Underground, Cologne, Germany
20th October 2011
Pain & Engel
Peter Tägtgren the man who founded the Swedish death metal band HYPOCRISY in 1990 and raised a real brand by doing that is the creative force behind the project PAIN which, contrary to his other projects, incorporates a high amount of electronic elements from different genres. Now, PAIN is on a big European tour, stopping by in Cologne for a rather small show marking the end of the German tour. As supporting act, Swedish band ENGEL was accompanying them. When I reached the venue, already a long queue was waiting outside and my only though was “How the hell shall they all fit into this small club?” Well, they all were in and it was crowded, sticky and hot! Well, guess that’s how a sold-out show turns out…
Engel
This melodic death metal band with alternative influences comes from Gothenburg, Sweden. They are currently signed to the label Season of Mist. Their debut album ‘Absolute Design’ was released via SPV on October 31, 2007. ‘Threnody’, their second album, saw light of day in late 2010. Season of Mist released ‘Threnody’ in both Europe and North America. The band already toured with such bands as AMON AMARTH, DIMMU BORGIR or PARADISE LOST and now, they are here with PAIN to pour out some death metal in Germany. ENGEL is Mangan Klavborn (vocals), Niclas Engelin (guitar), Marcus Sunesson (guitar), Jimmy Olausson (drums) and Steve Drennan (bass). http://www.engelpropaganda.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/engelmusic / http://www.facebook.com/Engel.Propaganda
Music & Performance
It was the first time for me that I saw ENGEL live, and what shall I say, they rocked! Different to previous shows, there were only two bands announced for the evening, ENGEL being the first one starting their show at 8.15pm when people were still floating into the hall. The show started powerful with ‘Six Feet Deep’, the title song of the band’s latest album ‘Threnody’. They showed no mercy, firing their brutal Melodic Death Metal into the night making people freak out to ‘Casket Closing’ or ‘Trial & Error’. Singer Mangan did not talk much to the audience, well, as he stated, they “were presenting a concert and not a stand-up comedy programme”. Even though there was not very much room on the small stage, the band tried to show some movement and at least some posing and head banging was included.
‘Heartsick’, ‘Burn’ or ‘Sense the Fire’ were more songs from the current album, but also songs from the debut ‘Absolute Design’ like ‘Scythe’ or ‘Propaganda’ showed the talent of the band. With ‘In Splendour’, 45 minutes of hard guitar sound ended. But the band promised to “sign everything later at the merch, even the audience’s asses.”
Setlist
01. Six Feet Deep
02. Casket Closing
03. Trial & Error
04. For Those Who Will Resist
05. Heartsick
06. Scythe
07. Burn
08. Sense The Fire
09. Propaganda
10. In Splendour
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 7
Light: 6
Total: 7 / 10
Pain
PAIN is an industrial metal band from Sweden. The band started out as a hobby project for front man Peter Tägtgren, whose idea was to fuse metal with techno influences. Tägtgren is also the vocalist/guitarist of HYPOCRISY and producer of his own The Abyss studios. PAIN's self titled debut was released in 1997, and since then PAIN has released several more albums, and a DVD. Currently, PAIN is signed to Nuclear Blast records, where the band also released its current album ‘You only live twice’ earlier this year. The sound of PAIN is often described as Industrial Metal but, apart from the question if this description is apposite or not, it is rather Metal than anything else when performed live. PAIN is Peter Tägtgren (vocals & guitar), David Wallin (drums), Michael Bohlin (guitar) and Johan Husgafvel (bass). http://www.painworldwide.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/pain / https://www.facebook.com/OfficialPain
Music & Performance
It took about 30 minutes until the stage was ready for PAIN. Short past 9.30pm, the intro Lux Aeterna (Requiem for a Dream) from Clint Mansell arose and curtains were removed from the drum set and the 4 screens mounted in the back of the stage. During the whole show, the screens accompanied the presented songs with videos or stills fitting perfectly to the content showing movie scenes, politicians etc. The title song, ‘Let me out’, from the latest PAIN album ‘You only live twice’ opened the show followed by ‘Dancing with the Dead’ and ‘Psalms of Extinction’. Then it was time for Peter to raise his voice, asking they “have any women here tonight? … dirty women…?” With ‘Dirty Woman’, a song for all of them followed wile afterwards, ‘Zombie Slam’ was “for all the guys” in the hall. Right from the start, the mood in the hall was on the boiling point, people were sweating and screaming, with every second it went hotter und the venue. With lots of strobe lights, ‘End of the Line’ followed next, the mood exploded and Peter asked the people to scream for them. ‘Suicide Machine’ made people jump heavily in front of stage while the screens showed a man sitting on some kind of chair having lost of equipment and pipes mounted on him. 
“I wanna see if you can jump like a Motherfucker… otherwise your are ‘Nailed To the Ground’” announced the next song of the evening. With ‘It’s only them’, the Underground turned really into a sauna. Following ‘The Great Pretender’, also from the latest album, was a “song about a guy, the craziest guy” Peter knows, and as he said, he’s living in side of him. He was called the great pretender. ‘I’m going in’ saw all hands in the air and with some ‘Monkey Business’, the main set was ended and the quartet left the stage. But not for long, the came back, sat down in front of the drums to present ‘Have a Drink in me’ partially acoustic while the song was underlined with videos showing the alcoholic live of a band, of course not to be taken seriously. With ‘Supersonic Bitch’ and actual song ‘Feed the Demons’ the band led over to classic ‘Same Old Song’ which was heavily celebrated. But still, there was room for more! Another classic, ‘Shut your Mouth’ ended the show with a drum solo and accompanied by Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ the band left the stage. After the show, there was a party where people could dance into the night. PAIN was ready for some autographs later as well.
Setlist
01. Intro: Lux Aeterna (Requiem for a Dream) (Clint Mansell song)
02. Let Me Out
03. Dancing with the Dead
04. Psalms of Extinction
05. Dirty Woman
06. Zombie Slam
07. End of the Line
08. Suicide Machine
09. Nailed to the Ground
10. It's Only Them
11. The Great Pretender
12. I'm Going In
13. Monkey Business
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14. Have a Drink on Me
15. Supersonic Bitch
16. Feed the Demons
17. Same Old Song
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18. Shut Your Mouth
19. Outro: My Way (Frank Sinatra song)
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 9
Total: 9 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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