Author: Sebastijan Videc
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Zagreb / Moćvara / Croatia
Concert date: 25.11.2013
Attendance: 350
Ticket price: 120,00HRK (presale) /140,00HRK (day of show)
Along with At The Gates and In Flames, Dark Tranquillity are considered one of the three big names of the göteborške melodic death metal scene. The fact that they stopped in nearby Zagreb on the current World Construct tour made the trip a must for any fan of the genre, which the healthy number of Slovenian license plates around the venue confirmed.
First on stage were local boys Innergate. The band plays a modern brand of metal that you could describe as a mix of thrash and melodic death metal. They successfully combine it with interesting, at times intricate guitar work, dynamic drums, and prominent female clean vocals, occasionally backed up by sharp screams. Even before stepping into the hall you could hear some pretty (over)loud sound, which we hoped was just down to the hall not being full yet. Instrumentally the band came across as very tight and in sync on stage. The only blemish was the singer’s vocals, which were a bit too loud and at times unintelligible, though the blame probably lay with the overly loud sound. Despite a solid set, the locals unfortunately didn’t manage to warm up the crowd, which was still only filling the hall at that point, apart from a small pit.
A good ten minutes later, Norwegian gothic symphonic band Tristania, who have been around for a whole seventeen years, took the stage. This was their first ever show at Zagreb’s Močvara, and they were promoting their latest release Darkest White, which came out at the end of May. The first half of their set was more or less static and reflected a noticeable uncertainty about the “new” crowd, which showed on stage too. That was mostly down to the shaky sound again, especially noticeable in the vocals, which were simply set too quiet. The band kicked things off with a punchy opener, Number, from the aforementioned latest record. They carried on in the same vein, playing mostly newer material and of course a few older songs such as Beyond The Veil from the album of the same name, The Shining Path and Libre.
It’s worth pointing out the large number of members, with a female and a male singer on lead vocals plus backing vocals from the guitarist and the bassist, who complemented each other brilliantly. The singers constantly leaving the stage was a little distracting, as they retreated backstage during the non-vocal parts and communicated with the audience in a rather reserved way. Early in the second half of the set the sound was finally fixed somewhat, and you could tell the band had gotten used to the crowd and relaxed into the ambient atmosphere. With the rest of their repertoire they managed to really fire up the audience in an already nicely filled hall, and wrapped up their set decently with the song Requiem.
After a break of about twenty minutes, and an impatience you could clearly feel in the atmosphere of the hall as everyone waited for the headliners, the stars of the evening took the stage: Sweden’s Dark Tranquillity. In an extensive, nearly two-hour set, they played almost the whole of their new studio album Construct. This tour was also the first time the band played live without a bassist, so as a five-piece.
They opened the show with a song from the latest album, and the crowd, in a hall that was by then jam-packed, immediately went nuts. Over the course of the set the band also played a few great old classics, such as Punish My Heaven from the album The Gallery, Indifferent Suns from the album Haven, and the rarely played A Bolt Of Blazing Gold from the album Skydancer. The latter was done in an interesting way with the help of singer Mariangela Demurtas from Tristania. She also joined as a guest on vocals for the next song, Mundane And The Magic. The original projections, the work of guitarist Niklas Sundin, were on in the background the whole time, and they fit in perfectly and added to the performance.
The vocal delivery on Iridium, which is on their previous album We Are The Void, was an interesting one. Despite the band’s long career, this song showed that singer Mikael Stanne still has some seriously strong screams and a bit of growl too, which he really amped up here. With its more or less calm structure, the song nicely cut through the otherwise positive tension in the hall and added an emotional note to the set, and, judging by how it looked, for the band themselves as well.
After Misery’s Crown, the band left the stage. Of course you could expect them to return with an extra musical treat or, to quote the singer: “more metal”, despite his claim that Dark Tranquillity don’t play encores. The comeback was inevitable, since the crowd demanded it loudly and tirelessly egged the band on from backstage. They played two more songs, Uniformity and, to close, Final Resistance.
The sound was pretty poorly balanced throughout the whole show for Dark Tranquillity too. In places it came across as annoying whistling, hissing, and constant differences and swings in volume, especially across all the instruments.
All in all, every act was sensibly and well executed, and the crowd, especially for the headliners, was literally “tearing it up” non-stop until the very end. Occasional mosh pits and a bit of stage diving are also worth a mention. The show was well worth seeing, but unfortunately the inconsistent and more or less bad sound left a slightly bitter aftertaste. Still, it was great to see these legends of Gothenburg melodic death metal again after such a long time.
Setlist
INNERGATE:
1. Gruesome
2. Buried Alive
3. The Killer
4. Symbiosis
5. Transcend
6. Scarlight
TRISTANIA:
1. Number
2. Night On Earth
3. Himmelfall
4. Beyond the Veil
5. The Shining Path
6. Darkest White
7. Libre
8. Year of the Rat
9. Requiem
DARK TRANQUILLITY:
1. The Science of Noise
2. White Noise/Black Silence
3. What Only You Know
4. The Fatalist
5. The Silence In Between
6. Zero Distance
7. A Bolt of Blazing Gold (feat. Mariangela Demurtas)
8. Mundane and the Magic (feat. Mariangela Demurtas)
9. Punish My Heaven
10. The Wonders at Your Feet
11. Indifferent Suns
12. Iridium
13. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
14. State of Trust
15. Endtime Hearts
16. ThereIn
17. Lost to Apathy
18. Misery’s Crown
19. Uniformity
20. Final Resistance
Photo Gallery
