The band opened with “The Baying Of The Hounds” from their newest album “Ghost Reveries”. This track contains all the essential Opeth ingredients like brutality and melody, harmonic singing as well as crushing death grunts so the crowd was warmed up pretty well. The sound was immediately above par and the atmosphere was one of wonder: how can it be that the same singer can possess the best death grunt of the world as well as an excellent clean voice. In the past Mikael Akerfeldt had trouble with his clean singing in the beginning of a gig but right in the first track he hit the nail on the head, proving that he still evolves as a singer.

The second track tonight was “When” from “My Arms, Your Hearse”. This too is a typical Opeth song and the crowd loved it just as they loved every single note tonight. After each “heavy” part, during a mellow part, the audience was clapping and shouting, unable to retain their enthusiasm until the end of the song.
“Deliverance” from the same-titled album followed, a personal favourite of mine, and it was executed with utmost precision and skill musically. Even the tricky final part was played flawlessly and I have to say that replacement drummer Martin Axenrot (Bloodbath, Witchery, Nifelheim) did a fine job behind the drum kit. Too bad Mikael had some trouble with the clean parts in this track.

After three crushing tracks the pace was reduced when “In My Time Of Need” and “To Rid The Disease” were played subsequently. The band members of course have all right to set up a set list but I do question a bit the wisdom of this sequence.
Anyway, the set continued with “The Grand Conjuration” , the first single from the “Ghost Reveries” album; a for Opeth catchy track that received as much appreciation from Amsterdam as the older tracks.

With “Face Of Melinda” and “Blackwater Park” the night was concluded but not before the encore “Demon Of The Fall” was played of course