Jacob Bannon and Chelsea Wolfe report back from the twilight zone
Hexvessel offer a natural high
IF YOU’VE OVERCOME the misdirection from the Lorde fans shuffling into the other side of Ally Pally, the venue’s high-ceilinged theatre room makes for an aweinspiring setting that belongs to another age. Rather fitting for Finland’s HEXVESSEL then, whose woozy pastoralism has been communing with the most consciousness-altering aspects of nature since long before the pagan folk scene exploded. Even at their most downcast, there’s a gradual magic at work, the 2am-ina-forgotten-tavern vibe of Bog Bodies still quivering as if the mushrooms are just kicking in. Hexvessel often sound in retreat from the modern world, but there’s rapture too, in Mat McNerney’s affecting, wheedling vocals; the deathbed caress of Magical & Damned; and the sweat lodge rite of the closing His Portal Tomb, rising to a final, room-filling chant invoking the most ancient and earthy of deities.
The anticipation for Converge, Chelsea Wolfe and Stephen Brodsky’s BLOODMOON set could power a small city. As with Hexvessel and the main artists’ own work, the Bloodmoon: I album harbours a potent emotional charge that’s viscerally galvanising yet rooted in twilight states. Everything about tonight feels elemental and yet otherworldly. The LED strips illuminating the dry ice form a shimmering forcefield in front of the band. The stark spots of backlight suggest a night-time, alien visitation as a black-clad Chelsea appears to merge in and out of existence. And the guitarists and vocalists are lined up evenly at the front, like Eternals-esque emissaries, returned from some psychic hinterland to reveal something utterly crucial.