Svalbard embark on their final UK tour, with support from Cage Fight and Knife Bride. From their formation in 2011 to the present, Svalbard has always been unapologetically themselves, creating the music they want to make with no limitations. As of next year, they will be calling it a day, rounding off 15 years as a band, and they have truly gone out with a bang.
Knife Bride
The first band to grace the stage is Knife Bride, a band self-described as “Nu Gothika”, which perfectly encapsulates the energy and musical innovation they radiate, providing heavy-hitting metal riffs layered with whimsical vocals from singer Mollie Clack and a powerful stage presence to match.
The band don’t yet have a lengthy back catalogue to pick a setlist from, but even still their set was far from predictable with a performance of an unreleased song called ‘Crucify’, followed by another recently released song ‘alone at the altar’, these songs are testament to the fact that while their releases aren’t frequent in quantity, they are most definitely of top quality.
Cage Fight
Cage Fight vocalist Rachel Aspe is a force to be reckoned with and another incredible vocalist on this lineup. While most may know the band for their guitarist, TesseracT’s own James Monteith, the man himself didn’t make an appearance for this tour, resulting in bassist Will Chain stepping up (or sitting down – due to a dislocated knee) to fill his space.
Despite this slight alteration to the expected lineup of band members, the band were still amazing to see, putting their all into their performance. The band were also selling a t-shirt displaying ‘Male Backed Metal’ across the back, which pokes fun at the term ‘Female Fronted Metal’, which shows the band’s humour and felt even more appropriate for this night, considering all of the bands were male-backed/female-fronted.
Svalbard
Vocalist Serena Cherry kicks off the night by welcoming everyone to the band’s funeral, and while the connotations of a funeral aren’t particularly cheery, Cherry assures everyone that their final tour is going to be a good one, and they want to end on a positive note.
Cherry’s vocal range is phenomenal yet seemingly effortless, perfectly blending with guitarist Liam Phelan’s vocals, smiling all the while performing lyrics that contrast her upbeat nature. The setlist feels like a journey through their discography, beginning with ‘Disparity‘ from their 2015 album ‘One Day All This Will End’, playing a couple of songs from each album, as well as their newest release ‘If We Could Still Be Saved’ and going full circle with their encore of another early release ‘Grayscale’.
The entire band was on top form, playing and performing faultlessly, with the only setback being an ‘annoying noise’ that the band joked about towards the end of the set. It’s evident that the band are truly enjoying themselves and making the most of their last moments together, with the goal of creating a beautiful send-off and long-lasting memories for their fans, as Cherry also announces, ‘we’re going to finish this as we started, with passion in our hearts and no money in our bank accounts’.
After each song, Cherry reflects on their time as a band, as well as thanking people for coming and supporting them all these years and expressing how much Manchester means to her, having visited in her teens to watch wrestling and discovering how deeply rooted the metal scene is in Manchester as a result. To close out the night, the band dedicated ‘Eternal‘ to Joey Jordison, who was a big influence for her musically, initially playing the drums before later moving on to guitar.