Dark Tranquillity / Moonspell / Hiraes
Wednesday, 30 April 2025, 7:00 PM – 10:50 PM
Zagreb / Boogaloo / Croatia
Some tours you just can’t turn your back on. Tours that come to our region! What could be better. The pairing of legendary Gothenburg melodeath pioneers Dark Tranquillity with the ever-astonishing Portuguese guardians of gothic and melodic extreme metal, Moonspell. Two huge, hugely respected names on the international scene, stylistically worlds apart. A brilliant combination that was always going to pull hordes of heavy metal enthusiasts from every direction — and shift tickets accordingly.
We’d already caught both bands in Ljubljana on 12 April 2025, where Sebastijan and Jerneja contributed the concert review, but the devil wouldn’t let us rest without jumping on a second helping on 30 April 2025 at the always-magnificent Zagreb club Boogaloo. The setlists for both Moonspell and Dark Tranquillity were also somewhat different from the Ljubljana show. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Boogaloo was essentially sold out. On the day of the show only a handful of tickets remained. The venue was packed to the rafters. People were crammed in, squashed into tight rows like matchsticks. Even as openers Hiraes took the stage — a German melodic death metal outfit from Osnabrück, risen from the ashes of Dawn Of Disease, fronted by the formidable “Hanover woman” Britta Görtz on growl vocals, who came to the band from Critical Mess and who we’d followed years ago with Cripper at several Metalcamp shows in Tolmin, and also for instance back in 2011 at the sadly now-defunct German Bang Your Head!!! festival — it was already clear that Boogaloo was going to turn into a hornet’s nest that evening.
The quintet — Britta Görtz (vocals), Lukas Kerk (guitar), Oliver Kirchner (guitar), Christian Wösten (bass) and Mathias Blässe (drums) — got an already well-filled club running at full tilt within half an hour, presenting themselves as a slickly oiled unit. The magnetism of a “sharply” delivered Britta, who proved her growl still serves her phenomenally well, commanded every bit of attention. The band played five tracks from their second and still-current album “Dormant”, released in early last year. A crew of seasoned veterans with serious mileage and experience, they delivered a compact, explosive performance that impressed on every level — minor quibbles about the sound aside, mainly the slightly muddled definition from the two guitars. An excellent opening warm-up!
I’d been waiting for Moonspell on stage ever since November 2019, when we caught them alongside Rotting Christ in Graz, Austria! A band that simply carries you away. Every single time. A group of musicians who over the years have grown into one big family! Four of them haven’t changed since 2004. Then in 2020, they welcomed new drummer Hugo Ribeiro into the fold. The band released their last studio album “Hermitage” in 2021. That one is slowly fading into memory, and in keeping with that, the band decided to put together quite an old-school setlist for this tour — which was, simply put, an additional magnet making Moonspell an absolute must-see on this run. Moonspell love taking the special-guest slot on tours by bigger established acts. Unforgettable was that Moonspell encounter at Boogaloo back in April 2009, when they stole the show from British black metallers Cradle Of Filth and completely overshadowed them. Fernando has changed his look — he’s grown a moustache and beard, so he reminded you more of a waiter in a Serbian grill restaurant — but when this man stepped onto the stage and launched into his performance, you simply knew you were in the right place. Passionate and uncompromising. Moonspell are fantastically tight, the sound was excellent throughout the set, and the phenomenal guitarist Ricardo Amorim once again showed what he’s made of with outright brilliant old-school soloing! In the space of an hour, the band covered the full breadth of their legacy and the opus behind it. With their energy, Moonspell cast a spell over the venue and the audience ate out of their hands. Wherever you looked, hands were in the air. Fernando’s standard crowd-baiting did its usual job.
Half the songs played represented the band’s first two albums, which Moonspell cunningly positioned at the very start of the set (Opium, Awake) and at the very tail end, when they predictably fired off Vampiria first, followed by the brilliant “Extinct” cut Breathe (Until We Are No More), then the whole room lost it to the vampiric stomp of classic Alma Mater, while the band drove the final nail into the coffin in the grand finale with another “Irreligious” classic, Full Moon Madness, after which we were all left voiceless. Well, not entirely — fuel had to be saved, since the headliners were still to come. Moonspell also spiced the setlist with the reintegration of “Memorial” (2006) classic Finisterra, which they don’t play all that often on the road, and the band effortlessly maintained every ounce of charm and hypnosis on the wings of “Antidote” album classics From Lowering Skies and In and Above Men — both back in the set after a long absence — plus the somewhat expected Everything Invaded. Simply put: another unforgettable encounter with the phenomenal Portuguese, who you just cannot and will not grow tired of.
Any worry that Moonspell might accidentally steal the show from Dark Tranquillity the way they once stole it from Cradle Of Filth at Boogaloo was completely unfounded this evening. Not only are the two bands a mile apart stylistically, but also because when you’re paired with Dark Tranquillity, it’s simply impossible. They are renowned for always performing at the highest level — something inseparably linked to that proverbial Swedish work ethic and perfectionism that demands delivering nothing less than the best.
The band arrived in Zagreb behind their latest album “Endtime Signals” (2024) and a considerably changed lineup in which, from the old guard, only founding member and vocalist Mikael Stanne — who has weathered every apocalypse with the band — and keyboardist Martin Brändström, a member since 1998 (whose integration turned Dark Tranquillity into a sextet), remain. Both guitarists Jonas Reinholdz and Peter Lyse Karmark, bassist Christian Jansson and drummer Joakim Strandberg Nilsson are all newcomers to the fold. But they are top-tier musicians, and Dark Tranquillity navigated the significant lineup shuffle that hit them after 2020 very successfully, plugging the gaps in short order. The concert radiated exactly that. Mikael Stanne is that essential, non-negotiable linchpin of the band, without whom the group is simply unimaginable. On stage he carries that smile and fills the space with his stage presence, projecting a constant sense of total accessibility to the audience and fans. His growl remains devastating and serves the legendary vocalist to perfection. Working the crowd is second nature to him. Between the gestures and the rousing addresses, everything flows even more effortlessly. Stanne is simply a vocalist with staggering charisma.
Phenomenal stage lighting, a richly stocked scenic backdrop with projections, and straight to the point — a breakneck blast. The band demonstrated outstanding tightness. You didn’t hear a single slip. Razor-sharp guitars, all the harmonies of their interplay consistently clear throughout, the rhythm section angled into a three-dimensional depth, and above it all, of course, Stanne’s devastating vocal output.
The band filled the setlist predictably with material from the latest album as the bulk of the night, while also time-travelling back through the catalogue as far as “Projector” (1999), from which they performed classic Therein right at the tail end of the main set. The crowd went wild, singing along to the melodies, almost taking them right out of Stanne’s mouth — the energy was insane and hard to put into words. Shows at Boogaloo simply have their own unique charm and magic!
The band seasoned the setlist with a few surprises. Two “Fiction” (2007) classics: Nothing To No One and Empty Me. The latter in particular the band had rarely played on tour. Much the same goes for “Damage Done” (2002) classic Cathode Ray Sunshine, which the band only integrated into the set in 2022, and Hours Past In Exile, which after many years found its way back into their live rotation.
The encore delivered a climax of its own kind, as Dark Tranquillity wrung out the last atoms of energy from the audience. The crowd had almost guessed what was coming all by itself. The Wonders at Your Feet from the fifth album “Haven” (2000). And the madness rolls on. The dedication of the audience remains extraordinary. Fervent sing-alongs in the front rows, and in the more distant corners of the club, it didn’t let up either. Plenty of pushing and moshing up front, naturally. Then there’s the lethal Lost to Apathy (“Character”, 2005) and in the grand finale, the long-missed “Fiction” classic Misery’s Crown, which the crowd greeted with an eruption of joy!
An insane concert event. Unique and unforgettable! No room for negatives here. A magical evening loaded with surging passion, emotion and a one-of-a-kind atmosphere that created some kind of parallel world you simply struggle to switch back out of when the band signs off with: “Thank you Zagreb, see you soon!”
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Hiraes setlist:
1. Through the Storm
2. About Lies
3. We Owe No One
4. Dormant
5. Undercurrent
Moonspell setlist:
1. Opium
2. Awake!
3. Common Prayers
4. Extinct
5. Night Eternal
6. Finisterra
7. In and Above Men
8. From Lowering Skies
10. Everything Invaded
11. Vampiria
12. Breathe (Until We Are No More)
13. Alma Mater
14. Full Moon Madness
Dark Tranquillity setlist:
1. The Last Imagination
2. Nothing to No One
3. Hours Passed in Exile
4. Unforgivable
5. Wayward Eyes
6. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
7. Atoma
8. The Dark Unbroken
9. Shivers and Voids
10. Forward Momentum
11. Cathode Ray Sunshine
12. Empty Me
13. Not Nothing
14. Phantom Days
15. Final Resistance
16. ThereIn
—dodatek—
17. The Wonders at Your Feet
18. Lost to Apathy
19. Misery’s Crown
