Sophie Lancaster Stage, Saturday
I had been looking forward to catching Ba’al since listening to their new album The Fine Line Between Heaven and Here shortly after its release. This is a hugely ambitious piece of work, but also an immensely challenging listen.
I clearly wasn’t the only one, as a good crowd began to fill into the Sophie tent.
It’s easy to get caught in a “word soup” in the world of metal these days – Ba’al have been described as “Blackened Post Metal” and “Atmospheric Depressive Metal.” Live, I felt a sense of fluidity as the passages within the songs ebbed and flowed, underpinned by a viscerally emotive vocal core. Those vocals ranged from a rasping wail, to sections more like shouts of pain and despair, all the way through to deep-throated death metal growls. This was supported by guitar passages that shifted between sweeping lead runs, picked chords (sometimes dissonant and discordant), palm-muted chugs, and ferocious black metal picking – creating a multi-layered musical soundscape.
This is metal that pulls the listener in, implores it be listened to, demands an emotional response, and then leaves them to pick up the pieces of their own empathy.
It should be said that the lyrical content of Ba’al’s songs is highly poetic, and it’s worth listening to the album with the words in hand. Obviously, this isn’t something you can do in a live setting, but to be fair to vocalist Joe Stamps, the underlying emotion of those lyrics is deeply conveyed through his vocal range, even if you’re never going to make out most of the words. The lead guitar work also lends weight to the emotional core of the music, finely balanced within extended and complex songs.
In that context, it’s worth giving a shout-out to drummer Luke Rutter. I witnessed plenty of supreme musicianship over the weekend – drumming included – but Luke’s contribution to Ba’al can’t be understated. He plays blast beats and more intense passages with relaxed fluidity, while maintaining power and precision, and in more atmospheric parts shows a percussive musicality that lifts those passages – particularly live.
Overall, the crowd in the Sophie tent lapped this up, and Ba’al were given an intense reception as they completed their set – a reaction that was hugely deserved.
Photos by Katie Frost Photography
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