On a cold London evening, fans gathered outside the O2 Academy Islington for five different bands from five different countries. A line up headlined by Sirenia who are touring their new album ‘Dim Days Of Dolor’.
With only a handful of people in the venue, the first band of the evening, Relicseed from Latvia, played two songs before their singer introduces the band. The title track of their second album ‘Slaughter House’ is the heaviest sounding song the band do all set, not that the crowd was into it very much. A few more songs later Relicseed finish up and the audience don’t seem too disappointed.
Up next is Xaon, a death metal band from Switzerland. Xaon definitely woke the growing crowd up. They bring some much needed energy to the night with a brutal sound and a few songs from their EP ‘Face Of Balaamand’. Throughout their set the band keep the crowd completely engaged. I enjoyed their sound and am sure they gained some new fans with this show tonight. They are definitely a band to look out for in the future.
Unleash The Archers from Canada are up next and it’s their first time in the UK. Looking around there are some crowd members wearing their shirts, suggesting the band have some following here. Starting off with “Northern Passage”, the intro track from the bands latest album ‘Time Stands Still’, they go for it right from the set off with Britney Slayers looking like some form of fantasy warrior. She is on top form and has a voice on her that leaves you in awe. The rest of the band sound great as well and you can tell they are really enjoying themselves. Unleash The Archers are showing why they are getting quite a reputation about them. If you haven’t listened to them yet, I highly recommend you do. They really are something special.
The Faroe Islands very own T.Y.R are the main support, although with the number of fans in T.Y.R shirts you might think they were headlining. After “Gandkvaeoi Trondar”, a very loud crowd sing along, joining the band going full force into “Sinklars Vsia”. The guys sound as good as ever, showing why they have been around as long as they have and proving just why they have such a strong following here in the UK. Once the song is over, front man Heri Joeson says they really should make a new album soon and merch sales would make that happen much faster. The band finishes up a lively and passionate performance with “Hall Of freedom. T.Y.R might have only been the support act, but it was a performance worthy of a headline act.
The last and headlining band of the night is Sirenia from Stavanger. Norway. With a new singer in there line up, Emmanuelle Zoldan takes on front woman duties. Sadly for them before they had even come on stage the crowd size went down quite a bit as a lot of T.Y.R fans chose not to stick around and there was a noticeable difference in crowd size. The first track of the set was “Lost In My life” however most of the crowd (or what was left of it) did not seem into it. “My Destiny Comes To Pass” is next up. A much more upbeat number which you would think might get everyone a bit more into the set but it doesn’t seem to have much effect. What really bothered me in this song is that Emmanuelle didn’t really seem into the music much herself and really had no stage presence about her. It all seemed very lacklustre. To add to this, during the guitar solo she stood stiff and played with her hair, appearing uninterested. After one more song, “The End Of It All” that really was the end for myself and most. The biggest problem with the set came from Emmanuelle who needs to go and ask Britney Slayers on how to be an effective front woman. On this night, at least, Sirenia were very much below what you would expect from a headline band.
This was a mixed bag of a show. Some bands struggled to win the crowd over, others have a future ahead of them and for the most part everyone put maximum effort into their sets. But if this is the performance Sirenia are giving each night then it was a mistake to have them headline this bill.