Bristol based post-metal band Svalbard have announced a short run of UK shows, which are scheduled to take place in March. The shows will commence on March 9th at The Loft in Southampton, and end on the 20th of March at Junction in Plymouth. Tickets can be purchased here.
Svalbard are a group who have been gaining a great deal of well-deserved traction over the last year, following the release of their third LP When I Die, Will I Get Better?, which Metal Hammer named the fifth best metal album of 2020. The record was released on a number of different vinyl pressings, the majority of which are sold out over on their Bandcamp page.
In a glowing 9/10 review by Distorted Sound Magazine, writer Graham Ray said: “This is the closest SVALBARD have come to pure perfection. It’s a more focused and driven album than their previous work that shows great maturity and allows every aspect of the band to shine bright. It’s haunting, heart-wrenching and breathes power. The UK metal scene is in safe hands with bands like SVALBARD carrying the torch.”
Sonically, the album embraces the “post” aspect of post-metal with open arms, favouring heavenly, reverb-laden guitar lines that streak across the musical landscape of the album like comets, whilst an artillery barrage of drums thunder alongside them. Amidst these great shoegaze-esque textures sit the formidable vocals of singer and guitarist Serena Cherry, who delivers extremely literal, scathing lyrics throughout the record, concerning a great deal of pressing subjects. The song “Click Bait” for example, concerns shady music publications using her name in fabricated stories as a means to generate attention, and “What Was She Wearing?” addresses the prevalent issue of misogynistic victim blaming: “Showing flesh, showing flesh does not invalidate me.”
Whilst the group have always had a sound focused around post-metal, they have always dabbled in other sonic pools, with their second album It’s Hard To Have Hope exploring the uber-heavy world of blackened hardcore. With this record, the band have taken a noticeable turn into the black metal (or post-black metal, because we needed more genre subdivisions) world, crafting a sound that evokes memories of Explosions In The Sky and Alcest. The record is available via all streaming services, and you can find remaining physical copies here.
Listed below are the band’s upcoming tour dates.
09/03/2022- The Loft- Southampton
10/03- Parish- Huddersfield
11/03- KK’s Steel Mill- Wolverhampton
12/03- The Forum- London
13/03- Firebug- Leceister
19/03- The Hat Factory- Luton
20/03- Junction- Plymouth
