Fagerlund's reviews

First out was this Swedish Thrash band. Apparently they have quite a following in Sweden. I've just heard the name mentioned once in a while. However this was not my kind of Thrash. The riffs were really nice, but the vocals... that was just horrible. It didn't help that the sound levels were completely off, making the horrible vocals much to loud as well. It got better with the set, and I guess I got used to it as well... but no, this wasn't my kind of band that's for sure.

 

Now this is the reason I went to the gig! Quite new band from Gothemburg playing thrashy oldschool Death Metal. There are no surprises here if you're into the genre, but they do what they do so damn well. The fast parts are just exactly as long as they should, then comes the melodies. Pure headbanging sections followed by some awesome riffs. And then some piano parts for the mood. Really good stuff.

Have to put some word out for the lights as well. They have a Vampire on the cover of their début album, the same vampire covered their backdrop... and during the whole show they had lights right at the eyes which made it seems like they were glowing. It looked really cool, especially since they kept the rest of the stage mostly dark. These guys obviously know what kind of show they want to put out, and if they start like this I'm very curious to see where it leads to!

 

Headliners this night was Tribulation. I must confess I had never even heard of them. Swedish band anyhow, and they play... well. Blackened Death? Thrash? Ambient? Progressive? I don't really know, they're one of those bands that are really hard to label. But it doesn't really matter anyway, does it? 

They combined a lot of different elements in this set at least. Everything from fast and brutal songs to long, melodic and melancholic songs. Some songs were almost entirely instrumental. I quite liked what I heard. At the time I wasn't really in the mood for this, but it did suck me in nevertheless. And impressed me enough to listen to it some more a couple of days after the gig. And I like it. Kind of weird and spaced out, yet raw and brutal.

And again, the light guy did an awesome job! The light effects during the gig was really cool and really caught the mood of the songs. It just adds an extra level when you get to see stuff like that, instead of mindless strobe lightning and smoke like you've seen so many other times. 

So a pleasant surprise to end the night, really cool stuff!