VOLA
VENUE BOSTON MUSIC ROOM, LONDON DATE 07/09/2019
SUPPORT ARCH ECHO, SÜMER
VOLA kick off their UK tour with a sold-out show and the house is already busy when opening act Sümer take the stage. A late addition to the bill, Sümer’s triple-guitar line-up enables the band to move between huge, enveloping washes of sound and bruising bursts of heaviness. Pinch, Cut blends odd measures with knotty riffage, and the instrumental #9 is moodily atmospheric. They close with the excellent, spaced-out vibe of End Of Sense to loud acclaim, and given that it’s been five years since their last album, it’s high time this hugely exciting band got back in the studio.
Arch Echo are not what you would expect from a band hailing from Nashville – there’s no country twang in their frantic instrumental prog fusion. You know a band attract a serious muso fanbase when they sell books of guitar tabs at the merch table and Arch Echo certainly have impressive chops. From Daybreak through Immediate Results and Color Wheel, they go flat-out. The quintet are clearly having a blast with their ‘Look ma, no hands!’ exuberance, but they run the risk of their non-stop shred-fest becoming overwhelming. Guitarist Adam Rafowitz trades cascading solos with keyboardist Joey Izzo in Hip Dipper, the crowd love the manic Afterburger, and the Nashvillians promise a return visit soon.
Where a great many bands marching under the progressive banner pursue a sound that was codified in the late 60s and early
70s, Denmark’s VOLA have eyes and ears on the future, offering a collage of melodic vocals, electronics, and djent guitar breakdowns. The music is full of shifts in dynamics, tone and mood, often within a single song, amply demonstrated in Smartfriend. Ghosts is an anthem waiting for an arena, with a huge hook from keyboardist Martin Werner. Similarly, Starburn, from 2015’s Inmazes, can be thuddingly heavy but there’s a melody that grabs your ears and burrows into your brain. There are odd measures and creative syncopation in Black Box, a throwback to the Monsters EP from 2011, but VOLA eschew shredding in favour of crafting powerful songs. They wisely ease off the accelerator with the wistful ballad Vertigo and the laidback groove of Ruby Pool, which features a rare guitar solo from frontman Asger Mygind. It’s back to full power with Your Mind Is A Helpless Dreamer, but Mygind commands the stage with a light touch, always relaxed and upbeat. They encore with Gutter Moon, wherein Mygind’s vocal melody glides over the riff to create space in the denser passages, and the epic Stray The Skies.
VOLA’s assertively contemporary sound may confound the more traditional-minded denizens of the prog world, but the excitement surrounding this quartet seems only to be growing stronger.
“VOLA’S MUSIC IS FULL OF SHIFTS IN DYNAMICS, TONE AND MOOD, OFTEN WITHIN A SINGLE SONG.”