Fagerlund's reviews

I guess these batch updates are kind of becoming the standard... ah well, I'm sure my five readers don't mind too much!

 

 

First out this night was this young Thrash band, heavily inspired by Sepultura. Certainly not a bad thing, there are many worse bands to be inspired by! They delivered a really nice set, and I'm looking forwards to seeing them again!

 

Seen these guys a couple of times, and I guess you could say they play a mixture of Metallica and Exodus. Pretty solid for what it is, but I'm not a big fan of this style of Thrash really.

 

So after seeing them on their release party earlier this year I wanted to see them again, so here we are! Again, they've turned into a really solid Thrash band, and it was a really nice show! Unfortunately a bit interrupted by a way too drunk guy who decided to stage dive and of course he just face planted instead and had to be carried outside... so yeah, don't stage dive at a bar kids it's bad for you. Tyranex kept it up however, and it was a nice set indeed!

 

 

Old School Death Metal from the south of Sweden! I've seen these guys a couple of times before, and they make some really nice Death Metal. Really enjoyed their set, great warm up for the night!

 

A bit more modern sounding Death Metal... wasn't quite my cup of blood. And as I'm writing this a month later I can't really remember anything else about them...

 

One of Rogga Johanssons many bands! And it sounds just like one of Rogga Johanssons bands... which is awesome. He's without a doubt one of my favourite Death Metal vocalists, and then you add his crushing riffs as well and you get really nice Death Metal! In this particular band he's also flirting a bit with some melody which is a nice touch! Awesome gig!

 

 

So Morbus Chron is one of my favourite new Death Metal bands... I heard someone say "they play Death Metal like it was new 1970" which is kind of accurate I suppose! They create really cool soundscapes, and you can hear the influences from Entombed and Morbid Angel... but still it's absolutely their own thing. And they have this special groove that almost sounds like it's off beat... but it's meant to sound that way. Just a great live band, not wasting any time for talk in between songs... just squeeze that one extra song in there!

 

Grave indeed! Tenth time I see these guys and as always a great show! This time they had pretty crappy sound though, it even felt low after I took out my earplugs... so that took away some of the positive. But then again, no one can deliver a sound wall like Grave can! Despite the volume they still got the room shaking with their cacophony of sound. Mostly old songs this time around, which meant my neck got to suffer. Also, really cool light on this show! They had a red/orange light from behind which created a really nice atmosphere. Great show!

 

So I saw At the Gates at Wacken the year they reunited... that was amazing. So I was really looking forward to this one! And they delivered just what you would expect. I think they played every "classic" At the Gates song as well as mixing in some of the new ones... it was clear quite early that they wouldn't have any encore simply because they had all ready played every song people wanted to hear! So that was a pretty cool set. Also a nice build up, with a bit of a instrumental break in the middle so you could collect yourself... because the crowd was mad. When the first song started I had three separate moshpits around me. Three! That usually doesn't happen in Stockholm.

So yeah, that was a really nice show and it's good to see they still deliver!

 

 

Fides Inversa and Antaeus

I can honestly not remember which one was what... the first band was very inspired by Primordial with a singing drummer. That was quite allright, but the set was a bit too long for my taste. The second band was very inspired by Marduk... except they had no feeling at all. It was simply fast. And boring.

 

Valkyrja were celebrating ten years this night! Which of course meant a special show with some old members on stage and all that. It was a really solid show, and you can tell that they've become a quite experienced band compared to back when I saw them the first time. They're now comfortable in owning the stage and just delivering ripping Black Metal in your face. Really solid show, and it'll be interesting to see if they continue to develop now as well!

 

 

I missed the other bands playing this night unfortunately, but I did get to see Spiral Skies which was what I came for so that's okay! You might've seen that I went to their first gig ever a while back, and here they are again with their 70's sounding Hardrock. This time at a stage with proper lighting and a bit larger crowd which really suited them fine. They have a bit of a mysterious look going on with all members except Frida (vocals) wearing masks, and thus some smoke and light adds even more to the atmosphere. A friend compared them with The Devil's Blood, and I guess I can see where he's coming from. Nice show!

 

 

So I discovered Fallujah a while back, and I think that their latest album might be my favourite album from a artist I didn't know previously from this year! So I was really excited to see these guys live so soon after! Unfortunately they had really crappy sound which ruined a lot of the experience for me. The band made a really good job, but when you play such a technical style as this it's really punishing when the sound doesn't deliver... ohwell. Hopefully I'll get another chance to see them!

 

Punk meets Nu Metal? Punk with breakdowns? I didn't like this at all so won't write more about it.

 

So I had only heard one song from their latest album before this show and didn't have too big expectations. So it was a nice surprise when they absolutely destroyed! Really great show! Now, having seen them live I feel like it was obvious it would be great... I mean, if you sound like Merciful Fate but faster you just can't go wrong! They also have a really good frontman to keep you entertained in the short breaks between the ripping fast songs. This was just ace from start to finish!

 

Last time I saw Dying Fetus was on MetalDays, and they played right after Meshuggah. Which meant I wasn't very impressed... but I knew it was unfair to them so decided to give them a second chance. Unfortunately for them, they played after Goatwhore who did such a great show... and their start wasn't the best really. They looked so incredibly bored on stage. Fine, they play super fast and extremely technical Death Metal... but it looked like they were about to fall asleep out of bordom for the first five or so songs. Luckily they picked themselves up the longer the set went, and towards the last half they were actually really good! It's just too bad they didn't start the same way, then I'd been really impressed with their show instead of just thinking it was all right. But alas, you can't always be on top I suppose! Still they were good enough for me to want to see them again.