The catacombs of Helgi’s proved a fitting spot for Italian goth rockers Horror Vacui to stop off for the London date of their Sleepless Nights tour. It was something of a pleasant surprise to encounter them via YouTube and Bandcamp, a modern goth act channeling the old gods to add something fresh and vital to the genre; however, I found the postage for their discography a bit of a wallet rape; as such, this gig served as a way to kill two birds with one stone, allowing me to hear those earcatchers and, hopefully, take them home with me in some semblance of a tangible form. The fact that the London date fell on a night off certainly didn’t hurt as extra incentive either.
Support for that sweltering London night (to date, the only time I’ve removed my jacket at Helgi’s) came in the form of London post-punk band Solus. Due to them being both new to me and, particularly in vocalist Nick Hydra’s case, somewhat long of tooth, I’m unsure whether they’re newbies to the scene or a really, really obscure old-school troupe a long way from the ’80s, but either way, they opened up the night with some formidable, bass-heavy, politically charged numbers such as ‘Obsidian’, ‘Glare’, ‘Humanoid’, and their newer pro-Palestine number ‘Massacre of Innocents’, their sound very much reminiscent of the likes of Blitz and Peter and the Test Tube Babies when they prefixed their punk sound with “post-” way back when. Solid stuff and a spirited performance, particularly, again, from Mr Hydra, who took to the floor with stand-propped lyrics whilst his mates remained rooted on the stage (such as it was). I’ll keep an eye out for their gestation from demo to album status.
The political tint carried over to the headline set of the Bolognan bats in the belfry, most marked in the anarcho-tinged excellence of ‘5000’, with its refrain of “NO MASTERS! NO CHAINS!” and vocalist Koppa’s preamble for ‘Grey Shadows’, in which he endorsed Gaza and free migration whilst calling out bomberventionist displacement and “Islamophobia” (which given the sentiments expressed against overarching organised religion in ‘Consolation Prize’ is an odd thing for this band to oppose).
In any case, we’re not talking anything close to the obnoxious soapboxing of Vision Video’s Dusty Gannon, and, politically tinged or otherwise, HV’s song catalogue hits the spot more consistently than their Stateside counterparts. As such, it pleased me to hear the likes of ‘Lost’, the aforementioned ‘5000’, ‘Another Sleepless Night’, and the title track of their first album, ‘In Darkness, You Will Feel Alright’, and they did a good job of getting all attendant swaying along to their soaring, sighing melodies. The cast-iron standouts amongst standouts, however, were their performances of ‘Skyless Eyes’, a newer track from their upcoming fifth album (sold exclusively on this tour in vinyl), with the drum work of the delectably adept Marziona being especially notable, and the closer ‘Corvus Corax’, which brought the night to a wonderfully warbling close.
In the end, a satisfying live introduction to a modern goth band keeping the melodies, moodiness, and mascara sales of the genre alive. A sterling setlist, solid support, and, as hoped, I bagged myself the CD back catalogue (at a bargain) without having to pay a penny of postage—ciao!
~MRDA~
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