Pallbearer @ Stereo, Glasgow, 17 Jul

“We almost had to cancel. We were detained for five hours by the cops 'cause they thought our bus and trailer didn’t belong together.”

There’s no better feeling than running late and seeing the person you’re there to meet rushing there themselves. We got that exact feeling as we arrived at Stereo tonight just as headline act Pallbearer pulled up after having been delayed on their way up from London: cue one rushed soundcheck for them and a one hour delay getting in for us. Thankfully Stereo is situated in one of Glasgow’s more scenic alleyways.

Once inside it doesn’t take long for Glasgow-based support act First Temple of the Atom to take the stage, though at this point the gig is nearly an hour-and-a-half behind schedule. There are no introductions, First Temple burst straight into aggressive screaming and the tiny space fills easily with their pounding drums. The bass reverberates through everything, especially us, but no one moves. Like most supports, First Temple have to suffer the apathetic crowd which tonight is especially flat. After a gruelling run of songs, they quietly bow off stage and any trace of them is dismantled.

Pallbearer set up quickly but any momentum made by First Temple of the Atom is thoroughly dashed by technical issues as singer Brett Campbell fusses over his set-up. Eventually, they start. Then stop. “Too much in the middle,” Campbell repeats multiple times as the sound engineers try everything they can to fix the problem. After several false starts they give up, launching into some powerful doom metal and it becomes immediately clear why there was so much fussing. Once the balance is right, the melody is let loose from under the more powerful drums and bass and Pallbearer really come into their own. The just shy-of-twelve-minute-long Dancing in Madness from their most recent album Heartless sets the tone for the night; deep bass, excellent guitar riffs and their unique melodic brand of doom metal.

Something feels off though, the band are clearly stressed and while bassist Joseph D. Rowland tries to engage the audience a little, they’re clearly rushing to get a best of setlist out while they still can. Hardcore Pallbearer fans, realising its an all hits night, start getting excited and call out requests for debut album classic Foreigner to which the band give grateful smiles. By the end of the night, the crowd are finally moving and it’s like being at a reunion that ends far too soon.