Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Gala hala, Ljubljana
Concert date: 17.11.2011
Attendance: 0
Two weeks ago Channel Zero hosted a brutal death metal triple bill with Solace of Requiem, Prostitute Disfiguremente and Vomitory. Last Friday the hall next door skipped the guts and the pieces of prostitutes and wrapped itself in the chill of a thousand Finnish lakes instead, with another triple bill: MyGRAIN, Before the Dawn and Insomnium.
First onto the Gala hala stage were MyGRAIN from Helsinki, who spent their good half hour mostly on the album they released earlier this year, cleverly titled MyGRAIN. The six-piece plays melodic death metal and does a pretty decent job of it, even if it’s still rather naive in places. The guys and the girl proved that at their core they’re a solid band, but they blend thrash and death metal elements in a way that’s far too generic, and they set their goals in a very clichéd way. Their extremely energetic, all-in performance went by in a haze of aggressive parts, interrupted by melodic guitar passages, clean vocals and keyboards that sounded downright annoyingly cheerful and bouncy at times. To make it all come off even more “cheesy,” the band presented the keyboardist, who was celebrating her birthday, with a slice of cake on stage and, of course, grumbled out the obligatory “happy birthday.”
The trip across the frozen expanses of Finland’s wide lakes continued with Before the Dawn, who have been through quite a few lineup shake-ups in the year since they first played here in September 2010. Bandleader Tuomas Saukkonen aired the lineup out properly and shed the excess baggage of a bassist and a drummer who didn’t fit his vision of the band’s future. With two new members on board, the band now shows up in a new light: they’ve said goodbye to the clean, melodic vocals that dragged them deep into melancholic gothic waters at times, and amped up the aggression and rawness, moving closer to the sound of Gothenburg death metal. Before the Dawn’s music is now built on Tuomas’s deep but intelligible growl and mighty, simple yet varied riffs roaring out of his gorgeous Amfisound seven-string beauty. The deep low end is enriched by excellent solo excursions, the rhythm section is tight and aggressive, and in some of the instrumental passages Before the Dawn still recall that dark Finnish melancholy. In my opinion Before the Dawn made the right move with this new direction, since they sound much more convincing than last time at Orto bar, and the new track, which will appear on the album the band is currently preparing, sounded extremely promising.
Then the tour headliners Insomnium climbed onto the stage to an atmospheric intro and a roaring crowd, presenting their current album One For Sorrow on this tour. As headliners, Insomnium cut off a solid hour and a half for a journey through their dreamlike world, made up of aggressive, strongly melodic death metal and slower, gloomier parts that are so typical of the Finnish metal scene. After some initial sound problems, Insomnium got the mix dialed in perfectly, and melodic passages started flying from all sides, played side by side by both guitars, with plenty of harmonic embellishments and richly varied solo excursions. The two guitarists showed stunning quality: the riffs they fired off were played full throttle, and despite there being so many of them, they never repeated themselves. Despite their aggressive foundation, Insomnium are always accompanied by a certain tragic sorrow and black melancholy, and they achieve that atmosphere extremely successfully with guitar lines alone. They don’t need clichéd keyboards to build it, only occasionally did keyboard parts float in from the backing track, and those successfully elevated the experience. In an hour and a half, Insomnium walked through their entire discography and strung together a lovely spectrum of melodic death metal and Finnish melancholic melodies. A well-attended gig, an active crowd and bands in great spirits, with Insomnium at the helm, made for a Friday full of Finnish chill that won’t vanish anytime soon in a snowstorm.
Photos: Nina Grad
Photo Gallery
