Fagerlund's reviews

I could basically summarize this with a setlist I suppose. Entombed are Entombed, and they do what Entombed always does! This of course means it was a great show as always! And actually they had changed up the setlist, slightly. But still pretty much everything you'd expect to hear from them was in there. Needless to say, my neck hurts today.

 

Of particular note was of course the fact that this gig was a special one - Sweden Rock Magazine was celebrating 100 issues, and with the number 100 one they gave away a special CD called Candlemass vs Entombed. On this on there's two songs - One of Entombed playing Black Dwarf, which they of course played this night as well! The other song is Candlemass playing To Ride... Brilliant, check them out on youtube if you haven't all ready!

 

 

So, I've never really listened that much to Candlemass, I mean I've heard them... but I've never listened. They haven't really caught my attention through the years. But now they have Mats Levén on vocals, which in my opinion is one of the very best Metal singers in Sweden, if not the world! So I didn't have any expectations really, but was still curious!

I actually overheard one guy in the crowd who was wearing a tour-shirt from '92 saying "why didn't they just take him from the begining?". I think that comment speaks volumes about just how good Levén really is.. because how often do you hear about the new vocalist in a band getting praised? Not that common...

So yes, he did an amazing performance. One thing he lacks though, is stage presence I think. Maybe it's just that he hasn't quite settled in the band yet, but I think he felt a bit awkward in the role as a frontman. And the rest of the band doesn't help much in this regard either - they play excellently, and everything is super tight - but they're not very interesting to watch...

Good thing then that they invited Thomas Vikström (was in Candlemass 91-94, otherwise in Therion, Dark Illusion etc...)  to sing a song! Because he makes the whole thing into more of a show! But that wasn't the only guest... they actually got Johan Längquist (was in Candlemass '86) to sing as well! And he got some amazing support from the crowd! Even though he looked completely lost on stage... he actually stayed for another song, singing a duet with Levén as well which was cool! And of course they ended the whole set with all three singers on stage.

So basically you could say this gig was about some amazing vocals really. The rest of the guys did their thing really well, but not something that really stood out for me. But all in all a really pleasant surprise for sure!