As far as Lunar Strain is concerned, I can understand them choosing Behind Space. It's an awesome live track (although as they play the '99 version you could argue it's really a Colony song).
In terms of Graveland and The Hive, yeah, it's just them being lazy. I like both songs, but come on, switch it up a bit. Moonshield and Artifacts have been played somewhat often over the years, why not those? If you genuinely care about the older songs and aren't just breaking the rare ones out every so often to get some headlines on websites, how about giving a run to The Jester Race, Dead Eternity, Lord Hypnos (never played) or December Flower? We know Chris can handle the solo in DF. Anders always talks about Dead Eternity being 'special' as it was the first track he did IF vocals for... so why does it never get played?
I've always thought The Hive was in there to give Anders a short break vocally, as the last half of the song is an instrumental. If they wanted to genuinely put an effort in as far as giving the older albums their due, how about Jotun, Food for the Gods, Episode 666, Morphing Into Primal, Gyroscope? I appreciate stuff like JST and WWTM might not be great live crowd pleasers, but the others? No excuse other than being lazy.
It's just an extension of "da hitz" mentality that has infested the band for decades now, but the tracks they choose from the older albums aren't really what you'd put into that category. Artifacts and Episode 666, sure... but Graveland and The Hive? Good songs but fuck me, stop being so boring and play something else.
In terms of Graveland and The Hive, yeah, it's just them being lazy. I like both songs, but come on, switch it up a bit. Moonshield and Artifacts have been played somewhat often over the years, why not those? If you genuinely care about the older songs and aren't just breaking the rare ones out every so often to get some headlines on websites, how about giving a run to The Jester Race, Dead Eternity, Lord Hypnos (never played) or December Flower? We know Chris can handle the solo in DF. Anders always talks about Dead Eternity being 'special' as it was the first track he did IF vocals for... so why does it never get played?
I've always thought The Hive was in there to give Anders a short break vocally, as the last half of the song is an instrumental. If they wanted to genuinely put an effort in as far as giving the older albums their due, how about Jotun, Food for the Gods, Episode 666, Morphing Into Primal, Gyroscope? I appreciate stuff like JST and WWTM might not be great live crowd pleasers, but the others? No excuse other than being lazy.
It's just an extension of "da hitz" mentality that has infested the band for decades now, but the tracks they choose from the older albums aren't really what you'd put into that category. Artifacts and Episode 666, sure... but Graveland and The Hive? Good songs but fuck me, stop being so boring and play something else.