black temple

I always thought that the sauna was invented by the Finns. But this night in Malmö proved me wrong. The sauna was developed in the Kulturbolaget in Malmo, Sweden. OK, maybe I'm overstating a bit, however, it felt like a sauna when Swedish In Flames, supported by Black Temple, played the first out of two gigs in the small venue in the South of Sweden.

The first heatwave that night was caused by three guys from Helsingborg. This almost means 'home game - time' for the trio, which also explained the fact that the venue was already pretty packed when the guys entered the stage.

Having with "It All Ends" a great album up one's sleeve their set became to a real enegizer. This raw and uncompromissing mixture of metal, rock and post-punk sounds good on CD, but gets even better on stage.

Talking about the stage; space was very limted but the guys used each sqaure centimeter to move and jump around, accompanied by big rock posing. This show was pure, real and grounded. Black Temple - an excellent opener.

After such a great opening and a short break it was up to In Flames to raise the temperature even more. I have seen the band almost to the day one year ago in Tilburg, Holland. While the 013 in Tilburg is a rather big venue the Kulturbolaget in Malmö is much smaller but with a lot of charm. No surprise that the show was sold out within no time, a fact that also goes for the second show the day after.

It was great to see the band in such a small environment; and in their home country. This gave the concert another, more intense and intimate, vibe.

In Flames ruled from the first note onwards. The really great thing tonight was the setlist. Having given focus in the new material 12 months ago, In Flames balanced the thing this time much more. Even though they didn't go back the the very beginning, songs like "Jotun" and "The Hive" from the fantastic "Whoreacle" album have been played. The crowd went crazy during the entire show, but I had the feeling that those old classics have been celebrated a bit more. And I also think that this was the moment when heavy crowdsurfing started. Maybe In Flames should seriously consider a 'the early years tour'.

And it wasn't only the crowd that enjoyed the show. Also Anders Fridén and his gang obviously enjoyed the time on stage a lot. This maybe also had to do with the fact of having kids and family around during this home game concert - small side note: special moment was when the kids had fun to throw paper gliders in the crowd :)

In Flames set down an almost two hours show that night which was great to see and watch. For me personally, it was cool to see the band in their home country in such a small venue, because this gave the entire a show a really different expression. This night showed again why the five-piece from Gothenburg became so popular. It's their music, their passion and their authenticity what you can hear and feel in each song and in each minute during the gig. No fake, just real metal on a high level.

It was close to 11pm when the spectacle draw to and end. "My Sweet Shadow" marked the end of this great night on a grey Thursday in Malmo and you could see many happy faces leaving th KB. Cool stuff.

Setlist In Flames:

1. Jester's Door
2. Enter Tragedy
3. Darker Times
4. Siren Charms
5. Black & White
6. Square Nothing
7. Disconnected
8. Leeches
9. Like You Better Dead
10. Bullet Ride
11. Jotun
12. Food for the Gods
13. Ordinary Story
14. Crawl Through Knives
15. Satellites and Astronauts
16. The Hive
17. Take This Life
18. Cloud Connected (Encore)
19. Where the Dead Ships Dwell (Encore)
20. Deliver Us (Encore)
21. Paralyzed (Encore)
22. My Sweet Shadow (Encore)

Location: Kulturbolaget, Malmo, Sweden

Date: 22.10.2015

(8/10) Helsingborg is one of the smaller drowsy cities in the South-Western parts of Sweden. This isn't meant negative. It's just not Gothenburg and Stockholm. However, the smaller town has a cool concert venue called 'Tivoli' which is in the harbor area where the ferry from Helsingor arrives. 

Next to that there are some metal bands that call Helsingborg their home. I guess Soilwork is the most famous one with worldwide success. But there is also a next generation that gains momentum. One of those bands are Black Temple.

The trio releases in these days their debut "It all end". Already a cool title for debut. The longplayer comes via Century Media; no, actually Black Temple signed with Razzia Notes; the new label of In Flames frontman Andres Friden.

When I heard "It all end" for the first my thought was: "they sound a bit like their label mates of Bombus". And it's not surprising that Black Temple's release was postponed due to some touring activities with the guys from Gothenburg.

The sound of Black Temple is characterized by harsh agressivness that can be partly found back in punk and hardcore roots. But instead of having pure noise orgies, that trio adds some excellent melodylines to it. This makes the entire album to a grooving, but also raging, metal mixture, that works very well.

Noisy post-punk tunes like "Lowpoints" are next to angry energizer such as "Acid rain" with vocal lines reminding in parts to the mighty Rage Against The Machine.

The mid-pace number "Oncoming fire" represents the heavy roots of the three guys and "Sleep with the stars" is the most grooving track on the longplayer. Those songs are far more than just tipping the toe in the water. This stuff is as brave as a dive in unkown water; just due to fact that it's thrilling.

"It all ends" is pretty cool record that actually should have been named 'It all starts'. I guess we will hear much more of the guys in the coming years. If you're on the search wor something wild and exciting - you found it.

(8/10)

Tracklist:

1. Unlikely event
2. Acid rain
3. Great things
4. Difficult journey
5. Oncoming fire
6. Lowpoints
7. Sleep with the stars
8. 100 years
9. Sleepy river

Label: Century Media

Genre:

Release Date EU: August 28th, 2015

Here comes the latest video from Swedish Black Temple. Excellent stuff for a Friday night. By the way, today was release date of "It all ends".