On Thursday night I headed to Oslo in Hackney to catch one of the final dates of Nordic Giants’ 18-date “Under Celestial Alignments” UK tour. A friend recommended the band to me so I gave them a listen on a popular music streaming platform, liked what I heard, saw that they were on tour, and was looking forward to seeing them live for the first time.
Opening proceedings were four-piece Last Of Eden from Halifax, who I hadn’t seen before but really enjoyed. They had two screens, one on either side of the stage playing clips to accompany their instrumental post-metal, and the room was packed for their energetic set. I got the feeling that a lot of the people in the crowd had come to see them, as well as Nordic Giants.
At 9pm, Brighton-based Nordic Giants took to the stage wearing their trademark feathered masks and adorned outfits ready to play their 2026 album Under Celestial Alignments in full. As a photographer I was a bit concerned that the two band members were sat on each far side of the dark stage, there were fog / haze machines and a large projector screen in the middle of the stage, but it definitely added to the ambiance of the show, and every so often the lighting hit just right and I was able to capture some shots of the band.
The short cinematic clips being shown on the projector were often quite dark and dystopian, but were so engaging that I sometimes got lost in it all and forgot I was at a gig at all – it really felt like a collective, immersive audio-video experience was being had in the room.
I really enjoyed the band’s “cinematic post-rock”, and the staging was certainly something I had never experienced before in such a small venue, which made it very memorable indeed.
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Last Of Eden: official | facebook | instagram | spotify | bandcamp
Nordic Giants: official | facebook | instagram | spotify | youtube
All photos by Katie Frost Photography
