My ticket says doors are 7pm but when we get to the venue at 6.55 the sign says 6pm and first support act Sonic Syndicate are already playing. Damn the Germans and their punctuality.
Swedish Sonic Syndicate who have struggled a bit in audience response on previous tour with Amon Amarth look like they are in heaven here in Berlin – the crowd loves them.
Yes, their riffs are repetitive, and I keep thinking I’m sure I’ve heard this somewhere else before but you can’t say that they don’t give it all and a bit more on stage.
Next support band, Gojira, have a hard time matching the explosion of energy that Sonic Syndicate was in terms of stage presence and I think that the (younger) parts of the audience find the French rockers a bit dull in comparison but who cares when they play such captivating music. Riffs like machine guns matched with white lightening light, dark long hair and lyrics about environmental issues performed by a raspy voice that just screams evil; that’s Gojira for you. A combination that sends me off to Cloud Number Nine and as they finish off with The heaviest matter of the universe they could have been headlining for all I care. Or at least I think so until I remember who is.
Eventually it is time for long anticipated In Flames.
I can’t help but feel a bit nervous, as if though I am about to go on a date with someone really, really hot, like say…Anders Fridén. Or Björn. Or Daniel. To be fair, normally most of the sweaty, beardy and long haired men stood around me would make me drool any day but tonight my heart beats only for In Flames.
And they start off their date pretty damn good. Having set the mood with Sigur Ros (Thanks for making even more people, not only Axl Rose, think they are Swedish…) they start off behind a white curtain drop, revealing only their silhouettes whilst performing beautiful The Chosen Pessimist. As the curtain drops for the chorus mayhem breaks loose.
In Flames continue the set with my personal favourite Move Through Me which is merged into crowd pleaser The Mirrors Truth. All in all they play most if not all tracks off latest album A Sense of Purpose along with older hits like Only For The Weak and Cloud Connected. However no Touch of Red. But with a repertoire like In Flames’ it is impossible to please everyone, something which Anders points out with a sarcastic grin on his face: “We have a long and successful career behind us and for those of you who don’t get your favourite song played tonight: Sorry”
The crowd is happy anyways and orgasmic levels are reached when the intro to The quite place starts and no one, no one, is standing still.
A comic element to the show is their celebration of Guns’n’Roses new album release, claiming that they simply have to play and old song of theirs, In Flames style, just to mark the occasion. Which works surprisingly well.
The band is a happy bunch this evening and you can’t blame them, it is after all the last gig of the tour before they hit good old Sweden and they get to see their families. But just as much as it gladdens me to see Björn smile throughout, it makes me cringe when father of one Anders delivers his good old speech about the booze and strippers-filled life of a rock star. Then again I guess it’s all part of the show.
A show which The Kings of Metal finish off in style, playing “a love song from us to you”, Take This Life, before bowing and thanking another ecstatic audience.
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