live @ SWX, Bristol. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

With a quick change over, THORNHILL are up next. With the bar set high the Aussie quartet take on the challenge. Opening with Views From The Sun, it is has a definitive groove in comparison to PALEDUSK, highlighted by singer Jacob Charlton constantly thrusting his hips in a dance along to the music. The riffs continue through the set in a more melodic nature and we can see the crowd enjoying the change of pace and having a good song along, rather than moshing through the whole set. Jacob still flexes his vocal chords with some impressive low growls that really bring the rumble to their set. Although THORNHILL have to work a bit harder to get the crowd moving with more slower beats in the set, it’s still an impressive performance and provided a little respite before the night moves on.

Rating: 8/10Silent Planet live @ SWX, Bristol. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

Quick changes are the call for tonight because with just enough time to catch a couple breaths, the final support is up. SILENT PLANET blast on to stage with a wonderful metalcore mix. Starting off strong with tracks Offworlder and Collider, it’s an instant energy injection for the whole room. It’s a contrast to the grooves of THORNHILL with even more naughty riffs in songs like Antimatter, the crowd are also in contrast making non-stop pits and any time a circle pit is called, the crowd obeys. There is however, some time given in the set to shout out International Women’s Day, which this gig lands on. It’s great to see the day acknowledged on an all male line up, they shout out some of the women that are in the touring party, with a cheer from the crowd in support. Bringing it it back up for the latter half of the set, the energy is rising still. Ending on Trilogy, a personal song written by Garret Russell during his stay in a psychiatric hospital after he made an attempt on his own life, before the finale he talks about his experience and about living life. A more humbling and heart felt message to end the set on.

Rating: 9/10Polaris live @ SWX, Bristol. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

The crowd cheers as POLARIS finally take the stage. Starting things off slow with Harbinger. It’s a change of pace with singer Jamie Hails walking out solo to start off the track while the rest of the band follow suit a short while in to the track. However, the set quickly gets jumping, with the crowd eager to sing along and be part of the show. Continuing with second single from Fatalism, Nightmare is the time for everyone to flex their vocals cords screaming “we’re living in a nightmare” back at the band.

Not even two songs in and the crowd surfers start cascading over the barrier with Glasgow having almost five hundred over the barrier, will Bristol beat it? Well, they give it a good shot and defiantly keep security on their toes for the whole set. Crowd surfing aside, POLARIS keep the show on top form. Playing a good mix of songs from each of their albums from Lucid to Martyr (Waves). The journey through each album highlights just how good POLARIS are and it’s no surprise at their rise through the ranks of the metalcore elite.Polaris live @ SWX, Bristol. Photo Credit: Serena Hill Photography

They make sure no one is sitting still, opening up bigger and bigger circle pits which take over SWX and leave nowhere for people hide. Taking some time out to speak about being positive, it’s always good when a band uses their platform to bring a good message to their audience. Ending the night on Pray For Rain and break out single The Remedy really brings the show to a close with a bang.

Everyone truly has had the night of their lives, witnessing four superb bands put on one hell of a show. Metalcore is alive and kicking and going from strength to strength. With the show ending before 10pm, the audience will be able to squeeze in a post-gig pint so they can reflect and recover from the show and raise a glass to POLARIS.

Rating: 10/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Bristol from Serena Hill Photography here:

























































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Borknagar: All Gods Must Fall

“A human life consists of so much, it’s really complicated. It’s rainy days, it’s sunny days, it’s sad days, it’s love and hate; all these facets of life is something I want to bring into each and every song,” posits Øystein G. Brun of BORKNAGAR, who’s feeling even more philosophical than usual when discussing their 12th studio album, Fall, whilst burrowed in his studio late in the night like a badger in the wild. “Sure, people can drink some beer, hang around with buddies and listen to the music in the background, but I also want to make music that has depth, if you want to sit down with headphones, read the lyrics, and just fly away.”



That Fall is fit to bursting with moments made for both listening experiences is testament to BORKNAGAR’s evolution from a primal supergroup pounding the pavements of Bergen to progressive explorers, plotting expeditions through the unforgiving, beautiful mountains of Galdhøpiggen and Snøhetta. Stars Ablaze breathes black flames in the form of rebounding blast beats and stabbing dissonance, whilst Nordic Anthem drifts off into nomadic folk, with choral chanting and tribal percussion, whilst Afar goes for broke, beautifully blending the darkness of BATHORY with the light of DREAM THEATER. For Brun, it’s not about colouring outside the lines of convention just to be different, it’s about the honesty of human connection.

“In order to connect with people around the globe, you need to have some human honesty in the music. I need to be me,” he says, always calculating his thoughts like a grandmaster choosing his next move. “I don’t want to force anything, I don’t want to try to be something I’m not. I’ve never used corpse paint, I’ve always used my own name, and even the band name has no literal meaning.”

To write Fall, Brun had to remember the reason BORKNAGAR exists. Since their formation in 1995, it’s always been their mission “to make some kind of musical bubble that’s independent of everything that is commercial and constructed”. And that mission isn’t a shallow attempt to stand out, it’s born from Brun’s education as a psychiatrist.

“Music is first and foremost about a communication or a connection with human beings on a very personal level, and that’s the backbone of my idea that I need to do music that is real, that somehow mirrors maybe not my life, but being a human being,” he explains, reducing nearly eight billion humans to a single-minded audience to conduct music for. “Even though we live in different countries, we believe in different religions, but there’s also something very common about just being a human being; we all have a grandmother, we all have a father and a mother, we all came from the same place and that kind of scope is where I want to target my music, this very personal dialogue from a human being to another human being.”


Fall is a vehicle for human communication. It is first a conversation between its composers – Brun, joined by bassist and vocalist ICS Vortex, drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow, guitarist Jostein Thomassen, and keyboardist and vocalist Lars A. Nedland – and secondly between them and the listener. A meditation, both musically and lyrically, on humanity’s struggle with, and survival through nature, Fall challenges your perception of the world around you and your place within it. BORKNAGAR give you the pieces, but its your puzzle to fit together.

“Fall has different layers. The most obvious one, if you look at the cover, is its a waterfall, and we all know that falling water is one of the most destructive forces in nature, and will eventually grind every rock and every mountain down to sand; that’s one perspective,” he says, pausing to let the gravity of that settle in before landing more blows. “The other perspective is the fall of man, that’s a very dark one of course, and the third perspective might be the change of season, and change in general is something that we people fear a little bit. If there’s something new, people tend to get stressed, we like it to be as always.”

BORKNAGAR don’t make their albums easy listens. Like 2019’s True North before it, Fall is designed to challenge you every step of the way through its snowy peaks. They’re “leaving the door open for fans to interpret their own ideas, and extract whatever they want”. For Brun, music goes beyond one man’s agenda. “I firmly believe that music should be beyond and above politics, religion, whatever background you have. Music is a very universal phenomenon, it’s a language without words and has an incredible unifying force.”

Away from its lyrics, which leave you with enough food for thought to keep you full for weeks without having to hit the shops, Fall musically moves you through the changing seasons, showing both the beauty nature brings and the damage it can cause. From opener Summits birds-eye view of the mountains below to the nearly-10 minute finale Northward, where you’ve reached the core of the mountain’s living world, it’s a journey.

“I always envision myself on a musical journey, each and every album is a part of that; there has to be dynamics, there has to be something that brings you up and brings you down and throws you around like a musical rollercoaster,” he explains, “I have this idea that music should have this human flavour of being alive. I want to make music complicated, and textural, that feels like a trip to the forest. I have a trail behind my studio where I walk a couple days a week to relax and each time is a new experience even though I’ve walked that path so many times since my childhood, it’s a different scenario with different birds singing, or different weather, and that’s the quality, that perfect human imperfection, into the music.”

Human imperfection might seem a ridiculous notion for a band like BORKNAGAR, where every album feels like a calculated move, like a series of movies years in the making. But that’s what it all boils down to. Fall is an emotional album to experience, and it starts with Brun’s relationship to music, to PINK FLOYD, and to his father. “When I listen to PINK FLOYD, it gives me something that nothing else in this world can give me. I lost my father seven years ago and after losing him, if I listen to PINK FLOYD, I basically start crying because it has such a strong impact on me, because I lost my father, and I miss him and associate music with him.”

It’s in that very human relationship with music that Brun believes Fall, and BORKNAGAR at large, exists in this world. It’s to find comfort in sound, and to move forward without forgetting the past. “Yeah it’s kind of sad, but it’s very empowering. I wanted to bring that from True North, which is quite a dark, quite a sharp album, but still it has this uplifting atmosphere, it energises and that same thing I wanted to bring into Fall.”

“Some of the thematics are dark, are brutal, are fatal, but still, it’s empowering and that kind of duality, in the brutal times we are living now with wars in Europe, with pandemics, with climate change we’re facing quite soon that has no way around, it’s a pretty dark future but there is still some spark to fight on and that’s a very human thing, to stand up and fight; we just try to survive and that’s the emotion I want to bring into our music, even though it’s dark, there’s a gleam of hope somewhere.”

Fall is out now via Century Media Records.

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TODAY IN METAL HISTORY 🤘 MARCH 24TH, 2024 🤘EXODUS, VAN HALEN, MOTÖRHEAD, RUNNING WILD, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT

TODAY IN METAL HISTORY 🤘 MARCH 24TH, 2024 🤘EXODUS, VAN HALEN, MOTÖRHEAD, RUNNING WILD, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT

March 24, 2024, 23 hours ago

news heavy metal rarities van halen april wine exodus death motorhead rage mastodon



TALENT WE LOST

R.I.P. Scott Clendenin (DEATH, CONTROL DENIED) – January 17th, 1968 – March 24, 2015 (aged 47)



R.I.P. Steve Lang (APRIL WINE): March 24, 1949 – February 4, 2017 (aged 67)






HEAVY BIRTHDAYS

Happy 60th
Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza (EXODUS) – March 24th, 1964




HEAVY RELEASES

Happy 49th
LYNYRD SKYNYRD’s Nuthin' Fancy - March 24th, 1975

Happy 45th
MOTÖRHEAD's Overkill - March 24th, 1979


Happy 38th
VAN HALEN's 5150 - March 24th, 1986



Happy 38th
LOUDNESS’ Lightning Strikes - March 24th, 1986

Happy 32nd
SLIK TOXIK's Doin' The Nasty - March 24th, 1992



Happy 29th
RUNNING WILD’s Black Hand Inn - March 24th, 1994


Happy 26th
BLUE ÖYSTER CULT’s Heaven Forbid - March 24th, 1998



Happy 18th
RAGE’s Speak Of The Dead - March 24th, 2006

Happy 17th
THE GATHERING’s A Noise Severe - March 24th, 2007
FIVE STAR PRISON CELL’s Slaves Of Virgo – March 24th, 2007

Happy 16th
CAVALERA CONSPIRACY’s Inflikted - March 24th, 2008

Happy 15th
MASTODON’s Crack The Skye - March 24th, 2009


Happy 10th
MAGNUM’s Escape From The Shadow Garden – March 24th, 2014
MASSACRE’s Back From Beyond – March 24th, 2014

Happy 17th
FIVE STAR PRISON CELL’s Slaves Of Virgo – March 24th, 2007

Happy 7th
ART OF ANARCHY's The Madness - March 24th, 2017
ARVAS' Black Path - March 24th, 2017
BONFIRE's Byte the Bullet - March 24th, 2017
BROTHER FIRETRIBE's Sunbound - March 24th, 2017
BRUTALITY WILL PREVAIL's In Dark Places - March 24th, 2017
HOUSE OF LORDS' Saint of the Lost Souls - March 24th, 2017
NIGHT RANGER's Don't Let Up - March 24th, 2017
PALLBEARER's Heartless - March 24th, 2017
STEEL PANTHER's Lower the Bar - March 24th, 2017


Happy 1st
ACID KING - Beyond Vision - March 24th, 2023
AUGUST BURNS RED - Death Below - March 24th, 2023
CRUACHAN - The Living And The Dead - March 24th, 2023
DAWN RAY'D - To Know The Light - March 24th, 2023
EXCALION - Once Upon A Time - March 24th, 2023
FLOOR JANSEN - Paragon - March 24th, 2023
HATESPHERE - Hatred Reborn - March 24th, 2023
IHSAHN - Fascination Street Sessions - March 24th, 2023
KEEP OF KALESSIN - Katharsis - March 24th, 2023
LITURGY - 93696 - March 24th, 2023
NE OBLIVISCARIS - Exul - March 24th, 2023
PROJECT 86 - Omni, Part 1 - March 24th, 2023
SAXON - More Inspirations - March 24th, 2023
SUBWAY TO SALLY - Himmelfahrt - March 24th, 2023
XYSMA - No Place Like Alone - March 24th, 2023

CARL CANEDY - TALES OF A WILD DOG

Autobiographical tome (280 pages of text, 10 of photos) from The Rods drummer, also known for his production work, especially on the initial wave of ‘80s thrashers, particularly in-house for Megaforce (including Anthrax, Overkill, Exciter, etc.) His observations and yarns are spliced with comments from others, like old friends, band mates, industry folks.

Initially, it's a tale of woe (although Canedy might not see it as such). In the first 30 pages, or so, he recounts his childhood: Parents divorce. Before he's 6, they farm him out to an unknown family (so he can attend kindergarten, in Pennsylvania where you could enroll at 5, instead of 6, in New York). After a year, Mom takes him back. They move to Cali and while there, back East, his father (who he liked best) dies. The two move back to Upstate New York, where he begins a musical career that is viable to this day, taking lessons from famous names and playing in different genres, not just rock. Nearly abducted as a child (fought off his would-be kidnapper and ran away), his mother didn't believe his story. Only when her (then) boyfriend contacted the police, was the perpetrator apprehended and sent to prison.

There's the usual trials and tribulations of getting a band running/noticed, eventually doing it all on their own. While as a fledgling musician, he dabbled in the drug scene, with childhood friends, Carl is quick to point out that he's never been a drinker/drug user onstage. Debut album picked up by Arista, with the first club tour of UK supporting Iron Maiden. Early into the trek, his mother dies! Sadly, no insights into the Brits, in those early days, nor remembrances of the times. I get it. Apart from a couple goofy/standout moments, if it's not written down/photographed, I too am hard pressed to recall details of most Eighties gigs (just as an observer), let alone as a participant onstage.