Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Gala Hala, Ljubljana
Concert date: 06.10.2014
Autumn has barely started and the club gig season is already in full swing. This time Ljubljana got hit by a Swedish trio of bands currently laying waste to Europe on the Back To the Front tour. It wasn’t quite a repeat of the Master of Death tour (Grave, Dismember, Entombed, Unleashed), but we got a good half of it with Grave and Entombed A.D., plus fellow countrymen Implode keeping them company. After the whole name dispute, Entombed A.D. are of course the version of the band with cult vocalist Lars Goran Petrov, who this year came back after a long time with a solid studio album, Back To the Front, which sent them on the road across Europe with their buddies in Grave.
Implode welcomed an empty hall, and they definitely didn’t have an easy job warming up a crowd hungry for Grave and Entombed A.D., but, surprisingly, they didn’t do too badly. Far from being a musical breakthrough, but support bands are usually such musical abominations that listening to Implode was pure pleasure. In a good half hour the guys unleashed a solid assault of melodic death/thrash metal with modern leanings. We didn’t hear any mind-blowing guitar work, but the really dynamic, crushing drumming and the raw vocals of their energetic frontman won us over. At times Implode reminded us of German death/thrash leaders Dew-Scented live, and otherwise they didn’t show much originality. But luckily, for a change, even the opening band went down without much trouble. The only annoyance was the overly enthusiastic bassist with his »oi«, »hey« and »come on motherfuckers« for about five people in the hall.
“Oh no, here comes <random folk metal band/Amon Amarth/Sabaton> again” got swapped this time for a »fuck yeah« as Grave are back once again. Even though the veterans of Swedish death metal have been a regular fixture on our stages lately (most recently showing us what death metal is all about at Metaldays 2014), their visits are always welcome thanks to the outstanding live form they’ve been in for the last few years. Grave proved they’d live up to their name with the very first brutally ominous note! Ola Lindgren and Mika Lagren fired up their buzzsaws without mercy, and Grave mowed down the heads in Gala Hala with one of the best sounds I can remember in that hall. The legendary sound of Swedish death metal roared magnificently in Ljubljana once again, while the Swedes thoroughly tortured their Boss Heavy Metal and Distortion pedals. The band’s latest studio album, Endless Procession of Souls, made it clear that something in the Grave is still alive, as it’s even one of the better records in their discography, and live it shines even more. Especially since Grave truly come alive (pun intended) in a smaller, dark hole like Gala Hala. The setlist, made up of tracks from the new record and immortal classics like You’ll Never See…, Christi(ns)anity and …and Here I Die, was the cherry on top. Only the closing burial of Into the Grave came way too soon.
After a show like that from Grave, Entombed A.D. had quite a tough job living up to the name of the tour headliner, but they at least managed it. The legendary Swedes, the all-seeing eye of Swedish death metal, fired up the circular saw with the opening track of the new album, Kill To Live. Back To the Front is a perfectly solid record, but judging by what we heard, it apparently only truly comes alive in a live setting. Just like Grave, the band roared like a hurricane thanks to the excellent sound, and if LG’s hair has disappeared over the years, the same certainly doesn’t go for his voice. Petrov thundered without any trouble, just like in the days of Left Hand Path, while keeping the crowd in his fist the whole time with endearingly silly banter and the goofy, youthful energy of a twenty-year-old brat. At the same time, despite his status as a legendary frontman, Petrov knows when to step aside for the rest of the band. When the moment was right, he stepped back and sang (and drank) his parts from the second line, letting his comrades take the front, led by the towering bassist Victor Brandt. Entombed A.D. efficiently took us through their entire career. From godfucking death metal with classics that forever marked European death metal – Left Hand Path, Supposed to Rot, Revel In Flesh, Living Dead in Stranger Aeons; to punchy, infectious death ‘n’ roll led by Wolverine Blues and To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak the Truth. All of it marked by flawlessly crushing drumming, brutal mountain-moving bass, LG’s unforgettable growl and riffing that cuts like a chainsaw (if Entombed and Grave let their guitars loose in our forests, they’d be cleared out in no time, heh). The only slip-up? In his opening greeting Petrov forgot that the last time he played here wasn’t 1994, but 2011 at Metal Mania. But that’s just how Komen rolls. Still, Petrov is proof that he lives for the stage and isn’t like the rest of the Entombed guys, who’d rather stay home knitting socks and watching Desperate Housewives. And that’s death metal!
Setlist
GRAVE:
1. Deformed
2. Morbid Ascent
3. Turning Black
4. You’ll Never See…
5. Christi(ns)anity
6. Amongst Marble and the Dead
7. And Here I Die (Satisfied)
8. Into the Grave
ENTOMBED:
1. Kill To Live
2. I For An Eye
3. Revel In Flesh
4. Second To None
5. Eyemaster
6. Living Dead
7. Stranger Aeons
8. Pandemic Rage
9. To Ride, Shoot Straight And Speak the Truth
10. Out of Hand
11. Wolverine Blues
12. Damn Deal Done
13. Chaos Breed
14. Left Hand Path
15. Chief Rebel Angel
16. Supposed To Rot
17. Abnormally Deceased
18. Serpent Speech
Photo gallery
