Rolo Tomassi, Holy Fawn and Heriot Live at The Electric Ballroom, London

Shows at the Electric Ballroom are often a key step to the ladder of fame for alternative bands, and Rolo Tomassi is no exception, as they played their biggest show to date there, as enthused by the band.

While they are yet to be fully discovered, they have already developed a great supportive fan base judging by a very packed venue on the night of their closing tour show.

Supporting Rolo Tomassi were Heriot and Holy Fawn, two bands with contrasting styles, giving the audience a good mix of heavy, hammer-like, almost demonic, sounds on one side (Heriot) and deep and ethereal on the other side (Holy Fawn).

Heriot were very impressive with their noisy, fast-paced tunes. Their distorted guitars balanced well with the strong, visceral and screaming vocals of Jake and Debbie, both angrily and hungrily (of playing) leading the opening session, keeping everyone’s ears well open. I could feel their sound kicking the inside of my stomach but in a good way. Extra kudos need to go to this band for well-engaging with the audience while having technical issues mid-set, which did not throw them off and made their performance worthwhile watching. Tracks performed on the night were from their EP Profound Morality. For those who like a more brutal metal style, this is a band worth listening to and watching live.

As mentioned before, Holy Fawn were the opposite of Heriot, bringing in an eerie and dreamy sound to the entire venue. The backlighting/strobes show helped create an uneasy atmosphere, as such are their songs. Their music reminded me of those dark forests where you think something very bad will happen but it is all in your head. The band played tracks from their most recent release Dimensional Bleed, including ‘Void Of Light’, which begins very calmly before building up to an extremely heavy mid-part and finishing off very quietly. I appreciated their style and music, even though at times Osterman’s vocals were hard to hear (not to the singer’s fault), so said it is a band I will now keep on my radar and watch live again (hopefully with a better sound system).

After a short break, it was time for Rolo Tomassi, the lights deemed down even more, and as soon as they walked the notes of ‘Almost Always’ hit, a slow-paced tune accompanied by very soft vocals of front-woman Eva Korman; an unexpected start which set the mood very well – the crowd did not seem disappointed and engaged straight away.

Next up was ‘Cloaked’, a tune that got the crowd moving. Eva had an amazing and unique stage presence, dancing smoothly and jumping to fit in with the music. The nearly exclusively use of backlights and back screens with cool projections was essential to set the mood.

‘Cloaked’ was followed by ‘To Resist Forgetting’, ‘Labyrinthine’ and ‘Rituals’, all tunes that set the crowd in awe, jumping and mosh-pitting. From the back, I could see plenty of people hair drumming and air guitaring, as the most serious metal fans would do.

At this point a little breather was necessary and the band performed ‘Opalescent’, a tune from their 2015 album ‘Grievances’, with slightly jazzy drumming but yet a much calmer tune. The band well-balanced their show with slower tunes here and there, giving everyone a little break and enjoy a little trance.

While most of the tracks played were taken from their most recent album ‘Where Myth Becomes Memory’, the band did not miss the opportunity to include tunes from previous albums like of ‘Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It’ and ‘Grievances’.

The band went on for a few more songs before stopping to thank Holy Fawn and Heriot, with James asking the crowd to make noise, and more noise, for both bands and mentioning how the 2 weeks of touring were incredible and that they will miss them. This was the point I (and the crowd) thought the gig was reaching its end to the notes of the 8min long ‘Contretemps’, a track that encapsulates Rolo’s core style mixing it all in, with the crowd singing along, cheering and staring yet another mosh pit as the tune switched from its soft and more delicate starting point to the raw and heavy middle point with Eva screaming fiercely.

As the band ended the song, lots of cheering, applauses and screaming soared from the crowd, leaving Eva feeling overwhelmed to the point she said it all felt ‘surreal’, and with James backing the point that they still had some more songs to play; nevertheless, the band felt that that was the ‘most appropriate moment’ to give their fans a little speech, thanking them for their support, and all the people who ‘don’t mind buying into‘ them, closing with the statement ‘If you keep buying tickets, we keep coming back‘.

After the little speech, as the first piano notes of ‘Prescience’ kicked in the crowd was already ready to scream and jump again. The final mosh-pit and the band was ready to leave the stage. Of course, the encore was called and the band came back to play one last song, ‘Drip’, to finish on a very high and energised note.