Rockfreaks.net

support Silent Planet + Thornhill + Paledusk
author AP date 28/03/24 venue Pumpehuset, Copenhagen, DEN

Some hard prioritisation has led me to choose metalcore over death metal and grindcore this week, and so after missing what was apparently one of the better shows of the year, I’m very much hoping that the Australian band Polaris and their strong supporting cast will impress me to the same degree that Cattle Decapitation et al. apparently impressed the crowd at this same venue two days prior. A sold out sign at the door suggests I’m not alone in having earmarked this concert as worth the while, and with plenty of familiar faces amongst the audience, at the very least it promises to be an enjoyable evening in the company of friends. And for once, the prospect of four bands performing on a weekday does not seem so daunting — this is a public holiday after all, and I’ve been getting plenty of well-earned rest and restitution during my own vacation during the past six days. Rants aside, let’s see how the quartet of bands fared…

Paledusk

I arrive at Pumpehuset a bit delayed, with an enthusiastic sing-along to the Japanese opening act Paledusk’s hit single “I’m ready to die for my friends” reverberating through the air. It is akin to entering an arcade fever dream; the music embodies the whimsy of a Nintendo game, while the band’s energy on stage is straight out of some action packed anime. Guitarists Daisuke and Tsubasa execute spin kicks galore, while vocalist Kaito barrels across the stage, switching from a pop punk-style clean voice to harsh growls with ease. I’m told that usually, the five musicians cut an even wilder figure in the live setting, whereas here their exploits are hindered to an extent by the huge amount of equipment that inevitably accompanies a four-band tour, most of which has already been piled onto the stage. Had I not been made aware of this, the thought would never have crossed my mind, however, as the one thing that Paledusk excels at is putting on a raucous performance. It is a shame that the sound mix is marred by an all-dominating low end, as much of the playful and vivid sonic tapestry woven by the likes of “Slay!!” and the title track to the group’s latest studio album “Palehell” is lost to the brutal presence of Kazuki's bass lines and Seiya’s drumming. The backing track, which provides a wealth of additional details like the cheerleading gang shouts in the absolutely bonkers “Rumble”, manages to penetrate the noise, but whatever the two guitarists are contributing to the music is hard to hear even with excellent earplugs. There is no question that Paledusk manage to complete their task of riling people up ahead of the next three acts, but in my book, the band’s enthusiasm does not fully compensate for the poor sound quality, and as such, what could have been a hysterically good show never manages to get there.

Thornhill

After a short changeover, Thornhill’s logo illuminates on the backdrop like an old cinema feature board, setting the stage for the Aussie group’s moody fusions of metalcore and nu metal. The issue of overpowering drums persists in the opening track. “Views from the Sun” from their 2019 début album “The Dark Pool”, albeit the dense tone of Ethan McCann’s seven-string guitar and, crucially, the vocals of frontman Jacob Charlton are reasonably audible regardless. Nailing the falsetto notes in songs like the brand new single “Obsession” is no easy task, yet like a metalcore Matthew Bellamy, Charlton’s soulful singing voice lacks none of its allure tonight. The first song, as well as the subsequent “Coven”, were quick to incite moshing and circle pit action, but there is little doubt that it is Thornhill’s newer material that holds the most artistic merit and disassembles their early reputation as simply another standard fare metalcore troop. A carnival of subdued lighting casts a dreamlike atmosphere over tracks like “Leather Wings” and “Raw”, and renders Thornhill’s performance into almost the exact opposite of Paledusk’s blitheness; it is understated and elegant, though this has no effect on the rowdy crowd. “Casanova” delivers the consummate highlight of the set, its heavy riffs and inimitable groove betraying the quartet’s affinity with Deftones — but without selling out of their own, unique style. The brutal breakdown in the end serves a timely reminder that Thornhill remains a metalcore band first and foremost, causing an explosion of the pit before “Where We Go When We Die” concludes the band’s set on an artful, melancholy note. It is a shame the mix is so subpar for the band’s first-ever concert in Denmark, but with the kind of reaction they’ve garnered from the audience, they are certain to return in the near future. ’Til then…

Silent Planet

A monstrous wave breaks on the backdrop as the intro piece “Lights off the Lost Coast” makes way for an intense rendition of “Offworlder”, taken from Silent Planet’s latest full-length offering “Superbloom”. Vocalist Garret Russell clutches the ravenous audience into this palm from the very beginning, floating around the stage like a wraith and employing his facial expressions and bodily movements for the purpose of accentuating his growled lyricism. And as “Collider” from that same album is unleashed, he helps one after another crowd surfer onto the stage for a dive back in — a stunt he also decides to engage in later on. After railing against mass surveillance, he leads his compatriots into a somewhat muddy rendition of “Panopticon” off the band’s 2021 outing “Iridescent”, once again underscoring the trouble the sound engineer on duty is having tonight. But while some of the eerie electronic effects that flutter about the soundscape are lost in the rumble, the four musicians do an excellent job at engaging their fans. “Up! Up! Up, up, up, up!”, roars bassist Nick Pocock as “Euphoria” gets going, and on cue the audience are off their feet, embracing the title of that song to the fullest. And when the breakdown in the phenomenal “Dreamwalker” hits shortly thereafter, nearly the entire front half of the room erupts in a giant moshpit in response to Russel’s desire “(…) to see something crazy!”.

Like Thornhill before them, on their latest record Silent Planet found their own niche within the saturated scape of metalcore, lacing their songs with a sci-fi edge by virtue of some dark techno samples, as also witnessed in the standout “Antimatter”. It is a song that really lends credence to the adage that less is more, utilising a driving rhythm by drummer Alex Camarena and well-timed, djent-style chords by guitarist Mitchell Stark against a backdrop of fleeting synths. “Panic Room” takes us back to the band’s 2016 album “Everything Was Sound”, with Russell’s anxious rapping recounting his struggles with his mental health and giving off slight “Gangsta’s Paradise” vibes. In what is the most varied set of tracks of the evening, “:Signal:” then deploys a brutal groove reminiscent of Meshuggah, before eventually picking up speed and inducing a fast-moving circle pit on the floor. Towards the end of the set, Russell casually drops a hint that it is his pipe dream to play at Copenhell, so let us hope that the organiser is here and has taken note of it. Certainly, I would love to pound my head along to the cool rhythm of the closing track “Trilogy” and others, as even with a suboptimal mix, Silent Planet have proven themselves a band ready for the heavyweight league.

Polaris

With the audience well and truly ruffled up, the conditions are perfect for this Aussie metalcore five-piece to step into the spotlight as headliners. The proceedings kick off with “Harbinger”, the opening track from their latest studio album, 2023’s “Fatalism”, with vocalist Jake Hails teasing us with his softer singing voice set against tense bass notes by Jake Steinhauser. Just as on record, the song delivers the ideal build-up for the explosion of energy that follows both on stage, and on the floor with “Nightmare”. I have my qualms when it comes to the originality of Polaris’ material; much of it sounds like an imitation of Architects and perhaps even more so While She Sleeps. But as far as their showmanship goes, the Sydney-born act stands shoulder to shoulder with their idols, holding full command over their throng of fans here. Having unwisely opted for standing just in front of the sound pit, I am forced to experience the full intensity of the moshpit that continues to rage during the following “Hypermania” off the band’s excellent 2020 offering “The Death of Me”. And from my vantage point, I am likewise compelled to admit that Hails & co. perform like true entertainers tonight. The triumphant poses, with instruments held high by Steinhauser and the two guitarists, Rick Schneider and Jesse Crofts, are well deserved as thunderous applause and cheering erupts in the wake of that song.

Polaris also benefit from the best sound mix of the evening by far, which allows the sharpness of their songwriting to have the desired effect. The harmonised clean vocals of Steinhauser and Hails in the chorus of “Lucid” (taken from 2017’s “The Mortal Coil”) are crystal clear, inciting an anthemic sing-along by a large contingent of the audience, one that is repeated during the next song “All of This Is Fleeting”, one of the undeniable highlights of the set. “There should only be love and positivity in this room tonight”, professes Hails, before calling for a circle pit to encompass the sound island as “Landmine” is unleashed. And while it fails to materialise in the size he had hoped for, a lot of people are more than happy to spring into action and deliver a somewhat smaller realisation of his vision. Things are getting heated in all the right ways, albeit admittedly, the lack of variety on Polaris’ setlist starts to wear on me after a while. The excellent vocals of Hails, both in the clean and harsh department, inspire awe throughout, but genuinely lasting moments are nonetheless few and far in between across the concert. “Inhumane”, with its savage bass riff, injects a little bit of diversity to litany of standard fare metalcore in the end, but in truth, were it not for Hails’ charismatic stage presence and collective energy of the entire band in songs like the first encore piece “Pray for Rain”, there would be little here to distinguish Polaris from the legions of other likeminded outfits out there. Be that as it may, it would be doing the band an injustice if I dwelled on this fact too much, for as “The Remedy” brings things to a close, with a sea of waving hands greeting the five musicians, I cannot deny that this has been a heartfelt and entertaining show.

Setlist:

• 1. Harbinger
• 2. Nightmare
• 3. Hypermania
• 4. With Regards
• 5. Lucid
• 6. All of This Is Fleeting
• 7. Landmine
• 8. Overflow
• 9. Parasites
• 10. Dissipate
• 11. Masochist
• 12. Inhumane

— Encore —

• 13. Pray for Rain
• 14. The Remedy