Live Review : Countless Skies + As The Sun Falls + Opia @ Star and Garter, Manchester on February 14th 2025

Why do we do this? Its Valentine's night and we have left perpetually patient partners back at home to stand in the blistering cold of the upstairs room of a shitty pub (the owner's description, not ours). The reason is that we love this music, eternally, triumphantly and truly. The bands on show this evening love this music, it flows through their veins. The audience that has braved the hostility of a Mancunian winter to get here, love this music. Even the characteristically grumpy owner pumping out classic punk downstairs loves this music. It has enslaved us all and it demands both sacrifice and complete obedience.

Countless Skies are exhibiting great resilience in its service. They are two members down. Co-founder and guitarist James Pratt is AWOL because of the joyous onset of parenthood. Bassist and lynchpin clean vocalist Phil Romeo is also out of the frame because of the less joyous reason of serious illness. Other bands would take that as a signal to give the whole thing up as a bad lot. But not Countless Skies, they are a tenacious lot and their love of this music needs feeding. Catch our interview with them HERE.

Talking about braving adversity, as the clock ticks towards the 8.00 PM start time, openers Opia are still a man down. Just as the intro kicks in, bassist Aidan Rutter legs it into the venue, still adorned with his luggage, and plays the first track clad in a communal garden t-shirt as opposed to the band’s trademark black shirts. He is stripped to the waist for the second track and by the time the third has kicked in he has at last managed to join his bandmates in their characteristic look. The look is critical as Opia ooze style and substance. Tereza Rohelova possesses a foreboding charisma. She looms over the audience half dominatrix and half stern Victorian governess (in some people's fantasies they are probably the same thing). She effortlessly switches between gargantuan growls and a sensual husky clean vocal. 

Musically they are astonishingly good, Gothic-tinged doom with splashes of symphonic black metal sprinkled over for good measure. The music is brooding and eerie, but it manages to have a widescreen sensibility. For all its claustrophobic intensity there is an anthemic audacity to it that is infectious and engaging. The room may well be cold but there is a seductive warmth to this glacial doom. The song-writing is meticulous and intricate and there is a grounded honesty that is usually absent in the more fantastical realms of doom.

Guitarist Dan Tregenna takes on MC duties between songs, with humility and being genuine flowing through him. He seems generally shocked that we have chosen to watch his band on a Valentine's evening and displays great emotive honesty when he talks about his grandparent’s dementia as being the subject matter of ‘The Fade’. In line with this entire evening, it becomes very clear that they are doing this for no other reason than they love this music. This is their vocation, and this is their calling and they prove to be an incredibly interesting band to spend forty minutes with. 

As the Sun Falls are happy living up to the stereotype we have of Finnish people. They are mischievous and just a little cheeky. They also have metal flowing through their collective bloodstreams. They play a version of melodic death metal that is so ubiquitous that it is probably now on the school curriculum in Scandinavia. Jani Berney Mikkanen and Joni Hakulinen share vocal responsibilities. Sometimes the former will come in with the clean variant but their dual duties are most effective when they both kick in with the growls. It is like being snarled at in stereo and provides an additional dimension to their sound. 

They are an impressive sight, a cacophony of whirling heads and flailing hair. They are fascinated by the Nordic conditions they have been brought up in and the songs seem to deal in the midnight Sun, the harsh midwinters and just the general inhospitality of the north. They mainly stay within the melodic death metal staple though there is one track where they wander into the black-and-roll playground and perform a rather impressive Kvelertak imitation. Overall they are great fun. Full of conviction but with just enough self-awareness not to take themselves seriously. They make a highly impressive impression for their first visit to this country.

We are in the dying embers of the album cycle for Countless Skies extraordinarily good sophomore effort “Glow”. It may well now be five years old but as further material has not been forthcoming it still retains its position as the primary focus of their set, with all tracks aired over their hour on stage. However, this evening we get a different incarnation of these songs. Phil Romeo's operatic baritone vocals are such an essential part of Countless Skies’ persona that their absence means the tracks feel distinctly different. His vocals are there on the backing tape but they are consciously down in the mix. They operate as a ghostly choral echo just on the edge of hearing, as opposed to their usual booming central role.

All this means that the intricacies within the band's material really get the opportunity to shine. “Glow” is such an audacious astonishing album because of its intricate technicality mixed with a gruff granularity. The harshness is massively up in the mix this evening. Ross King’s gravel-soaked growls take pole position, driving the music forward. A whole new dimension unfurls within their songs, potent with primary power. There is an edginess and unpredictability that is unleashed this evening making the whole endeavour feel rampantly corrosive and kinetically alive.

Taking James Pratt’s place is Will Smythe and he is a revelation. In a short space of time he has had to learn Countless Skies incredibly complex back catalogue not once but twice, as the absence of Phil meant a complete rethink of the set list. Will proves to be beyond a consummate professional and he lives the tracks like he's always been there. He is an extraordinary talent blurring from gentle melodic refrains to crescendoing colossal riffs within a heartbeat. Countless Skies have always been about exceptional virtuoso musicianship, but with all the dues to the brilliance of James, Will’s inclusion just takes it all to another level.

Fittingly for Valentine's night, this is all about our collective love of this music. The audience may not be expansive but it is certainly euphorically appreciative. Voices are raised where Phil’s bits would have been, and the heartwarming adoration soon begins to take the edge off the chill in the room. A true joy of this evening the fact there is no divide between performer and fan. Aidan and Dan from Opia stand at the lip of the stage equally caught up in the rapture of Countless Skies’ brilliance. Their voices are added to the choir of the fee-paying public and the room becomes a communal love-in for our shared adulation.

On record “Glow” audacious title-track is usually separated into three components but live it is offered out as one gargantuan track providing the centrepiece to their set. It is a fantastically oppressive and impressive piece of work, containing majestic highs and gut-wrenchingly emotive lows. Whilst there is a good proportion of it that sadly does need to be on tape, it is still mind-boggling to watch Nathan, Ross and the fearless Will weave it’s component parts on stage. 

Very difficult to describe what Countless Skies are actually doing beyond falling into the mundanity of saying its brilliant. The traits of Black, Death, power and prog metals are all present and correct. But the way that they interlace them together into an intricate tapestry of opulent sound, just feels utterly unique. With all the blows that they have been struck with, this evening could have been a distinctly damp squib but Countless Skies don’t just pull victory from the jaws of defeat, they hold it aloft and swing it around their heads. They are bewilderingly brilliant this evening. A timely reminder that the reason we love this music so much is that it is capable of blowing our minds and showing us wonders beyond the very realms of imagination. This is why we come out of the cold leaving our love ones behind, because bands as utterly wonderful as Countless Skies do exist.

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Countless Skies + As The Sun Falls + Opia