It’s springtime, but DRACONIAN want to drag us all back into a wintry melancholy. Sweden’s death-doom dealers are finally touring the UK off the back of 2020’s Under A Godless Veil, and suffering through a pandemic sounds like it’s forced them into an especially downtrodden mood. Cuts from Lustrous Heart to Dishearten are desolation incarnate, casting singer Lisa Johansson’s operatic voice against walls of guitars and roars. However, the odd high-energy riff stampede like Seasons Apart makes them seem jolly compared with SWALLOW THE SUN. The Finns have long dealt in frostbitten sorrow, but since the death of guitarist Juha Raivio’s partner, singer/songwriter Aleah Starbridge, their misery has found darker depths of meaning. That knowledge makes Stone Wings and Keep Your Heart Safe From Me the most heartbreaking moments of the night. The solemnity’s made even more potent by the band’s Grim Reaper-like hoods, while candles flicker on the amps behind them. The only respite comes when Juha has technical troubles, forcing frontman Mikko Kotamäki to partake in death-growled small talk with the crowd. It begets the sole laugh of what’s otherwise a crushingly emotional evening.
MATT MILLS