LINGUA IGNOTA GRAVE LINES
A night of harrowing intensity in the heart of Hackney OSLO, LONDON
London doom outfit GRAVE LINES are a curious proposition. Their music recalls Paradise Lost circa Shades Of God with an infusion of Neurosisstyle dynamics and the occasional synthesiser interjection. Frontman Jake Harding has a terrific voice – a rich croon as indebted to Scott Walker as Scott Kelly – and his between-song exchanges with the audience gesture at a likeable sort. There’s a little too much theatrical preening when he’s deep in performance, which serves more to distract than build atmosphere, but it can’t be denied that the vocalist is a significant factor in the band’s uniqueness. That said, guitarist Oliver Irongiant, bassist Stgr’n Matt and drummer Julia Owen have a heavy chemistry that’s responsible for conjuring some supremely hypnotic downer moments.
Kristin Hayter’s Lingua ignota project reached a pinnacle recently with the release of Caligula, an impressively wrought song cycle drenched in pain and abjection, drawing on modern composition, noise and chamber music to hammer home Hayter’s evocations of abuse and survival. It’s one of 2019’s heaviest albums, sonically and thematically, with scarcely a riff to be heard. Alone onstage Hayter proves herself entirely committed to the material and in climbing speaker stacks, staging a mock hanging and invading the crowd, she takes full ownership of the space. Segueing from piano laments via thunderous percussion to vast swathes of low-end electronic noise, the set is essentially a performance of Caligula,
and in these hot, crowded confines, it’s mercilessly intense and claustrophobic.
Alternating between the roles of abuser and abused, Hayter nails the loss of individualism that characterises co-dependency. ‘All I want is boundless love/all I know is violence’ she wails in
I Am The Beast and the lyric serves as a chilling summation of Caligula’s
central themes. Given the range of Hayter’s abilities it’s anybody’s guess where she’ll take this project next, but it’s unlikely to be dull.
JOSEPH STANNARD