DTThere’s so much on at the moment it’s completely crazy, as much as I would have loved to make recent shows by Orphaned Land and Insomnium alas it just was not possible. However there is no way I was missing Dark Tranquillity as they have never ever let their fans down and are always such a solid band live. There’s already a healthy queue at the Underworld pre doors and the second they are open people are literally crammed at the front of the stage waiting on the first band. There was a bit of confusion there as it was meant to be Lehmann an Italian metal project from Blaze Bayley’s band but they were not apparently here. No great loss as far as I am concerned and we waited expectantly as the stage looked rather odd with all sorts of strange things set up on it such as hand drums attached to the microphone stands, wires everywhere and some sort of steel castanets.

This was all for first band Acyl from France and as they came on to play I was really intrigued by the lead singers hand made bass instrument which looked like a large cricket bat with bells attached to it. As he started to strum it and the band picked up an ethnic rhythm it certainly made a heavy tone. It took them a while to move on from this and grab the more expected instruments and fire out a heady mix of metal merged with what is best described as world music with sounds from The Middle East and South America within it. It got the enthusiastic crowd clap happy and delirious straight away and there was something quite infectious about it all. It’s not surprising to note that this lot comprise of members past and present of Arkan and they share similar ground to them, perhaps they would have been perfect supporting the aforementioned Orphaned Land but it was evident that they were perfect here and no doubt anywhere they played turning the venue into a bit of a street carnival as they picked us up and dashed along with their brand of ethnic metal. There may not have been a pit and in fact we would more likely to have got a flash mob breaking into a samba or a salsa to this and it certainly transcended genres. The metal surges were pretty full on and vocalist Anime was not averse to roaring out some pretty hefty parts now and again. The worldly trip, metallic jagged riffing and hoary yells work well together and everyone was having a great time. It was no case of ticking off song titles or even trying to think of other bands that Acyl remind of, it’s more to do with closing eyes and trotting the globe in your head. This lot would be an excellent festival band and to tell the truth they were damn enjoyable here too

Next up are Finns Amoral who set things up perfectly coming on to a loud intro of Public Image Limited anthem ‘Order Of Death.’ Damn I wish they had carried on playing it as it was quickly evident that this previous death metal act had well and truly changed their socks and were not to my liking at all. First thoughts were that there is something too damn clean cut about them or as another person summed up ‘polite.’ They could play I’ll give them that and there was a certain Finnish crunch and flair about the guitar histrionics that made it obvious that they had come from the land of Bodom. The clean vocals of the very youthful looking, smartly dressed singer with his radio styled microphone Ari Koivunen lacked necessary bite and gravitas though. This was veering towards power metal territories that were far from comfort for me. At times there was the hint of Mike Patton circa From Out Of Nowhere an album I have not wanted to hear in years about his delivery, no doubt it was good if you liked that sort of thing and the crowd on the whole were continuing in full on party mode but for me, nope They wowed the audience with tracks from latest album ‘Fallen Leaves & Dead Sparrows’ and I was certainly not rushing to the merch stand to pick it up. Some of the songs were way too close to stadium rock ballads and the metal parts to things just struck as so very clichéd. Basically I found Amoral, bland, safe and sterile so for once found myself ducking out from the rest of their set rather than continuing to flog a dead horse that was obviously not going to get up and run another race for me.

Damage done there was no point being lost to apathy (really sorry for that) as it was time for Dark Tranquillity. I had asked someone if they were coming to this show and been told that nope the band are too happy for them. That does kind of sum them up but sometimes it’s good to be happy and nobody does it as well as these never tiring Swedes. Singer Michael Stanne is as ever beaming away like he has just won the lottery, obviously happy as hell at the hero’s welcome from the by now packed in like sardines audience. It was absolutely impossible getting decent shots even from the side as the band had requisitioned it for their equipment leaving the stage floor pretty uncluttered for them all to swap around and give us as good a view as possible of each of them no matter where you were standing. The jolly ginger giant at the front (ok maybe he is not that tall but it’s the way he looms over us) is brimming over with enthusiasm. Sundin and Henriksen (sans dreads) race around him swapping sides and the ever recognisable tones of the keyboard from Martin Brändström give each and every song great character (nope that’s not meant to be a pun but this is). There’s a Projector at the back with images flying across it giving us a real assault of the senses as Stanne asks us to see if we recognise the next one, unveiling Wonders At Your Feet. Naturally everyone did know it and join in rousingly with the chorus.

Things are far from mundane but really rather magic as far as the next one went as I tried to negotiate a beer to a good vantage point just to dig in and bounce along to the rest of the set. Stanne asks what it is about London cheekily adding is it because nobody is actually born here? He has a damn good point judging by the many Spanish and Italian accents I had heard in the audience tonight and a show of hands from us natives proves him spot on too! But there is little to time for real chat as the songs keep coming. ‘Through Smudged Lenses’ with its deathly end cry of “I want to hear you die” picks up the pace and adds a splash of brutality, State Of Trust provides a good spot of bouncing around and probably my favourite number Therein almost brings a tear to the eye as it’s so heartfelt and sublime. Needless to say this one practically brings the house down and I say it every time Dark Tranquillity really are too big for this venue and it seems a tragedy that the likes of In Flames play Shepherds Bush Empire with their now weak uninspired poppy slush. The fact that Dark Tranquillity have so many good albums means there is no shortage of songs to play and although they probably have a set list to work from there’s none that I saw and they seem happy to ask people what they want to hear. Moving on we get Focus Shift, then Final Resistance which is so full of energy, I found myself stomping a hole in the floor of the venue, whoops. Everything leads up to the last song and it can only really be Misery’s Crown a song that is so damn good it means that an encore is completely unnecessary, they had played a good long set anyway and there was no following this; we were more than happy in our misery. One thing I had not realised was that this was the last date of a run of 120 shows and the band played it like it was thir 1st! True professionals, cracking set and already they were promising to come back!

(Review and photos © Pete Woods)