CONCERT REVIEW: VOLA, BENT KNEE, AND WHEEL – Denver CO, Sept. 15, 2023

VOLA – photo by Heli Andrea

(Denver-based NCS writer Gonzo had himself a hell of a good time at a show about two weeks ago, and made time to show his appreciation in the following review.)

Denmark’s VOLA has always been a fascinating band to me. On one hand, their sound is an angular, merciless assortment of riffs that pay homage to the likes of Meshuggah, while on the other hand, one could be forgiven for comparing their vocals to that of Radiohead.

It sounds like a confusing juxtaposition on paper. But the way these Danes (and one Swede) in VOLA have cultivated their sound into its final form is no less remarkable. Their 2022 album Witness was a favorite of mine from that year and continues to get much of my attention now.

When they announced their biggest North American run yet, I circled the date on my calendar and let the excitement build. My hopes were already high, but the addition of Finland’s Wheel and Boston’s Bent Knee as supporting acts only bolstered the anticipation levels.

The result, as it turned out, would be a night I would not soon forget.

 

The semi-early showtime of 7 p.m. didn’t keep very much of the Friday night crowd at the Bluebird Theater from catching Wheel. Then again, metalheads in Denver are unusually punctual when it comes to this sort of thing. If you ask me, it’s part of what makes the city one of the best places for metal in the entire country.

And as it turns out, Wheel has more than a small following in the Rockies. Their brand of progressive metal falls somewhere between Tool and Soen, with several songs pushing the 10-minute mark. There’s enough meat within those minutes to keep even the uninitiated engaged, though, and their set exemplified why this band is making the waves they are right now. A set time of 40 minutes meant they had time for probably four or five songs altogether and chose to close things out with their eponymous song off their 2019 album Moving Backwards.

 

photo by Mel Tiang

After the Finns wrapped things up, Bent Knee would be next. I’d not heard much from them prior to this show, but a friend described their music as “surprisingly not heavy.” Well, that was something, I thought to myself during the set change.

The Boston-based amalgam of musicians first met at Berklee College of Music in 2009. As any accomplished music nerd will tell you, that pedigree says quite a bit about the band’s technical prowess before you even hear them play a note. Hailing from the same place of study that members of Dream Theater did is no small accomplishment.

And before you say anything, no, the finished product of what Bent Knee became after such auspicious beginnings shares almost nothing with DT. You could certainly call Bent Knee “progressive” in one sense, as I’m not quite sure how else to categorize them. Metal, they are not. And that’s perfectly okay. Every member of the band except drummer Gavin Wallace-Ailsworth switched instruments during the set at least once. Their new single “Lawnmower” has nary a guitar riff to be heard throughout, while the rest of the material leaned in a more, dare I say, poppy direction.

All told, their performance was memorable, and their stage presence had the entire Friday night crowd glued to every song.

 

But now, there was almost a palpable shift in the air. As the set began to change, I felt a rush of excitement. After months of near-rabid anticipation, I was now – finally – just moments away from watching VOLA destroy this crowd on their first-ever performance in the Rockies.

Then, the room went dark. It was silent at first, but you’d have never known it. The fervent cheers of the audience were drowning anything else out. Was this going to be one of those drawn-out, overly theatrical intros?

When the cheers died down, an ambient, almost somber electronic hum was audible. The immensely talented vocalist/guitarist Asger Mygind took the stage alone, standing under a single spotlight. He began singing the opening lines of the beautiful and haunting track “Vertigo.” I was immediately transfixed – so much so that I almost didn’t notice his bandmates silently joining him on stage.

It was certainly an unconventional way to get the show going, but it worked perfectly. “Vertigo” faded out and Mygind picked up his guitar as the shimmering opening keyboard effects led us to “Alien Shivers.” Without a single moment of time lost, Mygind launched into that soaring off-time riff that makes the song stand out so gloriously, and before we knew it, VOLA’s set was firing on full cylinders.

The incredible live mix filled up the room – I could hear every note and layer from every instrument damn near perfectly, without any adjustments made on the fly. (None that I noticed, anyway.) Mygind might as well be two guitar players himself, which is all the more confounding given the fact that he’s able to sing so well while playing such complex arrangements. Imagine if Jens Kidman was playing guitar while belting out lyrics for Meshuggah and you’ll begin to understand where my incredulity comes from.

“Stone Leader Falling Down” got the night’s first pit moving and it barely stopped from that point on. The song’s main riff could slice through a block of ice like a katana, and the breakdown that hits just after the halfway point is nothing short of devastating.

But for all their hard-hitting moments that contain spectacular and satisfying heaviness, VOLA’s softer side is just as incredible. The ethereal “Ruby Pool” was a welcome addition to the set, as was “24 Lightyears” and most notably “Freak,” with a captivating acoustic intro from Mygind yet again. That man was simply born to be on stage.

New single “Paper Wolf” is a fucking earworm and sounded sharp as hell, and if you haven’t heard it yet, you should change that.

As we approached the end of the set, the band kicked up the ferocity once again – “Head Mounted Sideways,” “Smartfriend,” and “Straight Lines” was a punishing closing trio. Thick grooves and electronic undertones highlighted each song, and the fact that drummer Adam Janzi only has two arms is still something I’m struggling to believe. That man is an octopus, and I won’t hear anything that says otherwise. His live performance left me awestruck.

By the time the band came back out for the encore, I felt like they’d only been playing for 10 minutes. Incredibly, it was a 13-song set that flashed by the audience in a heartbeat. The closing duo of the monolithic “Your Mind is a Helpless Dreamer” and the syrupy “Inside Your Fur” once again showed how great VOLA is at writing music that’s as creative as it is memorable. That’s not always an easy thing to pull off in metal, and few bands in the genre do it as well as they do.

If the warm reception they got in Denver was any indication of how the rest of the tour went, I can safely say that this deep North American run for this band will most certainly not be their last. What an amazing and memorable way to cap off summer, and what a fucking gift VOLA is to modern music.

https://www.facebook.com/volaband
https://www.facebook.com/BentKneeMusic
https://www.facebook.com/wheelband