Live Review : We Lost The Sea + Overhead, The Albatross + Dimscûa @ Academy 2, Manchester on May 24th 2026
In our little corner of rock and metal, the 2 Promoters, 1 Pod podcast has been something of a success. A vehicle for festival promoters Gavin McInally (Damnation) and James Scarlett (ATG and 2000 Trees) to lift the lid on what goes on behind the scenes at festivals and the music industry in general, it has a dedicated fanbase. It also provides a platform for them to eulogise about bands they love. They have brought three of their favourites together in a single package for this tour, headlined by Australian post-rock heroes We Lost The Sea which McInally has dubbed the ‘tour of the year’.
The rise of Dimscûa is an amazing story (watch our interview here). Originally formed by a group of friends a few years ago, it became an outlet for grief following the death of the guitarist’s daughter. Their self-released album was raved about on the podcast and a couple of hundred Spotify listeners grew to almost ten thousand and resulted in slots on Arctangent and Damnation festival.
Having only released four tracks, we get the “Dust Eater” album in full. The opening ‘Elder Bairn’ builds steadily, gradually getting heavier. This is post-metal in the vein of Cult Of Luna or Amenra but their real skill is mixing shimmering post-rock guitar lines with crushing riffs and harsh vocals, and perfectly balancing the beauty and weight. There is some awful feedback a couple of times during the first track but it doesn’t really lessen the impact.
‘Existence (Futility)’ is punishing from the start with its choppy, tempestuous riffing. They create monstrous, hypnotic grooves which culminate in intense crescendos of noise but the use of melody is what marks them out as special. The band are fully invested in the music and when they lock into a groove they rock back and forth in unison, and the audience pretty much mirrors them.
The band seem more assured than they were at Damnation, particularly the singer Alex Rowlands. They have obviously grown more comfortable with their status and are no longer shocked by the reaction they get from the crowd. The venue is still filling up but they are treated like conquering heroes when they leave the stage. A great start.
Ireland’s Overhead, The Albatross open with ‘Your Last Breath’, where gentle, picked guitar lines combine with strings and twinkling, stuttering electronics. Initially, it lacks its usual potency and power. They are currently playing with stand in drummer Ryan and the drums seems more jazz influenced which takes a bit of getting used to. After a couple of minutes, it becomes much more natural and the intuitive nature of his drumming becomes a real benefit as the set progresses.
The lyrics and passionate delivery by Luke Daly and David Prendergast are one of the band’s main strengths as they are raw and show real vulnerability. These are songs of loss which really speak to people and tracks such as ‘At Sea’ and ‘Paul Lynch’ are emotionally devastating.
The use of electronics is striking and ‘At Sea’ and the bhangra flavoured ‘This Is Like Love’ show them to be an incredibly forward thinking and progressive band. The end result is something akin to Radiohead if they were a post-rock band and it is really thrilling.
The visuals don’t have their usual impact, as they are projected on to a sheet which is set way back from where the band are playing and look tiny as a result. The lyrics for the closing section of ‘Paul Lynch’ are still aided by the screen though and help to provide a rousing, draining finale with plenty of people singing along.
Any notions that We Lost The Sea will have trouble following that performance are dispelled in the opening seconds as guitarist Mark Owen takes to the stage and plays the simple, repeating guitar motif of ‘If They Had Hearts’. Even with just one instrument, it is clear that there is so much more power than the studio recording, and it is magnetic. The band join him on stage and the track builds tremendously as they pile on further layers to his guitar line which adds extra depth and makes something relatively simple seem wildly progressive and expansive (watch our interview here).
The music is very cinematic. The opening section of ‘A Dance With Death’ sounds like the denouement to a tense thriller where the major plot twist is about to be revealed. The dramatic feel is only enhanced by the moody stage lighting which casts the band as shadows and is a visual treat. The band play their part in the performance too. Each member is lost in their own playing, standing on the risers and engaging the crowd when the moment takes them. The crowd is lost with them, it is compelling.
All the songs are lengthy compositions with multiple sections. Each of those sections has a purpose, whether it’s the rousing percussive section in the second half of ‘Everything Here Is Black And Blinding’ which actually gets people dancing or the heartfelt melodic guitar playing during ‘A Beautiful Collapse’. They all add different textures and a variety that means your attention never wavers, even during the ten minute plus tracks.
The encore is particularly daring as they play the twenty seven minute ‘Blood Will Have Blood’ which builds elegantly before it transitions to sweeping, triumphant stadium rock passages which become slabs of noise dominated by gigantic, jagged riffs before they’re back at the opening passage again. They generate volume power in a similar way to Mogwai, and they crush in a way the records don’t even hint at. The climax is immense; a slow moving juggernaut decimating everything in its path. Liam Knowles from Hidden Mothers (watch our interview here) makes a guest appearance, adding his intense vocals to the surprising early track ‘Balaklava Cold’ which is unbelievably heavy sludge metal. The crowd reaction is ecstatic, and the attendance across the tour is testament to the quality of the bill and shows that music can still be challenging yet still have popular appeal.
Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
We Lost The Sea + Overhead, The Albatross + Dimscûa
