OCTOBER 29th, 2024
IN FLAMES/ARCH ENEMY/SOILWORK
Review By: Dmitry Sukhinin
Photos By: Polina Kulikovskikh
Photo Gallery: http://www.metaltitans.com/concertpics/in-flames-arch-enemysoilwork/

Who would have believed, 20 years ago, that bands as heavy as Soilwork and In Flames would not only endure, but grow strong enough to fill stadiums? I’ve seen all of them perform in Oslo before: Arch Enemy once at the 500-capacity John Dee, Soilwork multiple times at the 1,300-capacity Rockefeller in the same building, and In Flames commanding the biggest stage at Norway’s Tons of Rock festival in 2023. Before Tons of Rock, I couldn’t help but reflect on how differently Soilwork and In Flames have grown. Once similar in size in the early 2000s, even collaborating on videos like Soilwork’s Rejection Role and In Flames’ Trigger (a fun idea!!), they’ve since gained completely different momentum. This is particularly surprising given Soilwork's consistently solid discography and In Flames’ mixed output from 2004 until their strong comeback with Foregone, bolstered by the addition of the formidable Chris Broderick. As for Arch Enemy, I lost track around 2001, after they released Wages of Sin.

I was lucky to get the best seat in the 10,000+ capacity Oslo Spectrum, - right above the sound engineering booth. Each of the bands had its own huge mixer panel.

Soilwork kicked off with a massively sounding intro and very good lights. Mix in the start of the set had dominating drums and vocals. As the set develops, guitars start to cut through. Sylvain Coudret delivers his fantastic solos effortlessly, so does Simon Johansson (he is slightly lower in the mix), who has delivered a great guest appearance on Edge Of Sanity’s Crimson II. Bass, unfortunately, is not so prominent, and I start noticing the traces on the Exile song from the Sworn to a Great Divide record. Rasmus Ehrnborn delivers backing vocals. 5th song Spirit of No Return and either my ears got used to the sound, or it has improved, - I hear everything perfectly (those vocals of Bjorn Strid are flawless!!!) and the huge hall sees some attempts for a circle pit. "Death Diviner", "The Ride Majestic" and "Stålfågel", and the band's 37 minute set is, unfortunately, over.

Arch Enemy has had some changes in the guitar register since I had seen them around 10 years ago. After a really quick changeover of just 20 minutes, the intro starts and then instantly interrupts due to some technical glitch. After a minute the sound resumes from the same spot, where it had stopped, and the band starts playing. Arch Enemy now have a much bigger stage production: there is an elevated “row” with drums in the middle and Marshall stacks right and left. Everyone may have a bad day, and it seems to be the case for Alissa White-Gluz, who’s vocals sound really bad in the mix. On the contrary, the rest of the band sounds fantastic,- I can hear every pick stroke, Daniel Erlandsson is absolutely unmatched in level of detail and tightness, Sharlee D'Angelo is delivering the low end. Michael Amott is out with his signature solos and very tasty wah effects. In general, a spectator sees instantly who the mainman of the band is: Michael dominates the center of the stage all the time, while the vocalist is hiding around the drum kit or striking poses in different angles of the stage, rather delivering sources for great pictures. I admit, image change has done the band a great favor when they made a shift from quality of Johan Liiva to marketing.

As people supposedly with an overly aggressive need (don’t be that person!) in the pit throw beer glasses spoiling the experience to the others, Alissa asks everyone to light up the space with their phones for a ballad moment.  There are much more lights during the set, and almost every solo is highlighted by projectors (strangely, from the back - making the figures look dark from the audience spot).

Alissa announces new songs from the yet to be released album Blood Dynasty. New material sounds like a typical Arch Enemy, but has surprisingly good clean vocals. One hour after the set start, the last song is on and a few inflated balls fall into the audience. The outro is an instrumental studio Arch Enemy song recording and it sounds more balanced than live sound. Strange choice.

In Flames instantly show who the main act is. Everything is on another level. An intro compiled of different pieces of In Flames songs sees members of the band being highlighted by projectors one by one behind the translucent curtain. The band starts with their main superhit "Cloud Connected", which I expected to be the last song of the gig. Higher volume, intricate lights, multilevel stage, but great visibility of the personnel and the sound is just freaking awesome! Björn Gelotte does a tasty solo variations (with brilliant vibratos!), and after the first song the lights change from static blue to other different palettes. High above the stage there are two lines of led lights looking like two laser swords. Chris Broderick, who has reenergized the band, does mainly rhythm guitars paired with hair windmilling. Anders Friden is on fire too, - despite having quite questionable clean vocals, it works really well with the setlist and the rest, and Anders entertains the audience with charismatic speeches in Swedish, also trolling those sitting and “eating popcorn” in the back.
Both sound and lights compliment each other, and the setlist is great. Now, this is a show, NOW we are talking!!! What definitely makes In Flames stand out from the other gang is slower tempo, groovier songs.
Friden: “A song from the 90th” and then something like “I can’t hear you”, -  and the audience explodes. A curtain at the back falls revealing a gigantic logo. Broderick has a spot for a solo. Then yet another song from the 90th. Friden: “We are playing only hits. Only hits today”. On the Trigger, Soilwork’s Strid helps out with the clean vocals. Then "Only for the Weak" that totally destroys the place. "Meet Your Maker" and then Friden arranges a gigantic circle pit for "State of Slow Decay."

Time for band introductions made in English so that the non-scandinavian part of the band could understand the trolling. Broderick works out, so that Anders doesn’t have to, Niels Nielsen has the biggest collection of ants, Tanner Wayne has the biggest shoe size, and Bjorn is mother, father, sister, brother.
“I am Above” and "My Sweet Shadow” and this show of the year for me.

On my way home I put on headphones with the Night Flight Orchestra with members of Soilwork and Arch Enemy - great tunes to calm down.