They describe their style as a mix between the melodic death metal that Gothenburg is famed for, hardcore, and the visual kei movement (from Japan). Well, what I heard tonight had hardly any of the latter two components (well apart from their emo image) and was more melodic death metal if anything. Average at that and if they think they are the next big thing to come out of Gothenburg, they have got along way to go to prove that.

Thank god DEATHSTARS more than made up for it as they delivered a superb performance. Opening up with the title track from their latest opus, ‘Night Electric Night’, Industrial metallers DEATHSTARS came onto roars of cheer from the just under half full venue. That didn’t deterioate the atmosphere one bit though. DEATHSTARS lapped up every single moment of this gig and frontman Whiplasher Bernadotte interacted with crowd at every given occasion whether it be teaching the crowd so called ‘biology’ or just banter, which led for a very entertaining evening. The set consisted around their three album back catalogue with the majority coming from their breakthrough album ‘Termination Bliss’ and latest opus ‘Night Electric Night’. ‘Synthetic Generation’ got a look in in the form of ‘Semi-Automatic’ and ‘New Dead Nation’ which were both well received by the crowd tonight, as well as encore track and set closer ‘The Revolution Exodus’.

The new tracks went down an absolute storm with the crowd and they sounded superb live, of which stood out were the fantastic marching style of the title track, the groovy yet fist pumping ‘The Fuel Ignites’ as well as the we definately need cheerleaders or The Satanic Sluts for this one ‘Mark of The Gun’ (If you have no idea what I’m going on about here, just listen to the song and everything will become clear!).

Other set highlights included the ferocious nature of ‘Blitzkrieg’, the more slow tempo melodic style of ‘Trinity Fields’ and of course the ever awesome ‘Cyanide’. As the last notes of ‘The Revolution Exodus’ were played and the crowd emptied from the venue, there was time to reflect on what was a truly enjoyable night out with the one and only DEATHSTARS. The only way is up for this band surely.

DEATHSTARS Setlist: Night Electric Night / Motherzone / Semi-Automatic / Mark of The Gun / Tongues / The Last Ammunition / The Fuel Ignites / New Dead Nation / Trinity Fields / Chertograd / Blitzkrieg / Blood Staines Blondes / Cyanide / Death Dies Hard / The Revolution Exodus

Review By Adam Fredericks