First something about the venue Entrepot, quite simply the nicest venue I’ve been to for a metal gig. Two levels that both have a great view on the moderate sized stage.

Soon after I arrived and got myself some refreshment Deadlock kicked of the night, although I wasn’t impressed with them at first, once they were halfway through the second song Code Of Honor their sound and vocals got to a level I expected and like from this band. Deadlock is a five-piece featuring 2 vocalists, one female singing clean and a male growler that take turns. Something I can only cheer for, if done properly.  Although the growls were the least best I heard that night, great guitar parts and the girl did great and even held it together doing an a-capella outro. A nice feature was the started and ended with some electronic techno whatever.

In the same vain as Deadlock, we got greeted by Swashbuckle while a hip-hop song was playing. It’s for once quite simple to explain what this band is like. Imagine angry pirates doing thrash metal. None of that glam/power whatever Alestorm seem to be selling as pirate-metal but brutal and tight thrashmetal. This four-piece, Singer/Bassist, Backingvocals/Guitarist, drummer and a parrot were all dressed up as pirates with made the whole thing complete. This band is just a load of fun. However, their sound wasn’t that good at all, not compared to the other bands that night anyway. They seemed to be the only band without their own soundtech and roadie crew and maybe they just don’t care. But I’d have loved more definition coming from that guitar and bass.

Next, melodeath metallers Dark Tranquillity were up. As one of the pioneers of the Gothenburg metal genre it’s hard not to expect a tight and well performed set. I truly enjoyed DT, and I was quite suprised, impressed even with the vocals. They seemed even more harsh and brutal than on album. DT also played a tune from their upcoming album We Are The Void and it was possibly the best song I’ve heard that night.

I didn’t know too much about Heaven Shall Burn all I did have was a coversong they did on that Century Media covers album. Anyway, I soon got a great vibe from this band. They seemed to have a style and sound very alike the HxC scene we have here in Belgium more specifically the H8000 scene. I used to listen to nothing but these kind of hardcore/metalcore type bands so I’m quite glad I learned about Heaven Shall Burn. They announced somewhere in their set how much they loved playing for the scene where they got inspired by, mentioning bands such as Liar and Congress. The band I knew least about turned out to be the one I enjoyed most.

And lastly was it time for Caliban. I just said how I used to listen to nothing but hxc and metalcore, well Caliban was one of those bands. I admit I lost touch with the band when I turned to listening to many more different genres within metal. On the other hand, it turned out not to be such a bad thing after all. I only vaguely recognized one song but worst of all, they didn’t sound anything like how I came to love em. I still enjoy listening to the albums Vent and Shadow Hearts but I can’t say I liked them much on the Darkness Over Xmas tour.

All in all, it was a very good night out for me except for the looong walk home.