SO HEAVY
Right from doors opening at The Underworld, there was a swathe of Caveman Battle Doom t-shirts which could only mean one thing - Conan were in town and Conan were going to riff your face off. The band are riding high at the moment off the back of the excellent Blood Eagle and by the end of their set the vast majority of the sold out event had filed in to witness the riff onslaught.
Musically the band's doom driven style had heads across the venue banging in sync as each simple riff and note cascaded into one another. Tracks off of the new album were probably the most well received; something which visibly pleased the band. Vocally the band were on point as the harsher guttural shouts ripped through Jon Davis' more desperate cries, creating this tremendous wall of sound. It is clear though that when watching Conan live, to a degree, there needs to be some familiarity with their music. This is arguably true of most bands within the sub-genre, but as far as engaging the crowd the band have some work to do. As Jon stated in an interview with us beforehand, they have a preference for longer drawn out simple riffs rather than intricate interplay, which hits hard in the live environment for sure, but also leaves set list choice being very important which may have been a little off this evening. Please note though, that track lengths for Conan are in the region of 6-7 minutes plus so it must be difficult to get through everything they want to in a relatively short support slot. These minor issues aside, there is no doubt at all that Conan are a force to be reckoned with at the moment, and as time goes by they are improving more and more. You'll likely find the band on their best form at their own headline show, so definitely keep an eye out for those in the future.