Fagerlund's reviews

Third time I see them now, and well second time I see them together with In Solitude hah. The other two times they've had kind of crappy sound... and well, they did this time as well! So I'm almost starting to wonder if it's just that they're not very tight that makes them sound this way? In either case, it's pretty all right Blackened Death Metal, nothing that really stands out for me though. But a 30 minute set is pretty much just enough for these guys if you ask me.

 

Last time I saw them they also had super crappy sound. It was slightly better this time so I could actually hear all the instruments. I still don't understand the hype though. Sure, they play classic Heavy Metal and yeah it's all right. But what is that makes them so damn good like the hype suggests? I really can't hear it, they don't have any real hooks like classic Heavy Metal usually does and they play really long songs that kind of fades out in my memory really. And sure, they have quite some energy on stage... but again, nothing out of the ordinary. Still a solid show though.

 

So, fifth time I see them now but first time on their home soil. I was expecting more blood, but perhaps they've gotten tired of the smell? But other than that they surprised me with the set list this time around, with a new album just out I was expecting the set to have a lot of songs from that one in it. Instead there was only 3 songs from the new album, despite a long two hour set! Odd choice I think. Also surprising that they played five songs from Sworn to the Dark, but I guess they recognise that it was their breakthrough or something? In either case, good choices overall, and the flow of the set was really nice.

One thing that I really hate however was the strobe lights... For a full hour it was pretty much constantly on. A full fucking hour. After that it calmed down... but you know, strobe is cool for about 2 seconds. No more. Please. It's really surprising that they go with strobe as well, because Watain always have a really cool fire show going on at every show. So why ruin that with strobe? Bah.

So the light sucked. The sound was also really bad in the beginning, but at least they got that under control after a couple of songs so it was decent at least. But it seems this venue wasn't very good for concerts... and that's too bad when you have a pretty atmospheric band like Watain on stage.

But despite those things I still think it was mostly a good gig. The surprisingly long set for one thing was really nice, I expected it to be a 1½ hour set at most. But there you go! Quality of the music made up for the venue in this case!

 

Setlist:

Night Vision
De Profundis
Storm of the Antichrist
Rabid Death's Curse
Puzzles ov Flesh
Malfeitor
All That May Bleed
Reaping Death
Sworn to the Dark
Wolves Curse
Legions of the Black Light
Black Flames March
Devil's Blood
Stellarvore
On Horns Impaled
The Serpent's Chalice