A Prelude To Darkness: Fuath @ Stereo, Glasgow (22nd November 2019)

with: Vehement, Thy Dying Light, Uir and Waerteras

Hosted by: Unholy Forces & North of the Wall Festival

WORDS: Joanne Gray

With the second volume of 'Darkness Guides Us' occurring in the Classic Grand over the weekend, it only made sense that there would be a pre-party of sorts to get blackened hearts pumping.

This is where 'A Prelude To Darkness' comes in. The main draw of the evening was that it would host the first ever live show from Glasgow-based atmospheric black metal band Fuath. With the knowledge that this band was a side project from Saor's ringleader Andy Marshall, I was very much up for seeing this first show with my own eyes as I have really grown to love that band over the last few months (as well be seen in future reviews from myself). Accompanied by a generous number of support bands from the UK's black metal scene, this seemed like it would very much getting myself a last minute ticket.

Unfortunately due to early stage times, I wasn't able to catch the first two bands (Forres-based Waerteras and Edinburgh-based Úir), so I won't be able to talk about them here but thankfully the stage times were a bit late so I was able to check out the rest of the bands' sets that night.

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With this then, the first band I saw that night were the third band on the bill: Thy Dying Light. Formed in Cumbria in 2016, this is a relatively new band, but they have managed to release several demos and EPs within this short amount of time. One of these EPs; 'The Last Twilight', which was re-released earlier this year appeared (after the initial 2017 release) seemed to make up most of the band's setlist that night. 

Accompanying the band's founding member Hrafn (vocals, guitar and bass) that night were live members simply known as 'C' (guitar), 'S' (bass) and 'G' (drums). As they all came onto the stage donning conventional corpse paint, black leathers and chains, and playing in front of logo emblazoned speakers, it became very quickly clear that this was very much going to be a traditionally minded black metal performance. And as the opening bass heavy blasts of 'In Northern Mist' spilled out into the audience, this was emphasised tenfold. Influenced by bands like Mütiilation, Darkthrone and Mayhem, amongst others, Thy Dying Light very much evoked second wave black metal tropes from their solemnly restrained energy to the heavy usage of high pitched tremolo picking, blast beats and shrieking vocals. Indeed there was an icy feel to the set. Very suitable indeed for this harsh and frosty style of music. 

Switching up the order of the EP, the punchy thrasher 'Fist of Satan' followed this first track to start getting more heads bopping along. 'Carpathian Mountains' was a more stomping affair which saw the guitarists build a bit more of an atmosphere with some dissonant distorted chords ringing out over the persistent drums. Fitting in with the band that would headline the gig that night, this sense of atmosphere built once again with more spacious but heavy 'Kingdom of Darkness'. Ending the band's rendition of this EP then was the self-titled 'Thy Dying Light', which once again upped the tempo and saw all of the band's members absolutely hammer away at their respective instruments. Injecting a bit of variety to the nearly 7-minute song though, the second third of the song brought in rather clean guitar arpeggios which rang out among a more morose spoken section.

Extending the set beyond this EP alone though, Thy Dying Light then played two songs from their most recent EP Cold In Death. The self-titled track was a bit of a slow burner which saw the band showcase some of the more dark and reflective elements in their arsenal, before the more conventionally fast and punishing pummelling of 'Impaler' got heads banging. At risk of taking the band's set to over the allocated stage time, there was no time wasted as they closed their set with a cover of Bathory's 'Satan My Master'. As the frontman shrieked that this was a song about "Sataaaan", the crowd seemed particularly enthused and there were plenty of fists in the air around me as the last notes rang out. 

Other than such brief examples where Hrafn would introduce the name of the song out to the crowd though, there was no other crowd interaction from what I can remember. In fact, there wasn't that much real outward energy on display from the band either as they focused on delivering the songs effectively. For someone like myself who isn't so keen on straight ahead black metal, this lack of real visual markers (other than the corpse paint, of course) meant that I wasn't particularly excited by the band personally. But I could tell that this was still a very solid performance from this style of music. A key indicator of this was that the crowd was really busy for the band as they came on, and it only seemed to get more busy and rowdy as they went on.  

Although the more straight ahead style of black metal at its most simplistic doesn't do all that much for me, I would be interested to see where Thy Dying Light go next, as there were definitely some nice little flourishes in their sound. Especially this early into the band's lifespan. If they  continue to build on these more interesting moments in their sound and are able to match their stage performance accordingly, I think they could be onto something. If you like your second-wave black metal, you'll probably get a bit more out of this than me. Check them out. 

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Attempting to combat the increasingly late start times, the next band quickly came onstage to set up their equipment. As they came onstage with a lack of corpse paint and a vocalist who didn't play any instruments, it became evident almost straight away that the East Sussex-based Vehement were going to be markedly different to what had come before. 

Starting their set immediately after doing their soundcheck, the room was rather more empty than it had been with the last band. But as they went on, the people who were elsewhere in the building would make their way back to the stage. It was a good thing too, because this band were really very cool. Although I don't have the band's setlist to hand, I imagine that the majority of their set would have consisted of the band's 2013 album Collapse and 2017's Ashes. 

In terms of the band's sound, Vehement's own labelling of themselves being 'extreme metal' rather than simply 'black metal' made a whole lot more sense after this performance. Over on the guitars, 'Tarn' and 'Wraith' brought some beefy downtuned riffing (solidified by the wonderfully chunky tone the band blasted out from the speakers), which sat nicely on top of an organ-shakingly low bass tone from 'Ohtar'. While locking in tightly with the bass here, drummer 'Andras' was able to mix up some cool little fills with endurance testing double-kick patterns that would last for seeming minutes at a time. Topping all of this off was the guttural, growling harsh vocals from frontman 'Xysor', which would then turn into more clean but incredibly theatrical ghoulish howls seamlessly. A shout out here has to go to those moments when the bassist and vocalist howled in tandem, providing some memorable vocal and visual hooks to latch onto throughout the set. Double shout out as well to the rarer occasions where the left hand guitarist would provide powerful low end screams alongside these more melodic moments while the riffage continued underneath. There were more than a few moments in the set where the band would lock into a groovy chug that felt really satisfying to experience as well. Excellent stuff. 

I've got to give a special mention for the band's stage performance as well. Having only listened to the band a little bit before going to the gig, I didn't quite know what I was going to getting visually here. So I was a bit surprised, and more than a little bit impressed that the band brought a lot of energy and engagement to the table here. Vocalist 'Xysor' would gesticulate frantically with his hands while he screamed; particularly when the more dramatic vocal lines would come in. Bassist 'Ohtar' would wander between the drums and the mic on more than one occasion and look humorously crazed as he contributed his backing vocals with his eyes rolling in his sockets. On the drums, 'Andras' seemed to be an everlasting fountain of energy as he battered the kit with almighty power and speed. Over on the left hand side, the lead guitarist kept things from getting too out of hand with his more rigid performance, all the while throwing out some cool technically minded licks and solos every now and again as well. 

All in all, the different influences bled into one invigorating live performance. The band never seemed to stay in one place for too long and always had some interesting sonic choices or visual quirk up their sleeve. Although the different styles of music didn't seem to quite hit a sweet spot for some of the crowd who were after some more straight forward black metal, the room had become pretty full and there was many a person who seemed to be into this by the end of this set. Personally I was very impressed by the band's energy, technicality, sound and musical variety throughout their performance, and they sounded even more intense in the live environment than they do on record. I would definitely watch Vehement again if I get the chance. Check them out!

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Another half an hour passed before the main band of the night started their set and by this time, things were running about 20-25 minutes late. With the band only having a small podium containing lyric/music sheets, and some minimalist black hooded zip ups, there wasn't too much for Fuath to set up onstage though, thankfully. 

This sense of minimalism could be applied to pretty much every other area of their performance as well. Sonically, Fuath takes a more raw and darker approach to the brand of atmospheric black metal thab Saor does. It's far more Wolves in the Throne Room, Vermod and the heavier parts of Agalloch than it is more like soaring bands like Alcest. There is a sense of sparsity and bleakness within the band's 2016 album I, which is reflected in the live set as well.With the exclusion of a violin player a la Saor, the remaining members, Marshall (bass, vocals), Rene McDonald (guitar), 'Nick' (guitar) and 'B' (drums) gave off less of a sense of euphoric, romantic folk sentiment in this project and more the impending darkness that the harsh winter can bring. 

And this became none the more clear when the first opening blasts of (what I believe was) 'In The Halls of the Hunter' played. Although there was a sense of beauty to the layering of the blast beats, tremolo picked guitars and rumbling bass line, this was a harsh and raw sense of beauty we were witnessing. Even though it took a bit of warming up for the band and crowd to get fully immersed in the experience, there was a clear enthusiasm to appreciate the level of craft that went into this band's work. As the 9 minute track ebbed on, the subtle changes which accompanied the repeating riffs and drum beats really built a sense of hypnotic intrigue and a sense of progress for the entirety of the track. It was all so fluid as well. This was particularly highlighted in the skilful manner in which the band swept into the more intense, faster paced blackened midsection without missing a beat.  Keeping a solemn and rather static frame, Marshall glared out to the audience and further promoted the darker, more oppressive elements of the band's sound effectively. 'Fuath' is Gaelic for 'hate' after all... And that brings us to the vocals. Effectively capturing the sense of hopelessness and hatred while maintaining a sense of distance and space, Marshall's powerful mid-range shrieking bark felt like it was able to fill the entire road on its own. Up against the instrumentation, you really got a nice sense of contrast that felt even more poignant in the live environment. 

But as the song ended, we really got a sense of the icy mood which would persist throughout the rest of the gig. With no interaction with the crowd, the band would tune their instruments in a slightly awkward silence before briefly chatting to each other. There would be several incidents throughout the rest of the show that would temporarily cause a halt to the sense of immersion, such as the slightly long wait times between songs and small slight sound issues near the start of the second or third song. The rough edges here made a lot of sense considering it was the band's first ever live show, and with Marshall describing his dislike for performing live shows in the past. But thankfully, these issues would be long forgotten once the band started up once again. Other than one incident... But we'll need to leave that one to the end...

Once again, I don't have a setlist to hand, but I'm pretty sure that Fuath played all of their album I in its entirety. Notching up the pace on 'Blood', the 10 minute track was almost entirely instrumental, which allowed for the mastery of the musicians to be on full display. Once again ramping up that sense of dark hypnosis, the almost galloping drum beats accompanied a slowly moving canvas of dense but spacious sounds to the point where you could almost not notice the changes that have gradually occurred until you thought about it. I ended up watching the drummer as he subtly mixed up his rhythms with perfect timing under the slabs of guitar and bass and found myself totally in awe at the level of musicianship. 'The Oracle' was a more reflective affair which settled itself into a slower, almost doom-black metal pace. The presence of Marshall's underlying bass lines really built up that sense of scale and ominous vibes in an intense fashion. Particular shout out in this song has to go to the last 3 or so minutes where the dual lead guitars and slightly off-kilter drumming then transitioned into a gentler atmospheric break then the infectious gallop kicked in once more to get heads banging around the room. 

Calculating the stage time in my head, I'm pretty sure Fuath must have played another song during the set (perhaps a new one from the just announced second album coming in April!). But I don't have that one to hand so I'll need to just talk about Fuath's longest song 'Spirit of the North', which may or may not have ended the set. Reaching a very-nearly 12 minute duration, the impressive feat of endeavour was the most dynamic of the entire set. Starting off in quickfire fashion, the song flowed within this style before dropping off almost entirely around 3 minutes in. With a slightly echoing, clean guitar, the calmest moment of the gig so far would ensure that silence could be felt in the entire room. Before long though, the Glasgow crowd would start clapping in time, prompting a rare smile from the frontman as he looked out to the busy room. The layers built upon one another here until the instruments were rather distorted and a thrashing drum blast could come in and really make its mark. Things really felt like they were going to end on a high. 

But this would change very quickly. 

As the last few minutes of the song saw the band lock into a tight rhythmic groove, the stage lights  suddenly and abrasively turned on. And then the sound started to cut out from the guitars and drums until there was only a trace of the saturation and volume which had been present just a few moments earlier. Cue groans and jeers from the crowd. I looked down at my watch, expecting that the band had maybe went over their time. But it was only 10:45 and curfew was supposed to be 11! Clearly the band didn't know that there had been a change of plans either as everyone bar the drummer was glaring out, visibly pissed off, with no response from the sound desk as to why they were getting cut off. Stopping playing entirely, Marshall's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to speak into the mic and get the sound guy's attention. No luck here. Looking over at his bandmates, they all agreed to keep going, following in the drummer's wake. Why not, when they only had a few minutes to go? The band therefore continued to end the song as the last spacious tremolo picked waves ended things on a particularly bitter note. Galvanised by the cheering crowd who were supporting the band on through this injustice, Marshall looked about ready to get into a physical fight as he gave various hand gestures and silent words to the sound desk. 

Storming off the stage, the whole thing left a bit of sour taste in the mouth for the band's first gig, especially since it wasn't the band's fault by any stretch of the imagination. There was absolutely no warning given to what was about to happen. It appeared that there had been a miscommunication between the promoter and the bands, and that the curfew time had changed without letting anyone know. A real shame for the gig which should've (and most likely would've) ended on a more triumphant and pleasant note otherwise. 

In saying that though, I really hope this doesn't put Marshall off of playing more Fuath shows in the future. Although such issues became some of the most memorable parts of this gig, I and the vast majority of the crowd around me thoroughly enjoyed this set and this stacked gig immensely when the music was put in its rightful place. With a new album in the works, I would really love to be able to see the band play once more after getting this first nerve racking show out of the way. I think the band will definitely be able to tighten things up for future shows. Just take a look at how slick Saor are live these days. Killer stuff. If I wasn't already looking forward to what the band does next, I certainly am after seeing them that night. 

If you are a fan of atmospheric black metal and you haven't done so already, you need to check this band out. For me, I only wish I'd picked up some of their music on my way out... Well... maybe next time. Come back soon yeah, Fuath? And Saor too? Why not.

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