Well, where to begin... how about the beginning?
So me and 2 friends made our way to the Corner at around 7:30 and secured our place in the line. We were probably third from the front, and were talking to some other guys about music in general, Anathema, Dream Theater, and basically just shooting the shit. Eventually we made our way inside, I bought a Look Your Last t-shirt from the merch stand, and spent the next few minutes admiring the merch desk attendant from afar.
I'd never heard either of the support acts before... so I was eager to see what they could do. Chalice rocked, plain and simple. They had a nice groove going, the vocals sounded great, and the singer was very easy on the eyes. But is it just me or does the bass player totally not belong in that band? I mean, he wasn't a bad player... but he looked younger than me, and that's saying something!
Anyway, their set was over pretty quickly... I could have gone for more but we were there to see the mighty Opeth, so I wasn't complaining.
Next up were Alchemist... I've heard some pretty good things about them from friends and colleagues, but I have to say... they pretty much blew. They played basically the same music over and over again through their whole set... the vocalist was amazing, but that was probably the only up-side. I got bored of them after 1.5 songs, and my legs were hurting like fuck, so I didn't really pay much attention after that.
So after waiting through 2 support bands, and what seemed like a 2-hour Rodie show, Mikael and company waltzed onto the stage. The crowd promptly went fucking nuts.
They opened with The Leper Affinity, one of my favourite songs... and they were TIGHT! It was almost like listening to the album in parts, but the live experience made it so much better. Mikael's voice was spot on, the music sounded chunky as hell, and everything came together quite nicely.
One thing that struck me about Mikael is his sense of humour... he was a funny bastard between songs and was obviously having fun.
The rest of the show sounded great... the highlight for me was The Drapery Falls. It was 10 times better than the album version... the heavy parts were heavier, the soft parts far more beautiful, overall it was a fucking awesome song.
After they had finished their set, Mikael commented on how much he liked the show ("top 5 ever") and the band left the stage. The crowd was waiting for fucking AGES for an encore... I swear I nearly fell asleep waiting. When they finally came back on (according to Mikael they were waiting to see if we thought they sucked
) , they played Demon of the Fall and pretty much kicked everyone in the nuts with raw power.
After that we left, missed the last train, and had to wait almost an hour to find a cab.
Overall, I'd probably say it was the best concert I've been to so far in my (relatively short) life. Two thumbs up!!
So me and 2 friends made our way to the Corner at around 7:30 and secured our place in the line. We were probably third from the front, and were talking to some other guys about music in general, Anathema, Dream Theater, and basically just shooting the shit. Eventually we made our way inside, I bought a Look Your Last t-shirt from the merch stand, and spent the next few minutes admiring the merch desk attendant from afar.
I'd never heard either of the support acts before... so I was eager to see what they could do. Chalice rocked, plain and simple. They had a nice groove going, the vocals sounded great, and the singer was very easy on the eyes. But is it just me or does the bass player totally not belong in that band? I mean, he wasn't a bad player... but he looked younger than me, and that's saying something!
Anyway, their set was over pretty quickly... I could have gone for more but we were there to see the mighty Opeth, so I wasn't complaining.
Next up were Alchemist... I've heard some pretty good things about them from friends and colleagues, but I have to say... they pretty much blew. They played basically the same music over and over again through their whole set... the vocalist was amazing, but that was probably the only up-side. I got bored of them after 1.5 songs, and my legs were hurting like fuck, so I didn't really pay much attention after that.
So after waiting through 2 support bands, and what seemed like a 2-hour Rodie show, Mikael and company waltzed onto the stage. The crowd promptly went fucking nuts.
They opened with The Leper Affinity, one of my favourite songs... and they were TIGHT! It was almost like listening to the album in parts, but the live experience made it so much better. Mikael's voice was spot on, the music sounded chunky as hell, and everything came together quite nicely.
One thing that struck me about Mikael is his sense of humour... he was a funny bastard between songs and was obviously having fun.
The rest of the show sounded great... the highlight for me was The Drapery Falls. It was 10 times better than the album version... the heavy parts were heavier, the soft parts far more beautiful, overall it was a fucking awesome song.
After they had finished their set, Mikael commented on how much he liked the show ("top 5 ever") and the band left the stage. The crowd was waiting for fucking AGES for an encore... I swear I nearly fell asleep waiting. When they finally came back on (according to Mikael they were waiting to see if we thought they sucked
After that we left, missed the last train, and had to wait almost an hour to find a cab.
Overall, I'd probably say it was the best concert I've been to so far in my (relatively short) life. Two thumbs up!!
I think the highlight for me was probably advent and the evil, ominous riff at the end of fair judgement. My only beef was with some of the mixing...when Mikael did the clean vocals it seemed way too loud for the rest of the music and it sort of lost some in the overall feel because of that.
