Despite his reputation, the audience didn’t care too much for this band, which I think is somewhat unjustified. Pain was probably a little bit too Electro for this more (melodic)deathmetal-oriented crowd. However Pain pulled off a very solid performance.

The sound was good and Peter was trying hard to get the crowd going. Pain played a lot of new songs from their recently released album “Nothing Remains The Same”. Less industrial songs like “It’s Only Them” barely got the crowd moving, apart from a few headbangers in front of the stage. The slower songs like e.g. “Injected Paradise” got even less people moving.

I think Peter noticed the poor response from the public, because the rest of the set consisted of heavier material. The very catchy “Shut You Mouth” that concluded the band’s show gave rise to somewhat more response. But don’t think the performance in itself was bad.

Though considering the response of the crowd the other two bands got Pain was clearly not the favorite tonight. Also when Anders Frieden of In Flames asked for some applause for the support acts Pain only got a mild reaction. But maybe it’s just the disadvantage of being the opening act.

Soilwork
Unfortunately, due to an interview with In Flames, I wasn’t able to see the entire Soilwork gig. (But all you REZ-readers can in return look forward to an exclusive interview with In Flames).

When I finally got near the stage, the first thing I noticed was Soilwork using Pain’s equipment, or at least the bass drums had Pain written all over them. A little bit odd to play on the setup of the opening act, whereas Soilwork were placed at a higher spot on the bill and got, as later appeared, a much bigger response from the audience.

Anyway...Soilwork offered some pretty typical Swedish melodic death metal, which in my opinion sounded dangerously close to NU-metal. The bald frontman of Soilwork got the crowd going and was screaming away like a true hardcore singer.

The crowd seemed to enjoy themselves so I won’t argue about the music being less interesting than Pain. But the songs all sounded somewhat alike and I couldn’t keep my attention. The moshpit in front of the stage clearly proved otherwise.

In Flames
What is this I see before me……figure in black? No! In Flames were all dressed up like medical personnel, wearing white cotton trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt. In addition two of the band members were wearing sneakers (if I remember correctly Jesper and Anders) and frontman Anders had dreadlocks.

Add to this the strange gestures and movements that they made: crouching and stretching. Honestly, I could have sworn I was watching Korn. Apart from this major flaw, the performance was nearly perfect.

O.K. the sound was maybe a bit too loud to be able to distinguish all the different melodies but no one really bothered. Stage diving was also allowed, which gave an extra dimension to the show. People were frequently climbing the stage, to shake hands with the band, headbang a bit and dive back into the audience.

The security wasn’t too happy about it, but Anders thought it was fine as long as they didn’t obstruct the band in playing. The whole band seemed to enjoy themselves a lot watching all these people jumping of the stage (btw some of which weren’t caught by the audience..ouch!!).

The set was pretty predictable. Take the album “The Tokio Showdown”, add some songs of the new album “Reroute To Remain” and this pretty much sums up their show. The greater part of the set consisted of the band’s heavier tunes giving the audience what they wanted: a night at the moshpit.

In Flames left the stage at half past one after thanking the audience extensively. No encore, but that didn’t matter: great show, great audience and a band that left everyone tired, filled and saturated.

(Review: Matthijn Vos
Pics: Josje Klouwens)