BLANKET SLEEP TOKEN
VENUE NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER DATE 20/11/2021 SUPPORT THE HYENA KILL
From their post-metal, Deftonesinspired 2017 EP Our Brief Encounters to where they are now, Blanket’s rise has been steady. And with every release and every prestigious live show – gracing ArcTanGent’s stage; opening for Polyphia, Cellar Darling and other names – the Blackpool band have carefully and methodically sculpted their sound.
Tonight, they’re being supported themselves, and in fine style. Still riding high on current album A Disconnect, Manchester’s The Hyena Kill dish out their maiden performance as a fourpiece in fervent fashion. Their guitar/ vocals/drums set-up is embellished by the additional low end of a bass player and a second, atmosphere-crafting guitar player. These elements help the outfit up their progressive cred while still maintaining their gruff, metal heart.
Blanket perform music from their first full-length album How To Let Go and their stunning new one, Modern Escapism, in its entirety, carving out their true identity, not just as sonic voyagers, but as filmmakers and allencompassing creatives.
Their set has a rhapsodic, celebratory feel to it. White Noise cannons into life with robust, angular riffs before dropping to meditative, transcendent lows, ebbing and flowing in a manner which has become archetypal for the band. Even with Simon Morgan and Bobby Pook’s vocals buried beneath their dreamily swathing guitar-scapes (a mixing issue that persists for the first portion of the set) that opening salvo makes their intentions known. A caustic take of Romance is coupled with the doomy, space age post-metal of The Last Days Of The Blue Blood Harvest to great effect as behind them TV screens flicker with trippy, looping films and fizzing static. They’ve played in much bigger venues than tonight’s intimate setting, and on those occasions they’ve often utilised projectors to add to their live multimedia experience. Tonight, they work within their limited space, thinking smart more than big. The two flatscreen TVs flanking the stage give it the air of a movie set that’s almost as dystopian as their music.
They continue with the Radioheadstyle balladry of The Mighty Deep, a timid affair in contrast to the sizzling and sumptuous In Awe following it.
Last Light closes, and highlights the band’s film score influences, blending post-metal with beautiful ambient soundscaping, twinkling piano lines and wistful musings. It’s a crying shame then that there’s no encore. Forty five minutes feels an all-too-brief encounter. But maybe that’s the point. They leave their audience with an appetite not fully sated, as they move onwards, their journey ahead a pleasure to watch.
VENUE MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 DATE 18/11/2021 SUPPORT AA WILLIAMS
It always feels like the witching hour when AA Williams takes to the stage, and tonight she gives a spine-chilling performance of some beautifully sad music. Williams’ mournful, macabre vocals glide over Cold’s stirringly haunted motifs, and Melt’s delicate darkness is iced with a powerful, wailing chorus. This seven-song set is a wonderful exhibition of everything that makes Williams’ music so engrossing. As is the way, many in the audience talk over the quieter moments, but when her voice soars above the din and the band journey towards a crescendo with overdrive pedals engaged, they leave the crowd silent and stunned. That’s a beautiful thing to behold.
If the crowd’s after something more immediate, Sleep Token offer it in spades, but it’s the anonymous band’s interplay that makes them feel so imperious. Their masked mastermind takes to the stage alone at first, and his velvet-smooth, pop-tinted vocals ride the waves of gleaming piano chords of Atlantic, before the lights explode to life and a Deftones-gone-djent crescendo brings punch and power. Hypnosis dips and dives through post-metal lows, glazed with hoarse vocals and highs marked by twisting guitar riffs. Mine expertly proves that contemporary pop and modern, progressive-minded metal can be well suited bedfellows.
Their set is delicately peppered with material preceding their stalwart second album, This Place Will Become Your Tomb. Jaws’ bruising yet beautiful breakdown offers brawn and brains in equal measure, and Dark Things further displays Sleep Token’s versatility – a guitar-less track that decorates glossy, gilt-edged vocals with throbbing keyboards and snapping trap beats. Sugar, meanwhile is arguably one of the poppiest songs in their arsenal, and another major highlight. Its earworm hook is flanked by colossal metal riffs, aptly addictive melodies and electronic instrumentation.
Here, in their stride, it feels nothing can stop them. Not even the blaring of the venue’s fire alarm can hinder an awe-inspiring The Love You Want; somehow, the alarm’s rhythmic screeching actually adds to the song’s aesthetic. Elsewhere, the Imogen Heapinspired, vocoder-lavished a capella of Fall For Me is pristinely executed, sounding even more impressive in the flesh than it does on record. The fact this unnamed singer’s voice sounds exactly like it does on the album is proof of his prowess as both a vocalist and performer – there’s no studio trickery at play here, only serious talent.
During closing number Missing Limbs a fan proposes to his girlfriend in the middle of the crowd, and cheers erupt as she says yes. It’s a heart-warming end to a memorable night.