» In Flames 2006 03 17  
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Reviewed by Max
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City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: Arenan
Date: 17 March, 2006
In Flames set length: 100 min
Sepultura set length: 50 min
Crucified Barbara set length: 25 min

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Crucified Barbara

An all-female fronted rock band with loads of attitude. Not my cup of tea. Crucified Barbara apparently got asked by In Flames to join them on a few dates during their current European tour, I can't really see why, but I bet In Flames had their reasons. Anyway, their music didn't appeal to me at all, they played a great intro riff to some of the songs but couldn't keep the songs interesting for more than twenty seconds. Their stage presence was pretty good and so was the length of the set, 25 minutes was perfect, they didn't bore me to hell.

What bothered me the most was their desire to be bad-ass girls; "Hihi, drinking beer is awesome, we travelled with the Finland ferry last night, oh and gee we got drunk". It was so unnecessary and embarrassing, their attitude was fine as long as they played, but the small talk in between the songs was silly.

4 chalices of 10

(Sorry, no setlist)

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Sepultura

I haven't really paid much attention to Sepultura's later albums nor videos so I had no idea what the band looked like. The fact that they were actually fronted by a fucking Predator made their appearance awesome. The crowd didn't really care for Crucified Barbara so this was where the show started, Sepultura played a relentless and intense set, mixing old songs with new and the crowd loved it.

One of the highlights was when Derrick Green, the predator, was given a guitar during the middle of the set. They used it to play some older songs, "Troops of Doom" for example. My tastes prefer their older material and I was happy to hear "Dead Embryonic Cells", "Arise" and even songs like "Biotech Is Godzilla".

A great intense show well worth watching, bands opening for In Flames are rarely good, but Sepultura did a great job.

7 chalices of 10

(Sorry, no setlist)

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In Flames

This was the sixth time I got to witness In Flames playing live, this time they had a white curtain hanging in front of the stage before they got on. They used the closer of "Come Clarity", "Your Bedtime Story is Scaring Everyone", as an intro. As the silhouettes of Anders, Björn, Peter and Jesper were displayed on the curtain they were met with applauses and screams. The curtain dropped and the band burst into Pinball Map, one of the best songs this evening and a fantastic opening.

As always, In Flames played their set with great energy and the stage presence was phenomenal, proving they are one of the most experienced bands in the scene. The light effects were quite stunning and the pyrotechnics filled their purpose. Their show has become a lot more pompous compared to when I first saw them at the same venue in November 2002. As far as the technical went, the biggest disappointment was the sound. It was at times very muddy and unclear. It was ok though, but the show would have been so much better if the sound had been great.

The setlist was another thing that bothered me, on their recent North American tour they've been quite spontaneous playing some old songs like "Worlds Within The Margin" (!!!), "Artifacts of the Black Rain", "Jotun" and "Clad in Shadows". That had given me huge hopes, but none of those songs were played. "Behind Space", "Moonshield" (they cut the last chorus, what the hell?) and "Episode 666" was all they played from the first three albums. I can see why they decide to cut some of the old stuff, the crowd reaction towards those songs disappointed me, it felt as if I was the only one singing along to songs like "Moonshield" and "Insipid 2000". Still, choosing to play anonymous Reroute To Remain songs instead of "Artifacts of the Black Rain" and "Jotun" puzzles me. I mean, "Black & White" and "Drifter" was extremely unnecessary.

In Flames have started to let people up on stage to sing "Bullet Ride" lately, it was something they started doing last summer and this time it was a guy called Tim who got the chance. I expected to laugh at him, but he did a great job and I could do nothing other than giving the guy a big applause. Björn even gave him his guitar and a backstage pass after the song (!!!).

As this was the Come Clarity-tour they played a bunch of tracks from that album; "Leeches", "Take This Life", "Come Clarity" (the world premiere), "Scream", "Vacuum" and "Crawl Through Knives". The band was apparently excited to play the new stuff as it sounded really good (except "Scream" and some of "Come Clarity"). It felt a bit silly when they sampled the acoustics at the beginning of "Come Clarity" and the song in itself isn't one of the stronger tracks on the new album.

I'd say the highlights of the evening were "Behind Space", "Insipid 2000" and "Moonshield". "Behind Space" was played with an amazing intensity and works fantastically live. "Insipid 2000" isn't really one of their hits, but it was surprisingly good. And "Moonshield" is "Moonshield", easily one of the best songs they've ever written. Downright fantastic, even though they cut the last chorus it was one of the best tracks of the evening.

They closed the show with three songs off Soundtrack To Your Escape; "The Quiet Place", "Touch of Red" and "My Sweet Shadow". I'm not a big fan of that album, but as with all the crappier songs In Flames makes them sound good. "My Sweet Shadow" was the best of those three, with extensive pyrotechnical work and devilish confetti (I found pieces of it stuck in my hair an hour after the show) it was a worthy closer of a great show.

You might think giving this show 8,5 out of 10 is contradictory since I've been whining a lot, but the great fun I had makes up for the crappy sound and the setlist disappointment.

8,5 chalices of 10

SETLIST:

Your Bedtime Story Is Scaring Everyone (Intro)
Pinball Map
Leeches
System
Trigger
Insipid 2000
Behind Space
Colony
Crawl Through Knives
Black & White
Take This Life
Come Clarity
Scream
Cloud Connected
Bullet Ride
Drifter
Moonshield
Episode 666
Only For The Weak
Vacuum
The Quiet Place
Touch of Red
My Sweet Shadow

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Related links:
www.inflames.com
sepultura.uol.com.br
www.crucifiedbarbara.com