» Arch Enemy 2005 10 15  
« back


Reviewed by Niklas
----------------------------------------
City: Stockholm, Sweden
Venue: Klubben
Date: 15 Oct 2005
Trivium set length: 40 minutes
Arch Enemy set length: 75 minutes

Trivium

When Dark Tranquillity for reasons unknown decided to cancel their appearance on this tour, the pressure was on to Trivium to keep the audience satisfied. This quartet from Florida are close to something of a breakthrough in Europe, while in America they've already played at Ozzfest in spite of just being in their early 20s. The bright front man Matt Heafy is actually still a teenager, being 19, but owns the stage like he's been doing this all his life.

Trivium's brand of metalcore works well with the young crowd, which results in several mosh-pits. "Like Light To The Flies" and "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr" are superb songs, but the rest of the material needs to be polished a bit, because while the songs are rather heavy, the choruses feel a bit predictable and lightweight. As of now, the most appropriate way to describe Trivium is probably to label them as Killswitch Engage Light. Still, you could do much worse on a Saturday night.

6 chalices of 10

*******************************************************

Arch Enemy

As the main act enters the stage with the suitable opener "Nemesis", you can tell in a microsecond that we are dealing with professionals. Arch Enemy is what you might call the perfect rock band; while the musicians with incredible skill handle the instruments, the front woman Angela Gossow whirls around on the stage like a tornado. While her growling isn't quite as impressive as on the albums, it's still menacing enough to make the Trivium-guys lock the door to their dressing-room. Probably.

The five songs from the latest album Doomsday Machine work best this evening, especially "Taking Back My Soul" and the dual track "I Am Legend / Out For Blood". These songs are perfect for a live environment, being both heavy and fast, and containing incredible guitar licks and mosh-friendly parts. The show grinds to a halt twice, during a drum solo and a guitar solo. I normally disapprove of those, but here they are made brief and with class, making them fully acceptable.

Arch Enemy have garnished their set list with two pre-Angela songs, "Burning Angel" and "Diva Satanica", but mostly stick to the successful album-trio Wages Of Sin, Anthems Of Rebellion and this year's Doomsday Machine. But although the repertoire contains almost all their greatest hits, something's lacking. While their countrymen in Soilwork managed to reach boiling temperatures in the same venue five days earlier, Arch Enemy feels like a warm summer breeze in comparison. Not bad at all, but this band should have the ability to squeeze more out of an intimate gig like this.

It isn't until Angela & Co roll out their magnum opus "We Will Rise" that the crowd really goes bananas. Perhaps the band needs more arena-hits like this track to really get a bull's-eye? As much as this was an enjoyable performance, I reckon that Arch Enemy will have to wait a few years before delivering the perfect concert.

7,5 chalices of 10

SET LIST

Nemesis
Heart Of Darkness
Dead Eyes See No Future
My Apocalypse
Burning Angel
Drum solo
Taking Back My Soul
Diva Satanica
Guitar solo
I Am Legend / Out For Blood
Bury Me An Angel
Ravenous
----------
Skeleton Dance
Dead Bury Their Dead
We Will Rise

Related links:
www.trivium.org
www.archenemy.net