Everyone assumes it's the word "The", but in fact it stands for The Halo Effect Grayfox, in tribute to the saviours of MDM in the 2020s.
I just had an inkling after that interview that Bjorn was thinking 'could be fun to revisit that one'. I think we all have @burank666 to thank for this. Called it on Bjorn taking the first solo and Chris taking the main one. I thought it sounded fucking magic, it's got great energy - aggression and melody both cranked up to the extremes and they really found a way to execute it live that did the studio version justice. It's their best song IMO and it should really be a regular feature of their sets.Me after hearing that quote about December Flower:
Damn, Bjorn, don't be getting my hopes up like that. With Anders' current vocals and Chris's lead guitar chops, I think they could absolutely own it, solo and all. Bjorn could even handle the first solo, and Chris the big one. If I were in the room, I would cry like the big fanboy I am.
December Flower is different though. Pretty sure it has legendary status even among newer fans. Many people consider it to be among the best metal solos of all time. I don’t think it would get a poor reaction. Stand Ablaze is more obscure in comparison.The problem is, when they do play something old like this, even if it sticks around for a little while (see Stand Ablaze), they end up dropping it because of the non-reactions they get. Which is really their own fault for never playing this stuff. Songs like Only for the Weak are over 20 years old at this point but still get great reactions live, even among people who are more recent fans, because OFTW has been a staple in the setlist for so long. When you don’t play a song live in over 25 years, recent fans have no idea what the hell you’re playing.
Whatever happens, this proves that they don’t need 5 guitarists on stage (like they used to claim) to make this stuff work. Both December Flower and Stand Ablaze sounded excellent live. Of course, I’d be fine if they ditched December Flower for anything from Battles, because Battles is better than The Jester Race.
I just had an inkling after that interview that Bjorn was thinking 'could be fun to revisit that one'. I think we all have @burank666 to thank for this. Called it on Bjorn taking the first solo and Chris taking the main one. I thought it sounded fucking magic, it's got great energy - aggression and melody both cranked up to the extremes and they really found a way to execute it live that did the studio version justice. It's their best song IMO and it should really be a regular feature of their sets.
I hope they had enough fun performing it to want to keep it there. I also really loved seeing the reaction of the old-school die hards in the crowd on both video versions that have made it to YouTube. I was definitely living vicariously through the guy in this video who absolutely loses his shit:
I've watched a few videos from Dalhalla now, and I don't see that much of a difference in the reactions to December Flower, Trigger, Delight and Angers or Where the Dead Ships Dwell. The crowd on the whole seems pretty reserved (with a few people here and there being much more energetic), which is the same as how it looked last year. Bit of a shame for the band, really, I think their performance merited a bit more.The problem is, when they do play something old like this, even if it sticks around for a little while (see Stand Ablaze), they end up dropping it because of the non-reactions they get. Which is really their own fault for never playing this stuff. Songs like Only for the Weak are over 20 years old at this point but still get great reactions live, even among people who are more recent fans, because OFTW has been a staple in the setlist for so long. When you don’t play a song live in over 25 years, recent fans have no idea what the hell you’re playing.
Whatever happens, this proves that they don’t need 5 guitarists on stage (like they used to claim) to make this stuff work. Both December Flower and Stand Ablaze sounded excellent live. Of course, I’d be fine if they ditched December Flower for anything from Battles, because Battles is better than The Jester Race.
I've watched a few videos from Dalhalla now, and I don't see that much of a difference in the reactions to December Flower, Trigger, Delight and Angers or Where the Dead Ships Dwell. The crowd on the whole seems pretty reserved (with a few people here and there being much more energetic), which is the same as how it looked last year. Bit of a shame for the band, really, I think their performance merited a bit more.
I have read that Swedish crowds do tend to be quite low-energy, but obviously we've seen that 2004 video of Only For The Weak, which is one of the most impressive examples of a crowd all jumping together I've ever seen, also the crowd at Sticky Fingers on the Used and Abused DVD looked great too, so I don't know if we can apply that generalisation. I've still to watch Only For The Weak, but that's one of those songs where Anders typically tells the crowd to jump, so they're a bit more prompted to act, therefore I don't think we can compare... and I haven't watched any songs from Battles yet, which you know will get the strongest reaction because of their musical magnificence .
The point is that I don't think that December Flower was a 'meh' moment relative to any of the more established songs in the set (and actually, you can see people within the crowd who knew exactly how cool it was to hear it played), it was just a pretty 'meh' crowd.