Upon entering the venue, I arrived just in time for the start of GOJIRA's set. I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of SONIC SYNDICATE and their delicious bass player Karin Axelsson – but the huge queues outside the venue meant that I missed their entire set. Oh well, I'll have to wait until the next time for such delights. GOJIRA's style of metal is very heavy, dark and brutal, and according to IN FLAMES frontman Anders Friden, the French Metallers are the heaviest band he has ever heard. Credit has to be given to GOJIRA for putting on a decent performance, and drawing quite a crowd which probably was just shy of the amount of people for the headline act and served as an apt warm up.

 

Opening up with the opening track of upcoming album'The Way of All Flesh', 'Oroborus' was a good intro to people of what GOJIRA are all about. A couple more of the upcoming album were played in the 40 minute set tonight of which I particulary enjoyed 'Toxic Garbage Island'. The rest of the set was made up of the bands previous two albums with set closer 'The Heaviest Matter of The Universe' going down a storm with the crowd. One minor point is the fact that they played a bit of a drum solo in their set. Now with a 40 minute set, it seems a bit pointless to waste valuable set time on a drum solo when another song could have been played. Still, this is only a small drawback in what was an very good showcase for GOJIRA who will surely win more fans on this tour.

 

IN FLAMES are one of these bands now who have such an expansive back catalogue, which makes it impossible to pick a set that will keep everyone happy. There are always going to be some surprise omissions from the set, but IN FLAMES more than make up for this by playing material that you would not expect to hear, and this was the case tonight. The majority of the tracks tonight came from their latest album 'A Sense of Purpose', with other tracks coming from their vast back catalogue, even though some albums did not feature in the set at all.

 

Surprise set opener was the 8 minute epic that is 'The Chosen Pessimist'. To me, I didn't think this was a good choice of opener for a set, however I can see where the band were coming from with the use of a white sheet to cover their entrance to the stage whilst the song slowly built up. Following this was what I thought would have been a far more appropriate set opener in the pacey number of 'I'm The Highway' which whipped the crowd right up as they started jumping up and down.

 

With the crowd lapping up every second of this show, it was great to here some of the older stuff included in tonight's set from 'Colony' in the form of 'Insipid 2000' and 'Zombie Inc' whilst 'The Jester Race' got a rare run out too. Surprisingly, 'Behind Space' was nowhere to be seen in the set, and this was among other surprise omissions like fans favourite 'Only For The Weak' and 'My Sweet Shadow'. Still, set regulars like 'Pinball Map', 'Cloud Connected', and 'Trigger' were all headbanged to in syncronisity, whilst Anders Friden got some help from the crowd with the chorus to 'Come Clarity' which the band seem to love to play.

 

Out of the new tracks on show tonight, the ones that sounded the best live were the outstanding duo of 'Move Through Me' and 'Sleepless Again' and the band seemed as tight as ever whilst putting on a very professional performance which has become expected from such a great, experienced band. There's no doubt that IN FLAMES are becoming ever more popular and as the final notes of the 90 minute set came to a close with 'Take This Life', the crowd left extremely happy and reflected on what was an awesome night for metal, with IN FLAMES yet again raising the bar for metal excellence.

 

IN FLAMES Setlist: The Chosen Pessimist / I'm The Highway / Vanishing Light / The Mirror's Truth / Insipid 2000 / Satellites And Astronauts / System / Pinball Map / Delight And Angers / Sleepless Again / Zombie Inc / Cloud Connected / The Jester Race / Egonomic / Come Clarity / The Quiet Place / Move Through Me / Alias / Trigger / Take This Life

GOJIRA Setlist: Oroborus / Clone / Backbone / Remembrance / Flying Whales / Toxic Garbage Island / Vacuity / The Heaviest Matter of The Universe

Ratings:

IN FLAMES: 4.3/5.0

GOJIRA: 4.0/5.0

Review By Adam Fredericks

 

Photography by Alexander Shaw

 

GOJIRA

 

 

IN FLAMES