Yesterday night, The Enmore Theatre was witness to one of the most brutal nights that the legendary venue has ever seen: Klash of the Titans, with both heavyweights In Flames and Kreator in a co-headlining tour across Australia. I arrived in the venue 7.30pm, 15 minutes before the ticket said, and the venue was already semi-packed with eager metalheads, both young and old (the fact that this event was all ages was pretty awesome). But 20 minutes later, the Enmore Theatre was almost full with black t-shirts and beer-drinking fans. One of my first observations upon entering the venue was the excellent ventilation given the amount of people and that it was a really hot and humid day in Sydney, but while in the gig I never felt too hot or too cold. It was absolutely comfortable throughout.
At 8pm on the dot, the lights went out and the first notes of In Flames’ recorded intro were heard, prompting a generalised excitement among the attendees, and not long after, the legendary Swedish band burst into stage with ‘Foregone Pt.1’, a really good opener song from their most recent release ‘Foregone’, immediately creating a high-octane energy among everyone. Anders Friden (along with his characteristic flannel shirt and baseball hat) proved in seconds that he is a great frontman and vocalist. The band took advantage of the energy and chose the classic ‘Pinball Map’ as a 2nd song, and with this the first mosh pit of the night was created. This is a song that takes me swiftly and directly to my teenage years, so I enjoyed it thoroughly, and so did everyone else, as this was followed by the uber-catchy ‘Deliver Us’ and its Alternative Metal riffs and melodies. This one proved to be a very popular song among the fans, even though it is one of the biggest examples of In Flames’ more recent switch in sound towards a more commercial one. The band gave everyone a break with the next couple of songs that were a bit slower and chunky rather than fast and aggressive. This break effectively finished when the first notes of ‘Behind Space’ were heard. Now this was the classic In Flames that a lot of people were longing for, with this track behind a full 30 years old now, and the very first album track ever released by the band in their legendary ‘Lunar Strain’ from 1994. The 90s old-school vibes continued with ‘Food for the Gods’ and their extremely jumpy classic ‘Only for the Weak’.
In Flames is a band that knows how to navigate their setlists seamlessly in order to represent a 30+ years career in less than 90 minutes. Now, the reality is that as a lot of people know, they have effectively shifted their sound from being a pillar of the Gothenburg Melo-Death scene, towards a very commercial Alt and Nu Metal one, and they have rarely gone back to that classic sound in the last 20 years of their existence. Personally, I discovered the band around 2002, right when ‘Reroute to Remain’ came out, and given my age, I also grew up listening to a lot of Nu Metal in the late 90s, so that era of the band remains my nostalgic favorite. My nostalgia thirst was quenched as soon as the first notes of ‘Cloud Connected’ were heard, and then followed by the awesomely whingy ‘The Quiet Place’. Both these songs fully represent that era when the band went full Nu Metal, but I loved it, and from what I witnessed, so did most of the attendees yesterday. Another cut from their newest album followed, and then the very sing along anthem ‘Alias’. This is a great song to listen to, excellent chorus line and slow and heavy riffs, it is also a bit longer than the rest of their songs, but I don’t think it worked too good in a live setting because of those reasons precisely. The last moments of the concert were coming with songs like ‘The Mirror’s Truth’, and then their recent classic ‘Take This Life’ as a brutal closer. The band is excellent onstage, their sound was almost perfect and they always look like they are having a great time. Anders is a great frontman, definitely not looking the 50 years old of age he has, and bringing a somewhat awkward and shy persona that manages to come across as quite humble and genuinely thankful whenever he is speaking without music backing him. Even though this is a band that has drawn criticism for the already mentioned reasons, they have proved time and time again that they are still very relevant and a powerhouse in the worldwide Metal scene. As an older fan of the band of course I wished they could have played more songs from their 1997-2002 era, but I am not complaining as they delivered a healthy mix of songs from most of their releases and the energy they convey onstage is brilliant and their performances always on point. In Flames played for exactly 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Beer and toilet break for everyone next, and given the scale of Kreator’s stage, I thought the changeover was going to be longer, but I was surprised to see that just after 23 minutes or so, everything was ready for the German legends. At exactly 9.45 pm the first notes of Kreator’s intro were heard, and with this the evident push of the mass of people in an attempt to get to the front and centre as soon as possible. The German heavyweights burst into stage shortly after with the title track from their most recent album ‘Hate Uber Alles’, which proved to be an excellent way of opening, given the old-school vibes and aggression of this particular song. Seriously, this has become one of my favourite songs from the band’s catalogue, with a brutal chorus that repeats itself becoming heavier and more aggressive every time. Kreator’s stage was awesome too, and although the impaled demons on the front looked a bit kooky and suburban Halloween-decoration-like, the demon-like Mascot of the band was shown awesomely as a huge towering inflatable with a lot of attention to detail to make it look super realistic. Kreator didn’t waste any time and immediately went on to play ‘People of the Lie’ from their 1990 classic ‘Coma of Souls’, and with it the first of many walls of death, which sent a few good people effectively flying into the air. ‘Enemy of God’ was one of the favourite songs of the night, but for many, including me, the real treat came early in the form of ‘Betrayer’, an uber-aggressive Thrash anthem from their 80s era. This was also the very first song I ever heard from the band when I was a teenager, so it held a special place in my heart.
The next few songs came from more recent releases, but with a band like Kreator this is not a bad thing. Kreator is without a doubt the biggest of the German Big 4, but personally, I think that today they play better music than even their American counterparts in the The Big 4. Kreator’s more recent releases are just as awesome as their classic 80s and 90s stuff. Maybe they have gone a bit more melodic and harmony-led, but time after time they show they are masterful songwriters and Mille Petrozza an amazing frontman and vocalist. ‘Satan is Real’, and ‘Hordes of Chaos’ proved this point right, as being some of the most popular songs of the night. The rest of the night came with a very good mix of old and new, with highlights being the almost-Power Metal anthem ‘Strongest of the Strong’ from their most recent album, and ‘Violent Revolution’ one of their newer classics that make almost every single setlist they play since it was released. The biggest and most dangerous mosh pits I have ever seen in this venue, multiple walls of death, hundreds of crowd surfers, chaos everywhere, this is what a legendary band like Kreator brought to Sydney on Saturday night, and absolutely everybody embraced it. The band finished their set with their true classic ‘Pleasure to Kill’ bringing some of the most crushing moments of the night and a very climactic finale with a massive wall of death. I knew Kreator were an awesome band, but their live performance exceeded all expectations and made me realize that these guys are on a different level of professionalism and quality, even after more than 40 years of existence.
It is not fair to compare both bands side to side, as they have led different careers and different styles. Both of them killed it, and both of them have been in my bucket list of live bands to watch since forever, but if I had to choose I would definitely stay with Kreator’s performance. Everything about this band is what Metal is about for me, and they have proven time and time again that they are one of the biggest and best bands ever. Another thing that I consider important mentioning, is that I was extremely surprised (and saddened) to see that there was no local supports for this tour at all. I understand that this a double co-headlining tour, but given the time the Sydney gig finished (10.55pm), the addition of a local band could have been perfectly acceptable. Honestly, it is quite concerning that this could become a trend, as support for the local scenes is paramount in the creation of a healthy Metal scene, and the amount of exposure that smaller bands get with opening these kind of events is invaluable and golden for them. With that aside, this was an amazing evening, excellent quality from both bands and definitely one of the best co-headlining tours Australia has seen in recent years.
written by Roman Ibarra & photos by Drew Fulton
Kreator:
In Flames:
