Heaven, I’m in heaven and although early, by the end of the night we will be cheek to cheek. First up there are couple of German support bands playing also this evening. Starved of music it’s good for the audience but am not sure about having this many on a tour bus what with the chances of Covid spreading through the ranks, but so far so good on the early days of the tour and fingers crossed it will continue as this is a long road for the two headliners to travel.

First up is Brunhilde who although possibly not well known here, have been plying their rock n roll trade since 2013 and have 4 albums and a plethora of singles to their name. They invited us to ‘Come On, Come Out’ with the offer from vocalist Caro Loy to do it in the back seat of her car. Whoa, it’s got hot in here all of a sudden. There’s plenty of clout and bounce about this lot and songs such as ‘Where Are You Going’ come thick and fast.

The quartet are energetic and you couldn’t help thinking about vocalists like Joan Jett as they had us on our toes. She certainly belted her parts out and the band worked the stage well, energy firing through the early attendees. Sometimes you just want to rock out for half an hour and that’s exactly what they had us doing, perfect for a warm up band. Hardly original but that didn’t matter, this self-proclaimed ‘Suicide Squad’ did good.

How wrong can one be about a band? Taking one look at the name Nailed To Obscurity I assumed they were going to be a hammer and tongs slab of brutal death but were not in the slightest. It’s a slow ponderous start with thick tribal drumming. The band line the stage cast in cold blue light and are suitably atmospheric and moody from the start. It’s all quite subtle with glistening guitar lines that are gothic sounding and a huge sense of melodicism.

It’s only part way through the set I realised that I had seen the Nuclear Blast homed act before, supporting Amorphis and Soilwork and again I was being caressed rather than nailed by them tonight. Black and frosty this shadowy performance went down very well and left us enraptured by music and both the clean and harsh vocals from vocalist Raimund Ennenga. This was one for fans of acts like Katatonia and Moonspell and has the scope to fit in with a wide array of artists, snuggly in the case of those playing tonight. The instrumental doomed finale was absolutely sublime too.

It’s damn busy now and Ensiferum are here to pick up the pace and turn things into a bit of a party. It’s obvious that for many they are the main event although it seems lines of face-paint are adorning their fans rather than them waving plastic swords and axes. The scent of ‘Rum, Women And Victory’ is very much in the air as Petri and his Finnish invaders take the stage to one of the most colourful lights and backing display I have seen since Ghost many moons ago.

Welcomed like heroes the crowd whooped it up to songs new and old. I may not have known ‘Andromeda’ from recent album ‘Thalassic’ but ‘Another Magic Potion,’ I certainly did and it was impossible not to get caught up in the enthusiasm. One thing also noted when grabbing a quick pint was that the sound was really clear even right at the back, well done to the venue and PA, this place should be used more, especially now that the majority of Zone 1 music establishments are sadly no more.

Quite a lot of new material was aired, ‘For Sirens’ saw a fair bit of clean vocals from keyboard player from Pekka Montin hitting the spot and reminded a little of Therion. At times the crowd reacted like true steel warriors ‘In My Sword I Trust’ going down particularly well and getting festival style clapping action in response.

Some may even have attempted hitting the high notes for yodel classic ‘Lai Lai Hei’ too. All in all, lots of smiles on faces, on and off stage and this was certainly a successful skirmish.

Some may have been battled out and sloped off and boy did they miss out. Fresh off an extensive US tour Dark Tranquillity are probably one of the happiest bands to be back on the stage. It’s written all over Mikael Stanne’s face and he just cannot stop beaming. There’s a really cool projection of images behind the band and as they pulsate into ‘Phantom Days’ it is all overpowering both musically and visually. Martin Brändström’s keyboards and electronic effects sound fantastic and we literally didn’t know where to shift our focus on.

I only caught a bit of an announcement that one member had not made the tour due to an imminent birth and it’s fair to say the line-up of the group has had plenty of upheavals of late. You would never have known it though, this was as professional a display as it gets. Shards of light hitting like sunbeams warmed us and united the audience as one. The melodicism making each and every song a special event; pretty impressive as we got no less than 16 of them.

Stanne is off the stage to the overhang above the audience at every opportunity, grabbing hands and shaking them, making many fans night even more special. There are many highlights, ‘Monochromatic Stains’ with weaving guitars garnering head-banging motion, ‘The Dark Unknown’ with its clean vocal parts really catching us in its grasp and getting everyone swaying and the pumping ‘Final Resistance’ definitely doing the damage. There’s plenty here who saw the band 1st time in London with Enslaved etc, you could hear them shouting out for songs from The Gallery. They may not have got any of those but Stanne mentions this first show, says how good London has always been to them and promises that this is somewhere they intend playing as much as possible.

After battering us all with ‘The Treason Wall’ an encore was the only answer and one got the feeling the band would have played all night given the chance. Projecting ‘Therein’ onto us was a marvellous moment and the emotion from it was practically overwhelming and I admit to almost blubbing into my pint at the front during it.

Of course they were always going to bring us back from the brink and there could be no other song to finish on than the vitriolic ‘Misery’s Crown’. “This is not goodbye, we will see you soon” we are promised before somewhat starved of energy shuffling out to the mania of Charing X Road.

With somewhere in the region of 50 shows left on the tour as it moves across Europe it’s recommended that you see Dark Tranquillity if they pass through your town. After 2 years lost in the wilderness there’s no better way to celebrate a hopeful return to life as we knew it.

(Review and Photos Pete Woods)