Original Post Date: Mar 7, 2010
House of Metal 2010

Friday 5/3

I arrived to Umeå on the afternoon on the Friday. We had a lovely taco buffet at Folkets Hus where the festival was going to take place. Now that was just a brilliant idea by the people arranging the festival I must say. Yummy.

8-Point Rose
At the smallest stage (which wasn't the bar stage) this band opened the festival. I didn't really plan to see them, but it turned out that this stage was kind of connected with the largest stage which was closed for sound-checking. So I ended up watching this band while waiting to get in. I remember that I thought they were OK, but I can honestly not remember what they sounded like... so I guess they weren't that special...

Marduk
First planned band then! Personally I think Devian is the real Marduk these days, but Marduk as they are is still a damn good show so of course I wanted to see them again. And they didn't disappoint either, they made a very solid show with a good mixture of new and old. Got the crowd going pretty good in the half full arena. Good show! Although I did miss the blood-spitting!

Necrophobic
From Black Metal to more Black Metal, this time on the middle stage thou, that was located at the bottom of the building. The stage was a lot more atmospheric than the large one, with some cool red lights on the band.
Necrophobic rocked out pretty good, and got the crowd headbanging like crazy despite the pretty poor sound. Maybe it was the flag they brought on stage that did it?
They're pretty good at firing up the crowd really, all band members encourage the crowd to move, hail, headbang etc.
Very nice! Had to leave about halfway through their set to get in time for Hypocrisy thou.

Hypocrisy
Second time in two days I get to see them! First tour in Sweden in seven years, so I figured I better take my chances! And after seeing them fucking tear the place apart the night before I was really psyched to see them again!
And I got everything I asked for really. The same energy, the same great sound, the same setlist (I think they might've cut out one of the medleys), the same funny Peter and the same awesome light show!
The light show I forgot to mention in my last review, but they had a lot of extra spotlights on top of the speakers and on the stage (ground level) which really added to a kind of alien atmosphere which obviously suits Hypocrisy very well!
Two times in two night, totally worth it. I'd see them the day after as well without a doubt had I had the money for it, and not all ready had a two-day ticket for House of Metal! :o

Cynical Hatred
As I got out from the large stage this band was playing the smallest stage so I got to see the last few songs. I had heard some good things about this Stockholm Death Metal band, so I was happy I got to see some of it at least, sounded very good and I'd gladly heard more of it!

Behemoth
And there was the headliner of day one, fucking Behemoth themselves! It's the third time I see them, and they're always good live. They're one of those bands that has spent their time together (19 years!) thinking out a really good live show, so even if they're not on their best day it's a great show! This day they where full of energy thou. You could tell they were really pumped up to do this show. As I saw them in Stockholm in November the difference in their appearance was very obvious to me. That day wasn't their best, but this day they were awesome. It was the exact same setlist as in November I think but with songs in a different order, but that's a really good one with all the songs you want to hear so it's OK. Slaves Shall Serve, Conquer All, Shemhamforash, As Above So Below, Demigod, Ov Fire and the Void etc... No Christians to the Lions this time either thou. Ahwell, I saw that one the first time I saw them anyway. :)
They did this strange thing where they go of the stage every other song this time as well, but this time they did it a lot better than in Stockholm. In Stockholm these strange pauses just seemed really strange and long... Here in Umeå they made a lot more sense, and didn't interrupt the show at all. Also the ending was more clear, where in Stockholm I just got really surprised when it just stopped and they went off the stage...
And I was pleased to hear that the great sound from Hypocrisy was still there for Behemoth. And now the arena was full, so full with a crazy crowd going nuts. All in all a great show!



Saturday 6/3

So... beforehand I kind of felt the festival was almost over by now as there was only one band this day that I wanted to see and they were first out...

Between the Buried and Me
I've enjoyed this progressive band for quite a while and was curious to see how they were live. And it turned out they were really really good. Great musicians playing their thing pretty much, like most Progressive Death Metal bands. Unfortunately they only got to play four songs (they have 10-min songs thou...), and they were:

Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain
Selkies: The Endless Obsession
Disease, Injury, Madness
White Walls

Was happy with that show anyhow. :)

August Burns Red
While waiting for Lamb of God I decided to see what this band was, as I hadn't heard them before. Turns out it's some Metalcore. I stayed for 4-5 songs, but it really isn't my kind of music. They had good energy and stage presence thou. But I got more interested in buying shirts. ^^

Lamb of God
As they were the headline for this day I figured I should see them to see what all the fuzz was about. Got there a bit late so I missed the first songs due to the arena being full, but I think I only missed to first two songs or so.
Overall I think Lamb of God kind of sums up what I think about American Death Metal overall. It's good, but it kind of lacks something. I can't really put my finger on it, but there's just something missing. There's nothing of that little "extra" that you can find in Behemoth for example to compare the headliners... It's just... "connect the dots". You always know what's coming.
It was a good show thou, and the crowd was really good. They went totally crazy, and allthough they did fail pretty miserably with a circle pit (but that always happens in Sweden, we're not very good at those :P ) but managed a pretty huge wall of death. :o
For my taste, as explained above the set was a bit too long. Still good enough that I just didn't leave. :)

ColdSpell
As I got out, this swedish Power Metal band was playing on that small stage so I got to see the last two or three songs. They had a really good singer actually, so they might be worth checking out.


I thought I'd see Persuader, but as I met up with a friend we ended up going to the bar instead and then my friends that I shared a room with wanted to go home early for some reason... so that kind of wraps it up. All in all it was a really nice festival! The building was great for this sort of thing, and the crew was really good and the whole arrangement overall was really nice! I think I might be going to this festival every year from now on!