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Live Music Hall, Cologne, Germany
13th December 2005
Chimaira, Dark Tranquillity, Hatesphere

Northern Europe and America met that evening in a real thunderstorm of sounds and light. As cherry on the cake, support Hatesphere could keep up with the headliners and was the secret tip of the evening. Hatesphere started very much in time – exactly five minutes before time – into the evening. According to this, we sadly missed the first song. But besides us many other people still arrived and so the band started in front of a well filled up venue.



Hatesphere

Denmark’s example Trash-Metal heads Hatesphere were caring for a furious start into the evening. The band is known for that fact that they give a 200% at their concerts. So it’s no wonder that the band became on of the most demanded bands within the Trash-Metal scene. They released their killer-album “The Sickness Within” about one month ago. There from and from the previous albums a one hour set was presented: hard and loud. http://www.hatesphere.com



Music
Trash-Metal at it’s finest was exciting the audience at the Live Music Hall. Hard guitar riffs and fast drums created the finest Metal mood. From the first song to the last the band did not taka a break; without slowing-down in any kind they gave everything they could… and that really good! Also the sound was perfect; no too loud drums or guitars. Singer and producer Jacob Bredahl impressed with his unique raucous voice. Besides the partly harsh drums and guitars that were beating into your brain, it was Jacob’s voice that was definitely the finest. From grunting to singing and shouting – everything sounded perfect and burned into your ears – even the more melodic songs. All in all it was the perfect playing together between sound engineers and band.



Performance
Not a minute was passing without flying hairs – it was clear that head banging was on agenda at the side of the audience as well as within the band. They banged in the rhythm as much as possible. Anyway to their explosive show they additionally animated the audience more and more and the temper was boiling until the encore. The congenial five impressed the audience just with the first song. Anyone within the band always was wearing a whimsical smile what was leading to an extraordinary good mood. Front man Jacob often made funny statements which were obviously well received by the audience.  The show was supported by a very nice play of lights with a dominating back light, smoke and well adjusted strobe lights. Guitarist and bass player really had fun posing and celebrated together with the audience.

Setlist
01. Intro - Lowlife
02. Deathtrip
03. Reaper of Life
04. Heaven Is Ready
05. The Fallen Shall
06. Only the Strongest
07. Murderous Intent
08. Sickness Within
09. The Coming of Chaos
----------------------------------
10. Hate

Rating
Music 9
Performance 9
Sound 10
Light 8
Total 9




Dark Tranquillity

Besides the band „In Flames“, Dark Tranquillity is mainly the band that invented the so called „Göteborg Sound“ and developed it to another Step. The guys from Sweden are now rocking for more than 15 years as if there is no tomorrow. In 1989, the irresistible career of the six Swedes had begun. The trademarks of the band are complex song structured paired with haunting melodies and double leads. During their career, the band released eight albums so far and additional re-releases and MCDs. If you look at the stable band line-up and their presence on stage you can say that there is still no end for the band to be seen. http://www.darktranquillity.com/



Music
Just before the start of the show you could hear several Dark Tranquillity chants and in anticipation grunting fans. You could realise some fans that were a bit disappointed that Dark Tranquillity weren’t the headliner of the evening instead of Chimaira. But all the disappointment was forgotten as soon as the band entered the stage and was welcomed with loud grunting by the fans. First song – “The Treason Wall” – was a very fast song from their new CD which was pushing up the audience from 0 to 100. The whole set was consisting of fast and hard songs as well as partly some calmer melodic songs and impressed by good balanced drums guitars and bass. Unluckily the chant of front man Mikael Stanne got a bit lost. His metal-typical raucous voice was videlicet sounding very good if it only would have been better mixed. But what the sound engineer not manages the audience does. They knew the lyrics of every song and were grunting along the whole set accompanied with steady head banging – what not was disturbing at all.



Performance
For the show, they charismatic appearance of the band impressed totally. Guitarist and bass player changed places regularly and so there was never tranquillity (even though the band name says so) on stage. The only thing standing still on stage was the backdrop – a huge Dark Tranquillity writing – and the drum set on which was punched in steadily and loud. Singer Mikael was also a very congenial person. You felt like he was living his songs in stage and how much he could transfer this to his fans through steady eye contact. According the light show there was nothing to moan about (only for the photographers perhaps ;)). There also strong back light was used… but not as strong as during the previous band. Fewer strobe lights but more red and blue light and smoke tinted the stage into a special atmosphere. What is left to annotate is the fact that Dark Tranquillity did not give real encores… at least no one you really noticed. They just presented their 15 songs one after the other.

Setlist
01. The Treason Wall
02. Lost To Apathy
03. Zodiackyl Light
04. Damage Done
05. The New Build
06. The Wonders at Your Feet
07. White Noise Black Silence
08. Haven
09. Therein
10. Sense Tied
11. Indifferent Suns
12. Monochromatic Stains
13. Punish My Heaven
14. My Negation
15. Final Resistance

Rating
Music 7
Performance 7
Sound 6
Light 7
Total 7 (6.9)




Chimaira

A Chimaera is a creature out of the Greek mythology that consists of parts from different animals and obsesses people. Chimaira – the heroes of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal – are back. With their new master piece “Chimaira” (released on 8th August 2005) they are touring through Germany this winter and filled up the Live Music Hall too. With well-known Metal sounds they are not standing back behind their new album. http://www.chimaira.com



Music
In every way, Chimaira is intense and the lyrics are very personal. They always are developing their sound further, are compared with “Fear Factory” and also use elements out of the Trash genre. But still the music stays what it should be: Metal. Very often their style is called “Wave of American Heavy Metal”. Just from the first chord, the up-tempo grenade “Nothing Remains” prostrates everything that crosses the way. This track is a riff attack at its finest and exactly this continues through the whole gig – just like during Hatesphere. Singer Mark Hunter was screaming his soul out of the body – just like expected. Also the sound was remarkable good – comparable with the first band – without the small dropouts during Dark Tranquillity. The concert was over as fast as they were playing their guitar riffs. But it’s very exiting how you can power that much through 14 songs like Chimaira do it. Musically, Chimaira are a class on its own.



Performance
What great performance you can expect from a concert like this – besides that head banging is duty? And there was steady head banging in the hall… on stage and within the audience. Due to the extraordinary support bands, the audience was just on top; but Chimaira just brought something more out of the audience. The show was an enjoyable and colourful mixed metal set. The light was staged very nicely – fitting to the intense sounds which describe anger, aggression, mourning, pain and much more. The back light was again stronger and many strobe lights were used. Usually I am not a big fan of strobe lights, but this time it was very well staged and really appropriate. Singer Mark was running from one end of stage to the other, head banging or playing with the audience while screaming the soul out of the body. This concert was great cinema!

Setlist
01. Nothing Remains
02. Save Ourselves
03. Severed
04. Power Trip
05. Cleansation
06. Impossibility
07. Inside the Horror
08. Down Again
09. Overlooked
10. Jade
11. Salvation
12. Dehumanizing Process
13. Pure Hatred
14. Lazarus

Rating
Music 10
Performance 8
Sound 9
Light 8
Total 9




More pics on page two

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