London
26 July 2009
Southern Lord have been doing good business resurrecting their roster from the first time round, with some spectacularly lavish re-releases from Burning Witch, for example, making it strange to reflect that their twentieth anniversary isn’t too far off yet… So it’s only to be applauded that Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn0))) (etc) are back with Runhild Gammelsæter and the rest of Thorr’s Hammer for tonight’s post-Supersonic festival gig – the chance for Londoners who couldn’t – or possibly wouldn’t – make the trip to Birmingham for one of the year’s crucial weekends of stupendously good music from around the world to catch a moment of doom reunion.
One of the unique selling points of Thorr’s Hammer’s only recorded release, the Thorr’s Hammer Dommeda
gsnatt EP from 1996 was that Anderson, O’Malley et al recorded the three tracks on the original 12” over a co
uple of nights with Norwegian exchange student Gammelsæter. This in itself was not particularly noteworthy, but Runhild’s vocal range was, and is, being blessed with an amazing pair of lungs. As the opening track “Norge” of the EP demonstrates tonight, she still has the range of a demon and an angel, soaring from the depths of guttural throat-warbling doom to the slightly sing-song cadences of a Nordic folkishness which doesn’t actually bear too much close examination of the lyrics in translation, but is rendered here in earth-trembling perfection. Add in one of the all-time crushingly great riffs, and it’s pretty much the perfect doom performance (even prompting one audience member to shout “Black Sabbath” occasionally – Thorr’s Hammer simply respond with “Cathedral!!” which seems reasonable enough) – if more than slightly knowingly so.
Yes, Thorr’s Hammer might ham up their stage show somewhat, headbanging and posturing inc
luded – but when there’s band rocking out with as much metal energy as this, what choice is there, really? A good proportion of their time onstage may be spent hurling curly matts of hair back and forth while Runhild wails, intones and moans across a visceral spectrum of vocalisations – but that surely is the point, so the odd gleeful expression on Runhild’s face here and there can be forgi
ven. Underneath it all, the music sweeps everything before it in a welter of trouser-shaking bass heaviness courtesy of Messers Ampeg, Hiwatt and Marshall.
Mysterious Osaka behemoth Corrupted, on the other hand, are a heads-down serious proposition by comparison. Vocalist Hevi, decked out in a neat black suit and trilby, could be mistaken for a yakuza stereotype if need be, though his demeanour is somewhere between a sardonic observer of what will get the audience going and someone who sincerely doesn’t seem to give too much of a fuck. He spends many moments staring with interest up at the far-distantant ceiling of the Scala, apparently oblivious – then scowling as if possessed by primal demonic forces as he lets rip with utterances every bit as outré as Runhild’s earlier glossolalia from the Pit – especially given that when he actually sings, it’s in Spanish, adding yet another layer to the global metal melting pot.
While chunks of Corrupted’s slow-loud-quiet-louder set could be categorised as post-rock (bearing some affinity with, say Slint in the extrem
e dynamic both bands let simmer and rip), it’s also more than true to say that when they rock, they rock hard and in what is by no means a post-anything mode; this is the real doomy deal, and their black-clad forms arc across the simple purple-lit, candle-dotted stage with a deal of demonstrable immensity just to make sure the point is rammed home. They might prowl around the riffs, but Corrupted pack their melodicism with enough true heft that sections of the crowd are left with no choice but to set in for some serious headbanging; and eventually the slight form of Runhild is spotted carried aloft from the floor of the Scala, having been at the front moshing away with the best of them. The sheer energy Corrupted unleash – as and when suits them, for they are nothing if not in total control of their Corrupted sound – is immense, and it’s a decided eye- and ear-opener to witness them live on stage.
-Richard Fontenoy-
