Polaris – 13 March 2024 (Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Barcelona)

Last Wednesday night, Australians Polaris returned to Barcelona 5 years after their first visit supporting Architects, established themselves now as one of the world’s leading metalcore bands.

Jamie Hails from Polaris, Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©.

The early schedule, incompatible with the working day, made it impossible for us to enjoy the Japanese band Paledusk and also listened only the last four songs of the Australian band Thornhill, who presented a Spartan proposal as far as movement as a band was concerned. With the lead role in the hands of their singer Jacob Charlton, who never stopped grimacing and posing for the front rows against a backdrop of the band’s name written in red light bulbs, the end of their set focused on their latest album Heroine (2022). With much more accessible rhythms than metalcore is used to live, the absence of guttural vocals for long moments and the outstanding presence of Nick Sjogren’s bass lines, the Aussies played their part in the game and left with a lukewarm feeling to an audience that was already starting to fill up the hall.

Garret RussellfromSilent Planet, Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Photo by Víctor Ramos SantaféforIndieofilo^©

Quite the opposite of Silent Planet, the last of the night’s opening bands. The Los Angeles band is one of the new spearheads of djent, the style Meshuggah popularised years ago. With dreamlike projections on stage and especially guru leader Garrett Russell on vocals, the quartet showed incredible power live, with drummer Alex Camarena standing out. Between textures close to industrial and electronic music, we were able to enjoy a wide amalgamation of styles in a concert that focused mainly on their latest album, Superbloom (2023). The best of their set came with “Antimatter”, ”Panic Room” & “:Signal:”, where we could taste the incredible changes in vocal register of their singer, who can intone melodic and guttural notes with equal precision in tenths of a second. It was a great concert, especially in the last 20 minutes when we were even able to see the first pogos and crowd surfing of the night.

Jake SteinhauserfromPolaris, Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Photo by Víctor Ramos SantaféforIndieofilo^©

With the room packed to the rafters, Australia’s Polaris took to the stage to the synth lines of “Harbinger”, arguably the most melodic track on their latest album Fatalism (2023). With the first part of the concert dominated by the voice and charisma of frontman Jamie Hails, “Hypermania” and the powerful “Nightmare” unleashed madness in a room that surrendered to their catchy chorus and the rhythm set by Furnari’s drums. With the crowd already in their pocket, they launched into “With Regards”, which was interrupted after a few seconds by the band themselves when they saw a security guard violently approaching a member of the audience who had been crowdsurfing seconds earlier.

Daniel FurnarifromPolaris, Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Photo by Víctor Ramos SantaféforIndieofilo^©

The break, plus the constant pauses between songs to tune instruments, made the show lose a bit of steam, tarnishing by the loss of power “Lucid”, and above all “All of This is Fleeting”, where there was a lack of a greater presence of the electronic bases that accompany the song in the recorded version of the track. Fortunately, the power returned with the concatenation of “Landmine” and the incredible “Overflow”, possibly the best song of the night since the perfect vocal combination between Jamie Hails and bassist Jake Steinhauser. After the emotional moment of the evening, dedicating “Martyr (Waves)” to his guitarist Ryan Siew who passed away last summer and the recognition of what it costs them on an emotional level every show since his loss, the band recovered the rhythm of the beginning of the concert in a masterful last third of the concert in which Hails recovered his best vocal registers.

Jamie Hails from Polaris, Sala Razzmatazz 2 – Photo by Víctor Ramos Santafé for Indieofilo^©.

This would lead to “Parasites” and “Dissipate”, where once again the theme was given a higher level of quality through the interplay between the two main voices.and before the encores attacking the melodic “Masochist” and “Inhumane”, where the excessive presence of Jesse Crofts with an eternal and incomprehensible guitar solo, more typical of speed metal than metalcore, provided another of the low moments of the evening.. Perhaps aware of the bitter aftertaste of the last song, the Sydney band opted for two safe bullets for the encores, “Pray For Rain” and “The Remedy”, where it was impossible to find an objection both musically and emotionally. The balance of the voices, the necessary prominence of the drums and the first moments of individual brilliance from Rick Schneider on guitar helped the audience to go home with the feeling of having experienced a remarkable concert., and also that Concert halls like Razzmatazz’s 2 are starting to get too small for a band that, without reaching the recognition of bands like their compatriots Parkway Drive or Architects, is already a reference point for metalcore worldwide.