Aephanemer landed on UK territory for the first time to showcase their potential as to why they are one of the rising stars of European symphonic melodic death metal.
Kicking off the night’s bill were local folk/viking metal group VLKA. With face paint shining bright, weapons on the ground and ships ready to sail, they were up for battle. The stage props were very well designed to the point where I really thought they brought the Viking Museum from York to Manchester. Their sound had lots of power and rawness as if it were a real battlefield. Adam’s screams and growls had authority while Lewis on guitars acted like his right hand man, bellowing chants and standing tall, playing the leading warrior role to scare off any rivals. The addition of a violinist and clean vocals singer spiced things up a bit to make room for a melodic contrast whenever some softer parts came in.
Shelli was occasionally having difficulties with the high notes as the key seemed to be asking too much of her. Despite their good performance and Adam’s best efforts to get the crowd going with his evil storytelling voice, their (audience) response didn’t do their set justice. Perhaps it could’ve been that they were the opening act and that their set was too short considering the good quality of their music.
Next up was Steel Forge looking to get some more life into Manchester and the impact was instant. The sudden and sharp contrast from folk to blackened symphonic death metal seemed to awaken the crowd a bit. Bombastic synths, blast beats, strong black metal screeches and dark riffs filled out Satan’s Hollow nicely. However, around the halfway point, they ran into difficulties such as disjointed drumming which led to the band often going out of time with each other. By this period, the audience looked flat and disengaged. But as good as Steel Forge’s music is, it was one of these nights where a band couldn’t perform at their best..
Like a cold engine failing to start no matter how many times you try, it finally started with a hard rev as Aephanemer took to the stage. What seemed to be an underwhelming evening was quickly put behind as Satan’s Hollow was eventually engaged and interested. Heads were banging and cheers trapped in people’s vocal chords escaped. After gaining widespread recognition in Europe, a short trip across the channel was inevitably begging for the French four-piece to show what they were made of on UK shores and they marked their presence in style. Marion’s black metal screams ripped through the room like a group of ravens cawing on a mountain while her switch to operatic vocals in certain sections showed her versatility as a singer which I’d never heard before with this sub genre. The classical elements played by the synth backing track definitely worked in her favour in these situations, not to mention that it added some grandiose warmth to their sound.
Both Martin and Marion’s ravaging guitars had a strong presence throughout and contained serious force to shake the floor with Mickael pounding his drum kit harder than Animal from Muppets. As good as his drumming was though, his swivel technique was at times lacking precision without clean hits. Another interesting sound that Aephanemer has up their sleeve are Scandinavian influences which I found very creative and that was on full display. The folk-like melodies formed a nice, interesting contrast to what’s already an extreme style and that sat in really well with the sound they try to achieve.
The setlist took up most of the ‘Prokopton’ record in which the lyrics focus heavily on Stoicism’s principles. The Stoics argued that the path towards happiness was achieved through one overcoming challenges by developing their character towards becoming a virtuous person. It’s not often that these days you would get a band diving deep into such philosophical themes, metal in particular so it requires careful listening to understand the message they want us to engage with. Creativity is then something that they’re certainly not short of and I have to give them massive credit for that.
Aephanemer made a good first impression and the crowd response should give them extra motivation to come back as young bands like them have plenty of good things to bring to the UK with the talent they’ve got.
