Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Boogaloo / Zagreb / Croatia
Concert date: 05/24/2009
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: 160.00HRK (advance) / 190.00HRK (day of show)
We finally got the chance to catch the standard-bearers of melodic death metal, known for their studio-album perfection and for the fact that the death vocals come from a female singer rather than a guy, as is the norm in a trillion bands of this metal flavor. Arch Enemy and their fellow travelers, Denmark’s Mercenary, played Tolmin’s MetalCamp last year, where Arch Enemy even headlined the night. This time we finally got them on a tour of their own. After racking up concert mileage through the fall and winter, they hit South and Central America in May, then tacked on a few more shows around Europe to wrap things up.
| MERCENARY: |
Mercenary, who have played in front of a Slovenian crowd at least three times (opening for Brainstorm in 2004, for Nevermore in 2005, and at MetalCamp last year), keep growing into excellent live performers. In a short set, the sextet showed off brilliant tightness, executing everything that stood in their way with real precision.
What came as a surprise was the rather lukewarm response from the usually (over)heated Croatian crowd, plus a habit we know from gigs in Slovenia too: on the day of the show, most people stay away from the venue for ages, even when they’ve already arrived at the grounds, preferring to drink beer outside and look for other fun until the actual headliner takes the stage. Not always, but often. The space in front of the stage got fuller by the minute during Mercenary, but you’d expect more craziness down front. The Danes made people happiest with an excellent Soul Decision from “The Hours That Remain”, since the set lacked some enviable pieces from the older albums, which music critics rate higher than the new album “Arhitect Of Lies”. Still, Mercenary clearly put the new album first and lured the crowd in with it, song after song. What impressed most was the combination of Rene Pedersen’s mid-to-low-pitched metalcore screaming with Mikkel Sandager’s melodic, clean vocals aimed at the very top of the register. Never mind that the recent swap of death growls for a core approach brings less colorful contrast in the studio — in the duets, and in building a dynamic, varied atmosphere live, it works great on stage. Mercenary are that modern type of melodic death metal that brings in some stereotypical power metal elements, especially the symphonic side, thanks to very busy keyboards, and the detours into progressive metal can’t be overlooked either, which they showed on stage with a few trickier rhythmic shifts.
Toward the end you could hear some lost shouts for 11 Dreams, but the guys decided to smash out Firesoul instead, which got the crowd on its feet at the close and crowned a tight, confidently delivered performance. We can’t skip over the bad sound on stage, though. The melodic vocals were hard to hear, especially in the highest registers, and the guitars sounded muddy at times. In that mix it was occasionally hard to make out lead guitarist Martin Buus Pedersen’s soloing clearly.
| ARCH ENEMY: |
Arch Enemy, who finally made it to Zagreb on the slowly winding-down “Rise Of The Tyrant” tour, didn’t put on any special stage pomp. All that hinted at them during the moments of great anticipation, with the seconds ticking by far too slowly, was a gigantic backdrop banner symbolizing the current studio album. Fog floods the stage once it drops. The guys take their positions, and the show kicks off with the expected opener from the new record, Blood On Your Hands. At the last moment Angela Gossow bounds into the center of it all. A gal who, looking the part, has taken on the look of actress and model Peta Wilson, known from the action series “Nikita” — half soldier, half wild filly — she of course grabbed all the attention in a heartbeat.
I don’t want to start this report on a negative note, but to clear up a few facts, it’s not out of place to ask how much help Angela gets from the mixing desk. A bit of echo and delay effect was hard to miss. In the studio she has certainly upgraded on her predecessor Liiva in the extremes, but the sound in the hall exposed a few flaws. Her singing was often very unclear and poorly audible, and the stage power of the vocals still had quite a bit in reserve. The fact is that Arch Enemy were a touch too loud. Especially the two guitars — twice it even led to microphone feedback. So the sound wasn’t up to the level it should have been.
Despite that, we could enjoy this band’s excellent stage chemistry. Anyone who could tear at least one eye away from Angela could especially admire the fantastic calibration of the Amott brothers, who were practically competing over who could play the more brilliant solo. Their fingers fly like crazy, and they nailed the whole repertoire at full throttle. Firmly focused and unbelievably committed. They really do work as one of the best-tuned guitar duos on the planet. Sharlee D’Angelo, the famous former Mercyful Fate bassist, somehow didn’t come across much on stage, despite his towering presence, thanks to the recent excessive build-up of his personal reserves of subcutaneous bulk. Arch Enemy could do themselves a favor and not worry about it, because they have the fantastic Daniel Erlandsson, who held his own in every way next to the Amott brothers. Precise as a Swiss watch, an explosive workhorse behind his drum fortress, he made sure the songs came to life on stage in every sense, spewing rage, pain, despair and defiance! Erlandsson proved in his solo especially that he’s an exceptional musician, because he pulled off exactly what many fail to when they tackle the drum spot. He took over the room. The drumming in that bit was interesting and breathtaking, and it didn’t hide the wit this musician’s talent holds. A 10-minute drum solo, which can normally make you yawn without any trouble and give you the nagging feeling of a pure waste of time and money, flew by in a flash!
Most of the repertoire was made up of newer songs, meaning Angela Gossow-era Arch Enemy tracks, naturally weighted toward the new album. We waited for the older classics from the previous millennium right until the end, when Arch Enemy made the crowd happy with Fields Of Desolation. The band persistently ignores those three albums in their live shows, and they even cut the excellent Diva Satanica from the set list. The reason is probably to spare Angela Gossow’s vocal cords.
With no real banter with the crowd between songs, the show lost some voltage and solid chemistry around the middle, but the delivery of the material earned the band the points it needed for the win. Never mind that time flew by during their set as if someone snapped their fingers, and the feeling of routine set in at the moment it ended with a simple but bizarre “Thank you and goodbye!” — the band surprised a few diehards who stubbornly waited outside the tour bus, because they hung out with them for another hour or so afterward. That shows Arch Enemy very much value their fan base. Especially given the band’s ever-growing popularity, as much popularity as death metal can ever be granted — or better, let’s call it their ever-growing “greatness” — this gesture surely chased away any dark thought that the band is locking itself into a world of rock stars.
So an Arch Enemy show remains an event worth your full attention. Given the constant perfectionist upgrading of their own machinery, which the band proves with excellent studio albums as well as live shows, even if I’d quibble with the one-sided Zagreb set list, it will be interesting to watch what happens with Arch Enemy going forward. Will they stay true to themselves, or begin a “commercialization” phase of their sound, in the vein of various In Flames? Personally, I think that phase is already over for Arch Enemy, if only because they have the devilish Angela Gossow in their ranks. That way they strike a great balance between “sincere” and “show time”, staying interesting for loyal fans as well as for all the potential new fans who are only just discovering the band.
photos: Robi Lipej
Setlist
MERCENARY: 1. Black And Hollow 2. Bloodsong 3. Soul Decision 4. The Endless Fall 5. This Black And Endless Never 6. Execution Style 7. Firesoul ARCH ENEMY: 1. Blood On Your Hands 2. Ravenous 3. Taking Back My Soul 4. Dead Eyes See No Future 5. My Apocalypse 6. Revolution Begins 7. Burning Angel 8. Drum Solo 9. I Will Live Again 10. Dead Bury Their Dead 11. We Will Rise —encore— 12. Snow Bound 13. Nemesis 14. Fields Of Desolation
Photo Gallery
