A Winged Victory For The Sullen live review
A Winged Victory for the Sullen are at their best when their beatific swells of noise subvert rather than mimic traditional anthemic songcraft: after all, the band’s slow, melancholic chord progressions – mostly in conventional key and time signatures – owe far more than their ambient peers to standard rock stylings.
Accordingly, yearning string-quartet suspensions soar highest tonight when clouded in the electronic dust of Dustin O’Halloran’s various throbbing machines, and Adam Wiltzie’s lullaby compositions are most poignant when amplified by themselves over and again to achieve an aggressive loudness. Indeed, the band’s use of Milton Court’s full dynamic range and impressive acoustics is most striking tonight, and atones for occasional diversions into soppy solo-piano tinkle.
