{"id":27088,"date":"2025-09-23T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27088"},"modified":"2025-09-21T21:12:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T20:12:59","slug":"then-comes-silence-the-foreign-resort-the-exchange-bristol-18th-september-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/?p=27088","title":{"rendered":"Then Comes Silence\/The Foreign Resort \u2013 The Exchange, Bristol \u2013 18th September 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s 11 pm and I\u2019m standing outside The Exchange, blinking my eyes in relief that I don\u2019t, in fact, need a cataract operation after all. It\u2019s the dry ice, you see, and these dark wave types bathe in the bloody stuff, so much so there are times tonight where I could have been on set at a Hammer horror film\u2026 But that\u2019s the point; it\u2019s all about setting the mood, and tonight the mood is brooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no way I was going to miss the return of Then Comes Silence, the undisputed kings of Swedish gothic gloom pop, to the UK, and thanks once again to the sterling work of promoters Reptile, they are also back in Bristol for the third time in just two years to keep all of us local(ish) boils and ghouls happy. The other great thing about a Reptile night is that they always pack it full of quality music, from the DJs spinning the graveyard dancefloor fillers to the support acts, and tonight The Foreign Resort are a new name to me but are a trio who immediately impress.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hailing from Denmark, The Foreign Resort initially hit me like a Scandinavian Home Front (yup they are that impressive), with frontman Mikkel hanging off his mic stand whilst his bandmates Henrik (on guitar) and Morten (on drums) weave their widescreen sonic magic, but it\u2019s when Mikkel picks up the bass guitar a few songs in that the band truly hits their stride. For a band who\u2019s 16 year old back catalogue I\u2019m totally unfamiliar with to instantly grab my attention, is ultimately down to just how immersive the Foreign Resort live experience is. Yes, there\u2019s a HUGE Cure influence (largely due to Mikkel\u2019s vocal stylings) but there\u2019s also swathes of Killing Joke, Depeche Mode and (bringing things bang up to date) Home Front in their sound too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Flushing\u2019 is the track that really did it for me, a song I later discovered was released well over a decade ago. It\u2019s Bauhaus meets Gary Numan, if Depeche Mode had written it\u2026and it’s fucking fantastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is something I also seem to say quite a lot when describing tonight\u2019s headliners to anyone willing to listen, and tonight Then Comes Silence are even more fucking fantastic than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Someone remembers to finally turn on The Exchange\u2019s air conditioning as the band hits the stage with \u2018Flashing Pangs Of Love\u2019 and it\u2019s almost like an evil entity has entered the room, as a shiver suddenly runs down my spine. There\u2019s nothing evil about Then Comes Silence\u2019s music, though, as guitarist Hugo pirouettes around the stage like a marionette Richie Manic, and to his right singer\/bassist Alex thunders and growls away like Peter Steele if he\u2019d been a veteran of The Blitz Club and not CBGBs, whilst songs like \u2018Ride Or Die\u2019 and newbie \u2018Like a Hammer\u2019 all pulsate to a hypnotic backbeat courtesy of the ever rock solid Jonas on drums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must admit that ahead of tonight, I was a little worried that if the band\u2019s set were to lean heavily on tracks from last year\u2019s \u2018Trickery\u2019 album, I might be a little lost at sea, as, thanks to a house move and the insane price of the CD online, I\u2019d yet to fully absorb its gothic goodness. Fear not, though, as it\u2019s just \u2018Blind Eye\u2019 along with the aforementioned \u2018Hammer\u2019 that (as far as I can recall) make it into tonight\u2019s set. Otherwise, it\u2019s banger after banger from the band\u2019s hugely impressive back catalogue, and when the band tears into the likes of \u2018Dead Cry For No One\u2019 and \u2018Warm Like Blood\u2019 mid-set, I\u2019m still left wondering how Nuclear Blast didn\u2019t make Then Comes Silence the household names they so deserve to be. Well, on Mockingbird Lane at the very least.<\/p>\n\n\n

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There\u2019s always something that makes me stop and take a step back at a Then Comes Silence show, and tonight it\u2019s when Alex ditches his bass guitar for a stint at the keyboard, and the carnival-esque throb of \u2018Feed The Beast\u2019 has me thinking of early Roxy Music, whilst it\u2019s \u2018Strangers\u2019 also from the band\u2019s third album, that brings things to a close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know, after witnessing Suede deliver a post-punk\/gothic masterclass in London over the previous weekend in support of their excellent \u2018Antidepressants\u2019 album, I\u2019m pleased to say that Then Comes Silence more than matched them here tonight. In fact, if anyone has Brett\u2019s number, give him a bell and get him to put these Stockholm lads on their UK and European tour in 2026, now that really would be something truly exceptional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author: Johnny ‘Nosferatu’ Hayward <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 11 pm and I\u2019m standing outside The Exchange, blinking my eyes in relief that I don\u2019t, in fact, need a cataract operation after all. It\u2019s the dry ice, you see, and these dark wave types bathe in the bloody stuff, so much so there are times tonight where I could have been on set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[4758],"class_list":["post-27088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-review","tag-then-comes-silence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27094,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27088\/revisions\/27094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rpmonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}