Review by Paddy Gallagher for MPM
It’s Christmas Party night in Belfast Rock City judging by the number of groups wandering about with bottles of beer, dressed to kill and ready to rock’n’roll all night and suffer all the next day.
It’s an early start for tonight’s gig with kick off at 6:40pm seeing Opia take the stage as the first punters filed through the just opened doors.
Now here is a band worth the effort of getting there early for. A multi-national 6 piece consisting of English, Brazilian, Spanish and Czechian members, tonight they had to make do without their Brazilian drummer who was unavoidably absent. In the true spirit of the show must go on, rather than cancel the band improvise using hastily arranged drum tracks thanks to their producer Abraham Fihema. And aren’t we glad they pulled it off!! This band are a fantastic find, their Gothic / Doom sounds a perfect start to the evening.
We have Phoenix and Dan on guitars, Jorge on keyboards, Aidan on bass and the sublime voice of Tereza switching from clean to growls with consummate ease. A short set due to squeezing 3 bands in before an early curfew of 10.00pm, we get approximately 30 minutes of music from their 2025 released debut album, “I Welcome Thee, Eternal Sleep”. The only downside was the unavailability of merch; a tee shirt and cd would have been bought had the run up to tonight been less problematic for the band. But credit where it is due, they had a successful Belfast debut despite the obstacles; let’s get them back as soon as practically possible.
After a 20-minute change over, the legends that are Denmark’s Saturnus literally shake the building to the very bottom of its foundations. All 6 members were on top form, heads swaying to the doom-laden riffs accompanied by Thomas’ deep growls.
A spot of technical trouble for drummer Henrik was soon dealt with, and we get a 6-song set covering all 5 of their studio albums with most recent release, 2023’s “The Storm Within” providing the title track and “Breathe New Life”. Thomas’ between song banter wasn’t curtailed by English not being his mother tongue, and in the more relaxed setting of the merch table after the gig the craic was mighty.
Check out the band’s socials as they provide daily updates from the road giving an interesting glimpse of behind-the-scenes life on the road.
Headliners tonight are Finland’s Swallow the Sun. 9 studio albums into their career the band take to the stage in black hoods, which when combined with the lighting and anticipation of the crowd, melancholic ambiance envelopes the venue as “Innocence Was Long Forgotten” from 2024’s fine opus “Shining” kicks proceedings off.
The crowd was well up for this, no doubt about it; the sing along to “MelancHoly” remaining in the head long after the gig on the drive home.
Billed as “Shining over Britain & Ireland” this is a relatively short tour consisting of 8 gigs winding up in Nottingham on 20th December.
It was great to see these bands include Ireland on the tour, current economics results in many a tour passing by the Island.
To anyone with an interest in Gothic Doom Metal it is a cracker of a line up, 3 excellent bands and the perfect way to spend a deary December evening. And get there early, do not miss openers Opia; you’ll be glad you saw them up close and personal when they make it to headline status.
